As its new president, Andrew House is now the head of PlayStation in Europe. Having previously been chief marketing officer and group executive of Sony Corporation, he took over from David Reeves at the end of April, so E3 was his first major presentational event. Tim Clark, editor of our comrades, Official PlayStation Magazine UK, took a few minutes with him during the show to discuss Sony’s strategy for Europe, from price points to PSN.

What did you think of Jack Tretton and Kaz Hirai’s presentation?
I was really pleased with our announcements and presentation for a couple of reasons. I think we struck the right balance between being very future-facing – new motion controller technology, certainly a lot of good information about the network and how that is going to evolve. We balanced that with very solid tangible game lineup information. If the audience there was anything to go by, it caused a tremendously positive reaction and I think it positions us extremely well. It’s probably the strongest PSP lineup I’ve ever seen, one of the strongest PS3 lineups between first- and thirdparty, so I think we went into the show with a strong degree of confidence.

The two announcements that stuck out were the Rockstar one and Final Fantasy XIV – they felt like the kind of big announcements that Sony’s not really made at the last couple of E3s.
They were announcements that I was extremely pleased with. They’re testament to the fact that publishers have to make decisions about platform support based on a large variety of factors. Having said that, what it said to me was that there’s an increased recognition in the publishing and development community that, you know, we’ve talked about a ten year life cycle for PS1, a ten year life cycle for PS2  – you really need to be supporting the platform with this much longevity. There’s a lot of untapped potential in the [PS3]. And also as you’re seeing a growth in high definition consumerism in general, let’s not forget it’s one of the best Blu-ray players as well, and that alone gives it extra legs. So publishers knowing that PS3 is going to be around for a long time are beginning to make some decisions about where they should put their resources.

Regarding that untapped potential, firstparty games like Uncharted 2 are setting a high bar, but thirdparty and multiformat games are not so much. Do you think this is holding back some of PS3’s potential?
No, clearly publishers and developers who are multiformat-based are faced with a different environment – it’s just a fact of life. I think the critical thing is – and this has always been true of the industry but is particularly true for Sony – that the role of firstparty is to lead by example, to demonstrate what’s possible on the machine, and then work with the publisher community to ensure that the rising tide lifts all of the boats, and improves the experience for all of the consumers. It’s a lead by example strategy and Drake’s Fortune is a great example of that; the brief demo of God Of War III does too. Really critical for me, though, especially when I think about the potential for European consumers, ModNation Racers, as an evolution of that ‘Create Play Share’ ethos, is going into a genre people are very familiar with and has been perhaps somewhat underserved in this life cycle so far. I think it has huge potential.

Speaking of your remit in Europe, the continent often seems the poorer cousin, getting things last or paying more. What would your message be to PlayStation fans?
There are a variety of factors that go into pricing decisions. There’s business models, profitability, exchange rates, taxes – all of that has to be taken into consideration. I would challenge the assumption very strongly that Sony has viewed Europe in a different way. The secret of the success of Sony Computer Entertainment, and something that I’m very proud to be a part of, is that we were the first company that took the European market really seriously, and we’ve always looked to balance the global approach to our business with a very deep knowledge of what consumers want locally. It’s a tradition that I intend to continue and improve on.