Can Sony Revitalize Its Games? Yes, Maybe

SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 13 — Sony is back. Maybe.


As succinctly as possible, that is the message from this year’s E3, the video game industry’s top annual conference, which wrapped up here today. Having attended nearly three dozen meetings, presentations and parties since Tuesday and seeing at least 100 new games, it appears to me that after more than a year of gobsmacking miscalculations, missteps and plain old mistakes, Sony’s game group is possibly getting its act back together. After being kicked around by its main competitors, Microsoft and Nintendo, Sony is taking the first real steps to generate momentum behind its troubled PlayStation 3 game console, a critical component of the company’s overall future and a contender for the attention of hundreds of millions of gamers around the world.

Make no mistake: in its arrogance Sony has dug itself into a huge hole. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii have each outsold the PlayStation 3 by millions of units. Even after a price cut announced earlier this week, the least expensive version of the PS3 still costs a hefty $499. (While supplies last; late yesterday Sony said the $499 version was no longer being made, leaving only the $599 model in production.) So Sony has a very long way to go before the PlayStation 3 can be considered a strategic success. But here this week, the company demonstrated that it has begun to understand the error of its ways and started to unveil compelling new games and services that players will not find on any other system.

The problem is that it may be too late. Microsoft’s strategy is clearly to establish such dominance in the high end of the game market this coming holiday season that Sony will not be able to catch up. Halo 3, which is exclusive to the 360 console, will certainly sell millions of copies within hours of hitting store shelves in late September, and the underwater shooter Bioshock, a 360 exclusive from Take-Two, looks so creepily fascinating that it could also help make the holiday an especially happy one for Microsoft. (The other sure blockbuster of the fall, Grand Theft Auto IV, will be released simultaneously in October for both the Microsoft and Sony machines.)

Meanwhile, Nintendo continues to chart its own course away from the narrow focus on quick-fingered young men that has defined game culture over the last two decades, in favor of a larger goal of bringing interactive entertainment to the masses. Wii Fit, an exercise and fitness package that Nintendo demonstrated this week, seems set to continue the drive toward the cultural mainstream that Nintendo began with family-friendly fare like Nintendogs, Brain Age and the Wii itself.

But the top story here has been the first signs of Sony’s making the PlayStation 3 a true competitor to the Xbox 360 in appealing to enthusiasts.

Over the years, Sony’s E3 presentations have become known for featuring a lot of multimedia flash and bombastic proclamations instead of substantive detail. Not this year. Jack Tretton, the new president of Sony’s computer entertainment division, is a subdued, even slightly clumsy speaker. That made him refreshingly effective in front of an audience. First the Sony team announced a new version of their hand-held PSP game machine, scheduled to be in stores this fall. I tried it briefly, and it is so much lighter and thinner than the current PSP that it felt like a mock-up, not a working unit. (That’s high praise.)

Moving on to the PlayStation 3, its new Home online service, also set to make its debut this fall, is shaping up as a suitably innovative competitor to Microsoft’s Xbox Live service. In Home, PS3 users will be able to build and furnish their own virtual 3-D penthouse (or chateau, if you prefer) and invite their friends over to share real-world media. For example, during Sony’s presentation Phil Harrison, president of Sony’s global game studios, took a picture of the crowd on his cellphone. Minutes later, that photo was hanging on the “wall” of his virtual apartment.