Sony's Michael Denny

The Worldwide Studios Europe boss reacts to the PlayStation Move announcement and line-up

Feature by Phil Elliott Contributor

Published on March 15, 2010

One of last year's biggest talking points was the latest clash between Microsoft and Sony in the console space - this time around motion control. While Nintendo surpassed both companies with the Wii, the next-gen rivals announced a specific take on motion-based systems, but while Microsoft detailed it's Project Natal at E3 last year, Sony's version has lacked a brand identity - until last week.

The big reveal came at the Sony press conference and revolved around the official unveiling of the PlayStation Move brand, as well as new details on the range of games that it would support. Right afterwards we spoke to Worldwide Studios Europe boss Michael Denny to dig deeper on some of the company's thinking.

GamesIndustry.biz PlayStation Move - it's straightforward, and a lot better than some of the rumoured names (Arc, Gem, Laser...) - but it took a long time for it to be announced. Why was that?

Michael Denny

I don't think there was any delay, I think this is the natural event as we explain more about the system and got more in-depth in the games for the first time, so it seemed the natural opportunity to announce the name as well.

You say it's a simple name, but I think it's a good name in terms of the metaphor of moving PlayStation, perhaps with audience and playability as well as the actual movement and motion. So we're pleased with that, and pleased with all the software we've shown off.

GamesIndustry.biz Was it frustrating at times to see some of the speculation going around? It's part of the circus, I guess.

Michael Denny

I think that's absolutely right - that thing's happened, but I think it's because people are genuinely interested in a new system that's coming out, and they want to know the name for it. I think for you guys, you want to put a name to it so the articles can read more specifically.

But the time was right now to announce it, and we're all happy.

GamesIndustry.biz It's a brand issue really - if people can identify with a product, they can start to get excited about it, and part of that is that Microsoft gave Natal a name (even if just as a working title), it at least had that identity. When people I've spoken to in the industry about Move, nobody knew what to call it - there was confusion there.

Michael Denny

You say that, and I accept that's more of an issue for you guys to write about, but in terms of a brand and what PlayStation Move is about - or any other system is about - that's ultimately defined by the experience it gives and the software that's out there.

I don't think coming up with a name, without having a great system and software, is actually an important issue. Now we've got it all together, it'll make sense to people.

GamesIndustry.biz Now it is out there, you've been showing off some of the software during GDC - how pleased are you with that line-up, in terms of how representative it is for the PlayStation Move experience?

Michael Denny

We're really pleased, and excited as well. We've had the system out there with the dev teams for well over a year now, and seeing their initial reaction to it and the creatives on the teams go at it, has been an exciting experience.

Looking around at the software we've got today, it's great that you see a balance there. We have casual and social experiences, party experiences, but we also show that we can appeal to our core PlayStation fan as well. It is a system that has wide appeal, and does move the experience on in a number of ways.