Interview with Helmuth Ritzer from PlayStation-Disorder
I have had the pleasure of Interviewing the owner of a great website that i urge you to check out and subscribe to, Helmuth runs PlayStation-Disorder so here is the interview in full
Tell us a bit about yourself
Helmuth Ritzer is the name, I am 44 years old and I am living close to Stuttgart, which is in the south of Germany. During day hours I am an IT guy.
Tell us about your site
The site is not so much one of those typical news update sites that basically replicate the news from kotaku or Joystiq all over the place. I really like to comment on a few things that come to my mind and either excite or frustrate me. Even though this is a PS3 site you find of course news on other consoles. beside that I track all of my games within the database. Call me crazy, but I guess it’s fair to say that I am a Playstation fanboy.
How long has your site been going for?
Well, I started playstation-disorder.com over two years ago mainly as a companion site for the PS3 launch here in Europe, which we all know got delayed shortly after
Do you enjoy writing for the site?
Of course I do. I actually decided to do this site in English even though I am not a native speaker. But I enjoy speaking English and I also wanted to target or more international audience. I actually have a fairly large audience based on my stats from all-over the world which is kind of exciting if you think about. Isn’t the Internet a great thing?
Do you have any plans for the future of the site?
When it comes to the general scope of what the site covers, I guess no. I am totally fine with what I have. Even though I thought about redesigning the site a couple of times, my current workload just tells me not to do it. Keep in mind that I’ve created that site out of nothing. It’s not based on any blogging software. It’s all homemade with a special kind of website tooling I have developed over the years. But that’s another story
Do you think that the the Playstation 3 is growing this year and do you see it beating microsoft by end of this year?
Well, it already did, At least when you look at Japan and Europe. In the US, the 360 has a clear lead over the PS3 which will be tough to close. Short-term I don’t expect the PS3 to take the lead in total, but mid and long-term I do. If you compare the lineup of both the 360 and the PS3, the 360 has a lot of yet-another-version-of-that-blockbuster which will not generate too much additional hardware sales. Compare that with the upcoming new 1st party titles like Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet, Home, Infamous, GT5, just to name a few. Those titles will generate a lot new hardware sales (just look at the MGS4 effect) and will also attract a lot of those 120 million PS3 owners to finally migrate to the PS3.
To some gamers, the non inclusion of the backwards compatability in the 40gb version is a kick in the teeth, why should non PS3 owners buy the console?
Don’t tell me. Honestly, I was really frustrated when Sony announced the drop of BC within the 40GB model. As much as I can understand the strategic decision to do that, I don’t get why Sony is not at least offering an alternate model incl. BC which could of course be more expensive. Gamers like me are obviously willing to pay the extra just to get the BC. When they switched to the 40 GB here in Europe I actually got a second 60 GB model (for even less than the 40 GB) just to make sure that I still have a working BC solution just in case one of my PS3s break. On the other side I am pretty sure that Sony will introduce software only BC later in the life-cycle as they definitely want to sell PS2 classics on PSN. Believe me.
Ok, coming to your actual question why would someone buy a PS3 these days. If you want the most beautiful (the unit as well as the UI), most powerful, most future proven, most versatile and most supported console, then the PS3 is your console. For me the biggest selling point is the long life-cycle of the PS3 which is longer than for the 360 as well as the Wii. Sony can do this due to the PS3’s potential and therefor it’s a money safer for us users. Enough advertisement?
When do you think we will see HOME in the UK?
Is it actually coming? Well, this is one of those frustrating Sony stories where a product gets announced and not delivered. Anyway, I kind of believe the latest announcements that the beta will be open fall this year. Personally I think they could have launched the beta earlier. Nobody expects Home to be perfect from the beginning. Just look at what Google, Flickr or YouTube are doing. There is no defined GA version of their services. This is a continuous development and you actually don’t realize when a service actually goes “live”. I keep my fingers crossed.
Do you think the “Trophy Support” will get more of the Xbox 360 gamers over to the PS3?
No, I consider it more of a catchup. Anyway, Trophies are getting an 3D upgrade within Home which is a unique thing then.
Do you own any of the next gen consoles?
Of course, THE next gen console, the PS3!
Which games do you play on the PS3?
I am a action-adventure, jump & run, FPS, type of guy mainly. But as a collector a own a lot, lot more
What are your favourite games at the moment?
MGS4 and ……. LEGO Indiana Jones, Opposites attract.
Beside those two I still have to finish Condemned 2 and Dark Sector
What game are you most looking foward to playing?
LittleBigPlanet of course as it is so different. Beside that I wanna see how God of War looks like on PS3
If there is one thing you would improve about the PS3, what would it be?
As in-game XMB is on its way, the only thing I am looking forward to is getting backwards compatability back!
