EGM recently interviewed Phil Harrison, Sony Computer Entertainment America's vice president, third-party relations and research and development. And if anyone knows PlayStation hardware, it's Harrison. PlayStation Next? Well, let's just say he's not spilling the beans just yet.

　　EGM: What are your main responsibilities at SCEA?Phil Harrison: As VP third-party, I am responsible for the business, creative, and strategic relations with our third-party developers and publishers. As VP R&D I am responsible for research and development.

　　EGM: The PlayStation is three years old (in the US). Where do you see the system in terms of its potential? Are there areas of the PlayStation hardware that haven't been explored by developers?PH: There are many different ways to design software to run on the PlayStation. Most games to date have placed emphasis on graphical performance so the power of the hardware has been tuned to the calculation and rendering of 3D graphics. However, there are ways to use the mathematical performance of the machine in the calculation of non-graphical elements, such as artificial intelligence and physical dynamics. The PlayStation also has a complex sound chip that has not really been pushed to the limit by many products. Overall technical performance is very difficult to calculate - as each game is different. However, it is likely that the most efficient use of the graphics pipeline will soon be achieved. This would be the best combination of polygon count, texture map type, and screen resolution, coupled with special effects and memory considerations. Even if there is such a product that hits the practical maximum performance of the system, there are still no limits to creativity....

　　EGM: Nintendo had Donkey Kong Country midway through the life of the Super NES that amazed gamers with its graphics. Many didn't believe that the SNES could do it. Does the PlayStation have the potential for a similar feat for a game with graphics no one thought possible on the PS (minus FMV, of course)?PH: Donkey Kong Country was a hit because it used a huge cartridge that only Nintendo could afford, to deliver a nice game that looked fresh and new compared to the other products in the SNES marketplace. I think the technology behind the graphics was more the work of the PR and marketing department than the game programmers! As I said before, the creative limits of the PlayStation hardware are bounded only by the imagination and skill of the people making the game, not the relative performance of the chips themselves. I think that Metal Gear Solid introduces some exciting new elements into game design that are really well implemented, and what I've seen of Final Fantasy VIII looks wonderful. So long as games like Spyro, Gameday 99, MGS, Gran Turismo, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver keep pushing the envelope of technology and creativity we won't need a Donkey Kong - we see new and exciting games all the time on PlayStation.

　　EGM: What type of game would you like to see appear on the PlayStation that hasn't been done yet?PH: Good question! I'm really interested in seeing a digital pet concept as seen in the Tamagotchi-style LCD systems, but combined with the rich graphics, large environments, and realistic speech and music that the PlayStation is capable of. That would be fun - the idea of a pet that could really "live" in your machine. There was a game on the Commodore 64 years ago called Little Computer People Discovery Kit that scratched the surface of where you might go with that idea. You could imagine a realistic character - animal or whatever - behaving and responding to stimulus just like a pet, and it could develop a unique personality to the extent that it might even be considered a friend.

　　EGM: What's your favorite PlayStation game and why?PH: Changes all the time! However, the game I'm spending the most time on right now is Gran Turismo. I'm a car enthusiast and used to own a TVR back when I lived in the UK - and since you can't buy them in the US it's as close as I can get to the experience!

　　EGM: What do you think of Sega's Dreamcast?PH: Ask me again when it's on the shelves and you can buy games for it. Specifications alone is of no interest to me; it's how the creative and technical sides join together that really makes a game - and therefore a system - great.

　　EGM: By now we all know that PlayStation 2 is in development in Japan. What do you personally think PlayStation 2 needs to have going for it that the PlayStation lacked?PH: Really? Is it in development? I had no idea. Thanks for telling me.

　　EGM: Is there anything else you can tell us about PlayStation 2?PH: Yes there is... but I'm not going to.

　　EGM: Since you oversee a lot of the R&D at SCEA, are there any products/peripherals/enhancements that the company was toying around with that have never made it to market? Perhaps that PlayStation Type C RAM upgrade? If you can, tell us about these "dead" projects and why they might've been killed?PH: Sony prides itself on being a company led by R&D and innovation, so as a result we generate many exciting products and concepts that don't make it out of the engineering phase. I think only Bill Clinton is the subject of more rumor and speculation. There are many reasons why a product does not get marketed -some technical, some business, some strategic. One of the most important benefits of the PlayStation format is that every machine is made equal - therefore every game performs in the same way on every system, unlike the PC business where the hardware specification is a moving target, which generally leaves the consumer frustrated with the software, the hardware, and games in general! We want to make it easy for all consumers to enjoy PlayStation - with no screwdriver or manual in sight.

　　EGM: Do you think the PDA will catch on in the US as much as it probably will in Japan? How many/which games will support the PDA?PH: It's all down to software and we are very excited about the plans. We will be making specific announcements about which titles at a later date, but there are some really cool ideas being worked on - and not just games.

　　EGM: Why did Sony go with a PDA that's 32x32 dots instead of a portable gaming machine like Nintendo's Game Boy?PH: The PDA has a 32x32 pixel screen because we wanted to deliver a portable gaming experience for a low price - under US$30. Also, the PDA is different from other game systems because it is an extension of the PlayStation TV-based gaming experience out of the home into the real-world community. A game played at home can have a PDA extension that allows the player to experience the game at different levels - one on the PDA and the other at home on the TV. For example a real-world RPG that has nice graphics and music from the CD on the PlayStation at home only needs to transport that character and its attributes into the real-world version of the RPG. The players make up the rest of the scenario in their heads - which always have the best graphics!

　　EGM: Do you think there's potential for, in the future, games to be delivered on DVD or high-density mini-disc instead of CD-ROM? Would there be benefits to a storage medium other than the standard CD-ROMs now in most game machines?PH: Yes, I'm sure we'll see new and more powerful storage media used in game systems in the future. Exactly what and when I cannot say.

　　EGM: When PlayStation was introduced, graphics in games were all about polygons. Now that seems to have shifted from sprites to polygons to voxels. What's your take on the advancing trends in computer graphics? Is the polygon going to be a thing of the past in the future?PH: As computer performance increases there are many new and exciting graphics technologies that can be used. Our goal is to make the concept of computer graphics disappear - to the extent that the user has no notion that what they are interacting with was generated by a computer. That's the next immersive boundary that we will cross in the future.