Saturday, November 5, 2011

Final Keynote: Jack Tretton, CEO, Sony Entertainment

Welcome back Jack Tretton to Boston!

We hope you have a love weekend in New England, with lots of seafood and a great Patriots game :)


Heard @Cyberposium:
  • PlayStation name origin: power of a workstation for play
  • Looked at a 10 year product development cycle (instead of 5) - much easier to amortize development costs over 10 years than over 5.  Also better for retailers, so retailers wouldn't be reliant on selling new releases as loss leaders.
  • Sony had a very strong hardware legacy, but no software credibility.  But now, Sony Worldwide Studios has 2,700 employees and 16 studios worldwide
  • Originally launched in 1995, 120M sold in 10 years.
  • PlayStation 2 - true entertainment system with more mainstream adoption and online gaming.  Revolutionary because 2 generations co-existed.
  • 1 in 3 US Homes used PS2 as their primary DVD player.  US DVD sales went from $1B to $10B in the 2 years following PS2 release.  PS2 had a huge impact on a non-gaming industry (movies) following its release.
  • They could have done PS2.5, but opted for PS3 instead to swing harder and go bigger.
  • PS3 built in HD, Blu-ray, HD, WiFi, HDMI...they built these in mind in 2006 that were not relevant then, but were building in mind.  Since 2006, 55M units sold since inception.
  • PS3 accounts for 46% of Blu-Ray Player sales.  Before PS3, there was a Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD struggle...PS3 defined the category by adopting Blu-Ray
  • Over 1.6B pieces of content downloaded through PS3 system
  • PS3 is #1 device for Netflix


Where are things headed?
  • PlayStation actively part of the social economy: 17.6M facebook likes, 1.1M twitter followers, 113M YouTube views
  • Demand for blockbuster titles increases (Uncharted 3, Call of Duty, et al)
  • Many consumers saying that they don't have as much time for gaming, so people are shifting to some shorter games like Angry Birds.  But once someone is a gamer, they're hooked on gaming, and they're 
  • PS Vita - debuts February 2, 2012 - new way to play on a handheld device
  • PlayStation - 3M YouTube views in 24 hours after launch, 10M views in first month.

The PlayStation Path
  • Having a long-term vision
  • Taking smart risks and having the agility to adapt
  • Listenint to others, but not letting the detractors sway our vision
  • Staying 100% focused on innovation










Want to continue the conversation?  Tweet @cyberposium and @Jack_Tretton and @PlayStation.

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