And the press asked him, saying, What are the games? And he said, Sequels: for they are easy to sell.
Half a world away in Tokyo, Japan, the TGS (Tokyo Game Show) is underway. Starting off with the premiere of the PlayStation 3 at Sony's booth (the last major showing before its official launch in November, Ken Kutaragi gave a speech and presented the next-generation console. Coverage of Kutaragi's speech at yielded a less than favorable opinion of the PS3, with many saying that Kutaragi nailed the coffin on the PS3 with the incredible price tag of the system. His speech at the opening of the TGS, isn't much better. Initial reports from the opening speech indicate that Kutaragi mentioned sequels saying that "We are more cautious about accepting new titles. I think that is the reputation of the gaming world. But we seek diversity and expression of creativity, so in light of that the current game industry relies too heavily on easy-to-sell sequels. I think we need to send a warning signal to the industry. Business reasons have been retreating to a certain extent, and users have become less aggressive, they wait for what we give them next, they-ve become passive. So, from myself and SCEE the basic thought is just innovation."
I'm not exactly sure what innovation Kutaragi is talking about here, because the only titles mentioned on the PS3 with any fervor at all are Devil May Cry 4, Virtua Fighter 5, Ridge Racer 7, Final Fantasy 13, and Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight. That Gundam title is a sequel too -- Bandai has just gotten clever and stopped naming them sequentially, for there are just too many produced during the last decade and a half. It's smart of Kutaragi to say something almost equivalent to "Make us new games. Please. While gamers won't get so upset about the sequels as they used to, we need new games so that people will upgrade and buy the PS3 instead of playing the old game on the old system."
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