Previously in the series: The Playstation and Me: David Jaffe, Part 1, The Playstation and Me: David Jaffe, Part 2, The Playstation and Me: David Jaffe, Part 3, The Playstation and Me: Ted Price, part 1, The Playstation and Me: Ted Price, part 2, The Playstation and Me: Ted Price, part 3, The Playstation and Me: Evan Wells, Part 1, The Playstation and Me: Evan Wells, Part 2, The Playstation and Me: Evan Wells, Part 3, The Playstation and Me: Scott Rohde, Part 1,
Scott Rohde’s got sports video games in his blood and in this section of our talk, he speaks on how exclusivity has changed the way sports games get made. He also discusses the studio structure at Sony Computer Entertainment America, what it means to be SVP, Worldwide Studios and justifies the initial launch pricing for the PS3.
OK, so let’s talk about you working at Sony. You’d been in development for awhile. What were the overtures that were made to you to come in-house at that point?
This was pretty easy. There’s a couple of non-gaming factors that I won’t get into. I mean, San Diego is an awfully nice place to live, right?
Absolutely.
At the same time, I had been working Shu Yoshida for a year alreadyHe was someone I could trust and he had a good sense of gaming. This is something that is incredibly important to me personally. He’d already gone over there so it helped to know that Sony had someone in charge that really had an in-depth understanding of gaming and how it worked. That was really appealing to me. Then, when he gave me the opportunity to come here and kind of rebuild a sports studio, it was a no brainer for me. Come to San Diego, the nicest city in the world, and you build a sports gaming studio. I didn’t have to think that hard. It was a good move for me.
Your anecdote is telling because, in terms of internal development, Sony’s pretty much out of the sports business right now.
So, it’s an interesting point as to what actually happened. When I came here, the sports video game world was still very normal, for lack of a better word. Right?
Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. Yes.
I lived through this from many different perspectives. I was at Sega, the battle was between Sega Sports and EA Sports. But when I came here, it really was Sony and 2K Sports and EA Sports. Right?
Right.
And then the licensing wars happened and people dropped out of various sports. EA even was taken out of certain sports. What we were able to do during that time frame–during the last I would say three to five years when the sports world has completely turned upside down in the video game industry–we were able to grab a stronghold and be at the peak in a single sport.
And that’s what you’ve seen kind of take hold. We have had kind of the indisputable number one baseball game for the last several years. EA is the only player in the football world. Most people will say that 2K has the best basketball game. So it’s really spread itself out. And it was interesting for me to go along for that ride, a bit painful at times.
Sure.
But what we were able to do was re-establish just the San Diego studio as a group that could do many different things, and what they’ve created is the main title for the Playstation Move launch, which is the Sports Champions game. So, they’ve been able to evolve. They also manage ModNation Racers out of the San Diego studio as well.
OK. So they worked along with United Front.
Absolutely. So this studio has totally evolved. I don’t want to just talk about this studio because there’s many other studios across the board. But that’s the one that has the most closely personal tie to me is this studio.
Well, those Santa Monica guys and the whole God of War III team have their stuff down too.
Oh yeah. Those guys, what they do is absolutely amazing. Yeah.
(More on Techland: Whom The Gods Would Destroy: The God of War III Review)
So give us like a top line overview of what it means to hold your title day to day within Sony Computer Entertainment America?
Do you have a few hours? [Laughter] So, at the end of the day, there are three major studios that I am responsible for in the US. Meaning, San Diego, Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, and the Foster City Studio. The Foster City Studio, there is no internal development there, it’s all external management. And so, they work with our partners like, Insomniac, with some of our other wholly owned studios, like Zipper Interactive, and our Bend studio. They work exclusively with our Naughty Dog Studio as well. Then there’s Santa Monica, which as you know, builds God of War in-house, something that all of us are extremely proud of. And they also mange many external games as well out of that studio, including running Dave Jaffe’s latest project as well. And then here in San Diego, there’s internal development with Major League Baseball. And then there’s also a lot of external development, including titles like Sports Champions and ModNation Racers.
On a day-to-day basis, I am essentially on an airplane traveling to one of those studios or I’m in my office talking to the heads of those studios or some of the creative personalities running those shows. Or, I am physically at those studios in meetings talking about design decisions, getting the latest update on the direction products are going and so forth. Then I’m also interfacing on a global basis with all of our regional headquarters in America, Europe, and Japan, talking about how these products will be rolled out and tailored for those individual regions.
