Shuhei Yoshida

I think being in product development on the publisher side, there's something that everybody has to strive for. It's like the ABC of our work - if we're not doing that, we're not doing our job, that's our philosophy.

It's not machines that make games, it's individuals - ideas, passion and personalities - so we approach each product uniquely, and each team has its own personalities, chemistries and cultures, and that's reflected in what they produce.

We really take it seriously, because the creative process demands a lot and it's hard. We want people to trust everything we do, from communications to concepts - whether we like it or not - and without that trust that everybody is trying to help create a great product, the developers wouldn't put their best efforts into creation. They might get distracted, or confused, or divert their focus to something else.

So our job on the product development side of publishing is to remove all of those barriers, as much as possible, and deploy the resources we have to help the vision become reality.

I don't think we've necessarily changed - we're learning as the technology changes and we have to adapt to new development processes. We're constantly learning how better we can do things.

There was a time that we approached development a bit more independently, because technology was simpler and the work needed to get a product out was more straightforward. People didn't see the need to help each other or adapt to other people's workings. I think that prevented some of the sharing of best practices or some philosophies.

But by nature and by need we're working and approaching development from all angles now, and I think that helps communication more - philosophies or best practices that are working well with one team can be transferred to others teams too.

In a sense I think we're a bit more efficient in improving what we do.

Well, if we see them losing focus, on balance we'll be very up front about it. But the thing is, they're really becoming ambitious on how to move Buzz forward, so we're really excited about their passion.

They're not happy just to see what they've achieved so far and do more of the same - they're approaching it in some radical ways.

So with that, the other things they do is no problem, and actually they're spending their own money and taking the risk to create a new digitally distributed product. I applaud that, and I'd like to see them very successful in that, so they can become examples for other developers - yes, this can be done, and if you really focus on what you do, and understand the medium, the users, and the content that works, then it's a viable business model for developers.

I think that's fantastic, and something I hope we will always develop on PSN - digitally downloaded games.

[smiles] That's an additional preference...

I think publishers are learning, as are we - we spaced Resistance and Killzone out, because they were in the same genre this past year, and it seemed to work very well. Each title had its own space, and consumers had renewed interest to look at these games post-Christmas.

Especially some new IPs, which need more understanding and communication for consumers, using the first three months of the year totally makes sense.

The challenge is, because everybody is realising that and moving potentially successful titles to that timeframe, it could become the new Christmas... So we're looking carefully at what could happen.