Koller: Natal and Wii will have trouble matching Sony motion control

John Koller, Sony's head of PlayStation marketing, has said that family, shooting and sports games will be central to the success of its upcoming motion controller, and that Project Natal and Wii will struggle to compete with it in those genres.

The exec also revealed that Sony's main focus in 2010 would be on motion control gaming, 3D gaming and the PlayStation Network.

"In terms of the best types of games, I'd say that right now we're looking at a real wide variety of genres that can utilise the technology," Koller told GamePro, when quizzed on the sorts of upcoming PS3 titles that would benefit from motion control.

"I think the areas that are going to be really critical to our success will be family games, as well as shooter and sports games. Those are going to be the areas that will really define success because they're areas that, quite honestly, I think Project Natal and the Wii are going to have trouble matching from a differentiation standpoint.

"We look at motion control as being that much more than what exists on the market. The Holy Grail of gaming is placing you as a consumer into the game physically. When we provide further details, people will see exactly where we're going."

The PlayStation Network will also be a "critical" part of Sony's 2010 plans, he added.

"It's becoming a bigger focal point of the business overall. With the PSPgo launch, it's entirely reliant on the PSN. Now we're able to add not only gaming functionality, but also our video delivery service and the varied other ways the PSN adds to the PS3 experience."

Achieving simultaneous PSP release dates for physical and digital games would be a priority, he said. The strategy would be implemented for first-party games and encouraged for third-party ones.

He added that PSPgo sales to date were "over-forecast" on what Sony had expected.

"We've been very pleased," he said, although acknowledged there was a challenge in getting the same level of retail support for the digital-only console.

"They don't have a 'dog in the hunt' necessarily, so one of our key challenges is to really help out that person coming to market that wants a PSPgo, and letting them know at retail what kinds of games are available to them on the PlayStation Network."

On the subject of the PlayStation 2, Koller said the console is still selling "exceedingly well".

"It's a new demographic, a consumer that's maybe a 'last gamer' or a consumer that's new to gaming. With this economy, coming in at USD 99, a lot of these consumers are choosing between a PlayStation 2 and a Wii, and you're looking at a PS2, which is USD 99 and carries 2000 games."

Despite the PS2's continued popularity however, and the number of titles available for it, Koller disputed that backwards compatibility was an important feature for the PS3.

"We're at a point now in the cycle of the PlayStation 3 that there's so many PS3 games available, so many strong PS3 games, that it's really become far less of an issue than I think a lot people - particularly the media - are asking about. In all of our studies, we've noticed that it's fallen off the map in terms of demand."

And instead of introducing or upgrading existing hardware, Sony would continue to innovate through firmware for the foreseeable future, Koller added.

"There's a lot of features and functions we have planned there. I think that 2010 will be a big year for that. I also think that it'll be a big year on the software side, whether it'll be 3D gaming or any of the other really big franchise titles that are coming to the PlayStation 3."