Sony's success won't depend on MS or Nintendo, says RAD boss

Ready At Dawn president Didier Malenfant has told GamesIndustry.biz that Sony's performance in the next-gen console market will be determined by the actions of the company itself, not those of its rivals.

"It's their market to lose. That's the reality," Malenfant observed.

"It doesn't depend on Nintendo or Microsoft - it depends on them. They've got a great platform in the PS3, they've got great teams working with them, but every hardware transition is difficult.

"Next-gen involves a lot of money, it's a big investment, and it's going to be a difficult time of transition whether you're Microsoft or Sony."

Malenfant conceded that Sony's image has suffered in recent months, stating, "I think that's the price you pay for being the number one player in the industry. You can see that with Microsoft with operating systems - after a while, you become the favourite target."

He went on to argue that the negative press surrounding the company has worked in its competitor's favour: "All the buzz about Sony nicely hid the fact that Microsoft weren't selling many 360s and didn't really have any good games until Gears of War came out. I think everybody is in a similar position if you look at how PR gets handled and how things are interpreted."

Malenfant co-founded Ready At Dawn in 2003, and the studio has since produced PSP-exclusive title Daxter. RAD is now working with Sony once again on a new PSP game - but that doesn't mean that if the studio moves into next-gen development it will automatically look to the PlayStation 3.

"It all depends on the project. It could be PS3 or 360 or both," Malenfant said.

"If we find a game we're excited about and it happens to be on 360, we'll go for it. We just work with what the platform's capable of and get the most out of it rather than focusing on limitations."

The full interview with Malenfant is now on GamesIndustry.biz.