Interviews// Industry Leader, Chris Deering

SPOnG: Sony has PlayStation Home coming along soon, and I know that a few years ago you looked at community features for the PS2...

Chris Deering: (Grins) Yeah, Moccasin 5...

Well, Home is a virtual world that is acting as a home page, and it's one approach. But I think, also, in some ways I smile at the success of Wii, knowing that it was PlayStation that kind of emancipated people from the keyboard, mouse and joystick with EyeToy.

Then, with the success of that, (we) said that if we really want to bring in a much bigger audience we ought to look at this in other ways, and that's what gave life to SingStar and even something like Buzz.

And I think now, obviously, Wii has taken that concept and turned it into a console, so good on them (smiles).

But I think you'll see more of that kind of thing happening with the other consoles, and obviously the power of the Cell chip should make PlayStation 3 the ultimate, definitive standard of gaming over the next five years.


SPOnG: The buzz around the Wii is "it's getting new audiences into gaming" but then you look at how many living rooms the PS2 got into...

Chris Deering: I know the frontier after this current generation is I think going to be a merging of consoles and handheld devices into a seamless contextual experience fed either by wi-fi, wi-max and phone masts, cellular operators – depending on where you are. And maybe new game designs that involve elements that are encountered on a desk, and then at another time on a bus and at another time in a living room with a bunch of friends or in a community online.

So, there's still plenty of open space for creativity to move the ball ahead within the tools that exist now as things like Enlighten come along...


SPOnG: Where do you think we are in terms of convergence between film and videogames? Something like Enlighten clearly has applications across both media.

Chris Deering: I think a lot of the skills that have come to spell differences between great and just average films are becoming necessary in spelling differences between great and average games.

Grand Theft Auto, for example, has a lot of attention to detail and execution that isn't just technology. In other ways, game technology is going to become relevant in films. So, take for example Enlighten (real-time 'radiosity' lighting system) – it may not be that overnight you'll see some kind of combined experience that's "Is it a film, is it a game?"

I mean, films are meant to be an expression of the director and for the audience to absorb what the director wants them to see – and the viewer can decide whether they like it or not.

A game is something where you're creating the product as it goes along. So, there's always going to be a difference, but there may be experiences that are part film, part game. As there are game versions of movies and movie versions of games – as in Tomb Raider or Resident Evil – they've been some films that have done quite well, based on games. But, the fact that so many people are now comfortable with and enjoy interactivity will mean that games that bring them a more cinematic experience will be very well rewarded with consumer uptake.

So, again, the direction of voice-over in a CG movie like Wall-E – you're going to need to have (and are starting to get) more of that in games. It'll get even better going forward, I think. There are some people who have actually migrated from films into games and find that it's more rewarding, and that they can express their skillset with less oversight and micromanagement by doing what they do with movies in games.

(Codemasters' Damnation, developed by former film makers Blue Omega, is mentioned).

That's something I was going to mention. That's certainly an example of a much bigger open-world experience with puzzle elements and gymnastic elements and was simulation (or at least battle simulation), team/squad play...

You're starting to see now what I would say is the peeling back of the onion as far as what the new-gen machines can do rather than just a few Easter egg glimpses, and I think by 2010, then you'll start to get some really magnificent types of things.


SPOnG: Thank you very much for your time.