Sony's Phil Harrison took questions from Newsweek's N'Gai Croal at DICE today. No punches were pulled, as the range of the questions went from the casual (what are you playing now?) to many serious ones about the PS3.

The first questions asked about how Sony chose external developers. He said that they looked for creativity and innovation, but also things like technical skill, management and commercial viability. Harrison added that the downloadable scene allows Sony to take more risks, though the same basic rules apply.

This was followed up by a question of how casual gamers will be brought in with PS3 at $500/$600. He cited previous PlayStations as an excellent example of just that. He also mentioned that they were working on "stimulating beyond hardcore games" with titles such as Singstar, which is a huge, multi million seller in Europe that they're hoping to bring that to the U.S. soon. A demo showed off things like downloadable songs (with background downloading for the first time on PS3), recordable performances on the USB camera and the like. Things like this add to the system of community, which Sony hopes to work more on with cross media efforts.

The questions then turned to things like development tools and support of third parties, and how some developers feels that Microsoft is doing a better job. Harrison started off by saying "there's no point in me being defensive" and conceded that "we can always do a better job" and that hearing these things concerned him. At the same he pointed to the many titles already released for PS3 as evidence that developing successfully for it is quite possible. He also debunked the myth that documentation came in Japanese, saying most of it originated in English. Harrison also denied any preferential treatment for dev kits to Japan or EA, with an EA rep (who just happened to be in the audience) backing up his claim.

Harrison was then probed about the PS3's online features and why they weren't equal to Xbox Live. He said that it's always being expanded, and that they will continue to refine the PlayStation Network on both PS3 and PSP to have a more unified experience. He also denied that cost had any relevance on the quality of the online experience, adding that Resistance featured 40 person multiplayer matches out of the box.

Croal then mentioned an interview with Gabe Newell, where he called the PS3 launch a "total disaster," and asked if some problems could have been resolved with a delay. Harrison fired back, saying sales were better over that period than the PSOne and PS2 in like timeframes, and wondered audibly about the negativity. He noted that a million units are being shipped to Europe for their launch, and that eventually all of these short term results will be inconsequential in the long run.

Turning again to the PSP, Harrison added that he still has high hopes for the console in the future. He'd like to go deeper than a "PS2 in your palm" and add to the community and media features, saying it's "not so much a missed opportunity as a future opportunity." He also teased attendees saying he was playing the new LocoRoco, and showed scenes of an upcoming downloadable game Super Rub A Dub (based thematically on some tech demos involving rubber duckies in a tub) which will be controlled entirely with the SIXAXIS.