It was certainly not a conventional E3 game trailer. The forthcoming release from Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and his self-named studio saw actor Norman Reedus naked on a beach, clutching a baby and surrounded by dead sea creatures – and that was essentially that. But occupying the centre point of Sony’s pre-event press conference, Death Stranding made a huge impact, both in the auditorium and among the hundreds of thousands watching online. If it was a gamble to give prominent placing to such a surreal and oblique video, it certainly paid off.

Tweeting later, Kojima made it clear that the game is some time away – an unnecessary clarification from a man whose previous titles have often undergone several years of development. It was perhaps exasperation with his unhurried approach that recently led Konami to end its 30-year relationship with the developer. Now, he joins Fumito Ueda and David Cage in a collection of the industry’s most unpredictable auteurs, all working for Sony.

The day after the conference, Andrew House, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, considers the implications of employing this triumvirate of capricious talent. “With great talent comes great responsibility – that’s the best way I can answer that,” he says. “I’m delighted that Kojima-san, albeit retaining independence, has found a home with Sony - I think he’s been very happy with the experience so far. As a brand and platform, we were founded on taking risks and being different and we’re comfortable with that.”

House’s career, which has taken him from Wales to Tokyo, via roles at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and America, has been inextricably linked with the rise of the company’s console. He joined Sony Computer Corporation in 1990 as a communications officer, before switching to the fledgling PlayStation team in 1995. He became co-CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in 2011, overseeing the design and launch of PlayStation 4.

To him, he claims, trusting gifted, sometimes idiosyncratic studios, is an important part of the role. “One of the benefits of being a platform holder is the opportunity to take a little bit more risk,” he says. “We have a responsibility to do that, to showcase what the platform is supposed to be and, without wanting to sound pompous, to try and lead the industry a bit. That means working with very talented people and having some understanding of the journeys they have to go on.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sony has been keen to stress the ease-of-use and social functionality of the PlayStation VR headset. Photograph: Sony

That risk will soon extend to a new entertainment paradigm: virtual reality. In October, Sony will launch PlayStation VR, a £349 headset designed to bring this much-hyped new technology to the mass consumer market. While PC-based products HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are already available, they’re comparatively expensive, rely on powerful computers, and not exactly easy to set up. PlayStation VR promises something more intuitive and also more social, offering a second-screen experience, allowing headset wearers to play beside friends who see game action on the TV screen.

Could this be the beginning of virtual reality as a truly mainstream concept? House is measured in his response. “I’ve said consistently that this is, for the foreseeable future, going to be driven by an enthusiast market,” he says. “We’re being a little conservative in how we’re managing our expectations.”

“We have some key advantages with Playstation VR that give us a better on ramp to a larger consumer market than some of the other folks out there. We have 40m people who are PlayStationVR-ready – that’s a big advantage. We always strive to have something that’s designed specifically for A to work with B. But we’re at the very early stages; it may be a very long path toward growing a brand new medium.”



Despite these reservations, virtual reality played a big role in Sony’s E3 press conference, via two popular announcements: Resident Evil 7 will be playable in its entirety on PlayStation VR, while Rocksteady Studios is working on the dedicated title Batman Arkham VR. On the night House also claimed that 50 titles will be released for the headset between October and the end of the year. Isn’t that a lot of support for a risky venture?

“Early demand indications have been very good and if anything something beyond our expectations,” concedes House. “But it’s a tough thing to try to predict demand because set-up is one thing but you’re asking a player to engage with hardware in a radially different way than they have done in the past. But will the enormous amount of hype and creative interest in the medium translate completely into consumer demand when this interesting new form of engagement is required? That’s a big question mark”

One thing House does say is that games are unlikely to be Sony’s only interest in virtual reality tech. The company does, of course, have a presence in both television and cinema, and it’s like VR will figure in some way in both. Have those divisions been showing interest in PlayStation VR? “Very much so,” says House. “There’s quite a good coordinated effort amongst several Sony groups – someone is specifically in charge of that. There are discussions on the content side, and we’ve already started to experiment: we did an interesting promotional thing around The Walk, where you could walk between the World Trade towers.

“It’s baby steps but we’ve started to coordinate our efforts. There is also another opportunity for Sony: we have in the games space the toolset to create good VR experiences, but that toolset doesn’t really exist in the linear content space right now – Sony could play a role there, in creating the first set of really professional grade VR tools. We’ve also had some interesting engagement with the creative community in television, some of whom have made great shows for us, just to show them the technology and get them thinking about what it could mean.”



In the context of this radical change, supporting Kojima Productions doesn’t seem like such a gamble, especially considering the huge excitement following the E3 reveal. House says he has been sold on Death Stranding since the first time he saw it. “I was possibly the first visitor to Kojima’s new office,” he says. “It’s just across the road from mine.”

“I went over to see how they were settling in, and the atmosphere was great - there was such a vibe of creativity. I’ve not told anyone outside of the company this story, but when I sat down to watch the trailer, Kojima had arranged it so that every single employee gradually gathered behind me. By the time it was over, the whole of Kojima Productions was around me, so I had to address them all. It was lovely.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest God of War. Photograph: Sony

As a founding member of the original PlayStation team, he is also aware of the nostalgia that surrounds the brand – and all gaming. Hence, a return for God of War and a Crash Bandicoot remaster had significant roles at the E3 show, as did Final Fantasy VII the year before. “We did some early research for PlayStation 4 and we found that people’s gaming memories were way more important and resonant than we first thought. We definitely saw that last year with the Final Fantasy VII Remaster reveal. That title has obviously been cited by a lot of people as the first game that made them cry. It was a sign of the increasing depth and maturity of the medium. I certainly felt it.”

He also had a rather bizarre role in the early history of Crash Bandicoot, while working for Sony Computer Entertainment’s communications department. “I was working with a comedian dressed in a bandicoot suit,” he says. “We had to stand outside the Nintendo office, shouting at them. That was a seminal campaign! So yes, Crash has a place in my heart. I one hundred percent completed the first game. I can fully understand that identification.”

Looking forward, House says it’s important for the games industry to have the courage to experiment with new game concepts – to promote itself as a cultural force, not just a financial success. “We’re past the days of comparing the size of the games industry with Hollywood box office,” he says. “I think we needed to do that for a while to attract attention, but we’re now mature enough that we can look for cultural legitimacy in other areas.

“After maybe 10 years of being in the mainstream we perhaps still don’t do a good enough job of communicating the sheer variety of what we do. We need to articulate that story a bit better.”