Sony pleased to see PS3 "momentum"

The release of the PlayStation 3 Slim has given the platform a good momentum going into the Holiday season, a move which has been received well by third party publishers, and is in fact in their best interests.

That's according to Sony Computer Entertainment president and CEO Andrew House, who told GamesIndustry.biz that he publishers were happy with the price point, and that console was in a strong position.

"Just anecdotally, it's been enormously positive," he revealed of the feedback he'd had since the Slim was released. "People have been telling us we've reached the price point they were hoping for, and as a result we've got the wind in our sales - that the market really is there for the PS3 to command."

He added that publishers should be keen to support the platform, specifically because third parties made up a high percentage of sales for it at a time when Nintendo's first-party dominated Wii console was falling away.

"I think at a time when we're seeing one of the major competitors somewhat losing a sense of momentum - at least in many of the markets I've looked at - it's gratifying to see a platform that's always had a very significant share of sales go to third party publishers capture that momentum again," he said.

"The knock-on effect can only be a positive one if publishers are making up 75 per cent of the sales on a particular platform, as opposed to a much smaller share elsewhere, then that's the platform I think it's in their interests to see succeed - and I think that's the dynamic we're seeing return right now.

"From data that we're starting to see, in some of the publicly-released figures, we're seeing a significant year-on-year downturn for the Wii. I think that's just a factor of this Holiday season."

The full second part of the industry-exclusive interview with Andrew House is available now. Part one was also published recently.