Interview:Hyper, August 1997

Hyper, August 1997
Cover of Hyper Issue 46.
Issue No.	46
Page(s)	10
Interviewee(s)	Juan Montes
Interview Subject	SCEE
Language	English
URL available?	Yes

An interview with Juan Montes from August 1997 published in Hyper magazine issue 46.

Transcript

Sony's Development Meister

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe are based in London, and are Sony's biggest PlayStation HQ outside of Japan. Australia essentially is a part of the European gaming community due to our use of the PAL format. SCEE are now starting to develop several new titles for the PlayStation, in house, which is a good thing, and like Sega and Nintendo, the games that Sony have created have really seemed to suit the system well. We were lucky enough to get a chance to talk to Juan Montes, the General Manager of Software Development for SCEE, who deals not only with overseeing all of Sony's internal development in Europe, but also is the contact between SCEE and the third party developers in Europe. We asked his thoughts on how SCEE is progressing, and ask a few questions about the way things work there.

Hyper: Sega and Nintendo both have made big names for themselves in game development, even though you've been developing some great titles tor the PlayStation. Sony doesn't seem to get the same recognition. This must be frustrating.

Juan: It is not frustrating to me. I admire them as content creators. Sony has been developing video games for a lot less time than Sega and Nintendo and during this short time we have already started to make a good name for ourselves. In fact the pace of development and innovation in content and technology has moved at a much faster pace in the last 2-3 years than known before in the industry. Did Sony influence the pace? I would say Yes.

Hyper: Which PlayStation titles thus far fave have been developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe?

Juan: So far we have developed and released Total NBA '96, Total NBA '97 and Porsche Challenge. The 2 versions of Total NBA have set the standard for sports video games in terms of the technology and level of realism that can be provided by a game in this genre. Porsche Challenge has shown how you can also add high level of realism in a racing genre by the look of the vehicles and environment as well as the handling of the vehicles to name just a few of the innovations provided by this game.

Hyper: How many titles are SCEE now developing? (and what are they?)

Juan: At the moment we are completing a speed boat racing game called Rapid Racer# that should be released in Sept/Oct of this year. It is a 60 fps high resolution display thrill on water with currents in some very nice environments. This is one of the most challenging games that we have tackled so far.

In addition we are also starting 2 other projects which are at the early stages of design. (Nightmare Creatures & Medieval - which Hyper will take a look at next month)

Hyper: Where'd the SCEE development talent come from? Was there a big headhunting exercise?

Juan: We have not headhunted anyone who works for us. SCEE wants to keep good working relationships with other Developers and Publishers that support our platform. Most of the people working in our studio have been 'home grown’, ie we recruited them from university and trained them here on the techniques related to games development and PlayStation. This has provided us with some excellent talent and people without preconceived views of what was possible or not before starting new project. The only thing 1 would add is that everyone we recruit has to have a strong interest in games as a game player.

Hyper: What's the SCEE approach to game development? Have you got a few great key concept people? Or is the approach a bit more of a round table job?

Juan: We have a couple of people who are good at coming out with game ideas and formulating them in a clear way but the approach that we normally follow is getting round table discussions to explore each new idea that comes along to select those that appeal to us most. Once we have most people behind a new game idea we will allocate 2-3 people for 3 months to produce a design/story board and prototype to help us explore the idea in some more detail. The concept that survives this process and its various review points should be strong enough to go into production.

Hyper: Is SCEE growing? Are you acquiring new developers and taking them under your wing?

Juan: Yes we are growing. This year we plan to add a 4th team and start to do some R & D on special projects outside the pure games area. In the next few weeks you will also see some announcements concerning acquisitions, can't say any more at this point but watch this space.

Hyper: Are many of the Sony internal titles developed with an eye tor the Japanase market?

Juan: The potential sales of a successful PlayStation title in Japan (a la Final Fantasy 7) represent a huge leap over that of Europe and America. We tend to develop games that will sell in all 3 territories (Europe, Japan and US) and not targetted to a specific territory although I would love to come up with FFVII type of game. So far I'm very happy to see that Total NBA has performed well in all territories, including Japan where we sold over 100K units.

Hyper: What is your favourite game right now?

Juan: They change every week and during E3 will change every hour! There are some great coming out at this moment. I like Porsche Challenge a lot, also Soud Edge, Bushido Blade and Rage Racer.

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