Robert Garriot Talks About Sony Relationship News

Following NCsoft's announcement at this year's E3 that the developer/publisher will be working exclusively with Sony to bring their online games to Sony systems, including the PlayStation 3, Robert Garriot (brother of Richard and CEO of NCsoft North America) has spoken at length about the nature of this relationship and what it will bring gamers. Seeing as he knows much more about it than I, I'll let him do the talking:

"One of the most exciting things that we have to talk about this year is our new relationship with Sony, a deal which frankly gives us an unprecedented opportunity to bring our online portfolio of games to a suite of highly popular console gaming systems, including the PlayStation 3. Many in the industry and the press have asked me why we have chosen this path, and what kind of games they can expect to see on their favorite console-not to mention when. Here I hope to provide some insight into this relationship and how it fits into the vision for our products in the coming years.

"It has been one of our business strategies to bring customers to a catalog of games where the customer has the choice to play a variety of different products. However, we don't want to limit ourselves to the PC, especially while the console market continues to grow by leaps and bounds with every new generation...and console makers want to get into the online space. The ideal system would be an extremely capable, stable platform, with the best Internet connectivity and greatest freedom of web access and interaction available to the user. This combination of access, openness and ability to bring NCsoft to the console market is very attractive. In this case, we felt like Sony fit the bill. We like their vision of where they are going and we believe Sony complements our strategy moving forward (this is not to say we are going to stop developing on the PC, far from it).

"Specifically, this relationship allows NCsoft to develop titles across all of Sony's console hardware platforms-the focus being on the PlayStation 3 and perhaps the PSP. This long-term relationship will allow us to start developing console products, as well as build our growing catalog beyond just massively multiplayer games for the PC.

"I am sure you are all interested to know what we will be developing. Unfortunately, for now, I can't tell you, as we're still keeping that under wraps. We are hoping, but can't promise, to have the first of our products available for the holiday season in 2008. Yes, it's a bit of a short time frame. One thing is certain, however. We won't just be porting our games over to the PS3. We want to make new products using our current, popular Intellectual Properties (IPs) that will take advantage of the console, specifically in terms of user interface, connectivity, and play styles. This tends to take a lot longer than a normal port. We are also looking at all sorts of new, original IPs that we can use for the console games we create. That process, however, will take two to three years at a minimum.

"So where will these console games be developed? We currently follow a distributed model of development for the PC, and the same type of system will be in place for console game development. While we are exploring the idea of starting a new studio solely for console games, outside of Austin, we are also looking at specific projects that we may house in other studios. This includes our Austin offices or our other currently existing studios. Console game development won't just be at one single location.

"Finally, you may be curious about what kind of business models we plan on using. Currently our plan is to utilize all of our business models with our anticipated Sony products. There will be the traditional subscription models, micropayment systems and free-to-play games with membership options.

"While I still cannot go into much detail, I hope to have provided you with a glimpse into our strategy and plans regarding our expansion into the console world. It is an exhilarating time for NCsoft, and in the future we hope to have more information for you regarding our upcoming console products.

"Stay tuned! There's more to come."