Last month Jack Tretton celebrated his first year on the job as CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), a position that had been left open by Kaz Hirai (who took over for former SCE head Ken Kutaragi). Tretton is certainly no stranger to the PlayStation business, however, having joined SCEA at its inception in 1995 and helping to launch both the PS One and PS2, and last year of course, the PS3.

It is perhaps fitting that his first year as CEO coincides almost perfectly with the PS3's first year on the market in North America. The PS3's slow start and price barrier have been well documented, but Sony is finally moving in the right direction this holiday season with the cheaper $399 model and a better selection of games that push the hardware.

GameDaily BIZ recently caught up with Tretton to get his take on his first year, the PS3's competitiveness and the business as a whole.

GameDaily BIZ: Now that you've put in one year as the CEO of SCEA, how would you assess your own performance? How have you steered the PlayStation business and what are your goals for it in the next year and beyond?

Jack Tretton: I am really pleased with what we have accomplished over the past year, but I have to remind myself that a year goes by very quickly. I have really focused on assessing what we have in terms of the organization and talent, what we have in terms of our products, and what our advantages are and what are challenges are. My goal moving forward is try to do the best I can to position the company to take advantage of our strengths and minimize our weaknesses.

Jack still needs a catch phrase. Too bad 'Riiiidddge Racer' is already taken.

BIZ: Is the PS3 business where you thought it would be at this point in the cycle? After the scales were tipped so heavily in the PS2's favor all those
years, does the PS3 trailing behind both Xbox 360 and Wii surprise you?

JT: We are on our fourth platform introduction, and this business is never easy. There is always formidable competition. There is always education that needs to go on with consumers. But the honest answer is that while we knew price would be a challenge for the PS3, we underestimated the education process and the fact that there is a lot of information for consumers to absorb about PS3 given its advanced technology. This will be an ongoing challenge, but we think we've made great strides over the past year.

BIZ: Sony has been good about consistently updating the PlayStation Network and updating the PS3 with firmware. Can you give us an idea when SCEA will really compete with Xbox Live and Xbox Live Arcade?

JT: We compete very effectively right now. The thing that we care most about and what is relative to our online experience is that we currently have 3 million users and they have downloaded 60 million pieces of content. In my opinion, they are the biggest ringing endorsement of our online efforts. As long as we continue to grow our install base we are on the right track for our online efforts.

Glad to see that people notice that with the ability to update the firmware features, PS3 is really living and evolving in terms of the features and functionalities that we can add to the hardware. Since launch of PS3 we have added more than 80 new features as we are listening to gamers about what they want, and we are not done.

Continue...