Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
Sony hasn’t fallen behind in the social gaming race, it has insisted.
Speaking at the Games 3.0 conference this morning in London, which is part of the London Games Festival, Jamie MacDonald, vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios insisted that the SingStar, Buzz! And EyeToy games are “still hugely successful”.
When asked whether it would be fair to say that Sony has fallen behind in social gaming compared with titles like Activision’s Guitar Hero, MTV’s Rock Band and Nintendo’s Wii Sports, MacDonald, who is in charge of Sony’s London and Cambridge development studios, replied: “I wouldn’t say we fell behind. SingStar and Buzz and EyeToy are still hugely successful.
“I personally am really pleased to see the success of Wii Sports and Wii Play and Guitar Hero and Rock Band in a sense that it’s expanding the market for everybody and it’s expanding the appeal of video games.”
MacDonald insisted that Sony was “incredibly well positioned” to take advantage of the current demand for social games, pointing towards the upcoming release of LittleBigPlanet and PlayStation Home as evidence of his claim.
He said: “I think we’re incredibly well positioned (to take advantage of social gaming) in the sense that we kind of, it would be a bit arrogant of me to say we invented, but we were an early pioneer certainly and we continue to be very successful in that space.
“I think with things like LittleBigPlanet, with PlayStation Home, with the continuing success of SingStar and Buzz! on PS3 and the things that we’ve done to the experiences that take advantage of the connectivity of the PS3, the rich media capabilities, I think personally we’re very well placed.”
MacDonald admitted, however, that he was irritated by the media focus on Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and said that SingStar and LittleBigPlanet “appeal to a very different kind of audience”.
He said: “I’d be lying if I said that I don’t occasionally get a little irritated when the media has so much focus on Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I wouldn’t be human. But then that’s just me being a human. But actually when I think about it, it’s great because that means more people are into that kind of living room experience.
“SingStar appeals to a very different kind of audience to Guitar Hero, as does LittleBigPlanet, so I think there’s enough space for everyone to be honest.”
During the live chat at the Gamer 3.0 conference, MacDonald added that he though Nintendo’s massively successful social titles “owe quite a lot to what had gone before”, but believes there is plenty of space in the marketplace for all three platform holders.
“I can’t speak at all about their strategy,” he said. “But they’ve been very successful with social titles which, how can I put this, owe quite a lot to what had gone before. But they have done it in a very special way and really well and have been very successful. And I think there’s absolutely plenty of space in the marketplace for Nintendo and ourselves and Microsoft.”
