SCEJ: Developers were “integral part” of NGP hardware design

Hiroshi Kawano, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, has told the latest issue of Famitsu magazine that developers played a key role in shaping the January-announced Next Generation Portable (NGP).

“The NGP isn’t something that’s driven solely by us at SCE,” Kawano told the latest issue of Famitsu, “because in the end, it’s got to receive support from gamers. We visited a number of companies to discuss this because we wanted to know and care about what the creators and front-line developers thought. This started last spring, right around when I came to SCE. We received all sorts of opinions from developers, and they liked some things and didn’t like other things. That debate process was something I think was extremely important for us — I think a lot of creators, not just the ones that spoke at our conference, really feel like they were an integral part of the NGP’s hardware design process.”

Kawano touched a bit more on the NGP audience, saying that the manufacturer “needs” the users in order to drive and expand the platform.

“When you think about how to make a platform popular and exciting, eventually it all comes down to how the users are participating in the thing,” he said. “We need more than ourselves and the software companies — we need the users, and we also need the media contributing. If we have a clear vision and drive on how to expand our platform and the industry in general, that allows us to expand our ideas and get down to the core of what we’re doing. We wouldn’t leave everything to the users’ whims, but we can turn an eye to them, at least. I want to be able to absorb what users think of the things SCE and the publishers are doing, and I think we’ll be establishing a project like that.”

Thanks, 1UP.