SCEA VP of Product Marketing, Scott Steinberg, is a firm believer that Killzone 2 will be that factor strong enough to have the Xbox 360 gamers try out the PlayStation 3 system. In an interview with GameDaily, Steinberg talked about the golden boy of the PS3, the many more great things to expect from the PS3, and why 2009 is really THE YEAR of the said console.

As of now, a lot of next-gen games are being developed for the Xbox 360 natively and are later ported to the PlayStation 3 to come up with cross-platform releases. A Sony VP, however, thinks the PS3 can pull a switcheroo to make the quality of gaming better for both platforms. More after the jump.

If you're excited about exclusive episodic content for Grand Theft Auto IV (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3) which means a version of it would be lengthier, Sony Computer Entertainment America's product marketing vice president sure isn't. According to Scott Steinberg, there probably won't be much gamers who'd avail of DLC since GTA IV is big enough. More details await at the full article.

Virtua Fighter enthusiasts know why the PlayStation 3 version of the video game Virtua Fighter 5 lacked online gameplay: lag problems hamper Virtua Fighter's combat system. An interview with Sega's Scott Steinberg though revealed another reason for the dismal lack of online fun.

According to Steinberg, Sega wanted to release the Virtua Fighter 5 PS3 SKU within the PS3's launch window, leaving out the online multiplayer that the Xbox 360 version enjoyed.

Certainly not a delightful news for PlayStation 3 owners. When asked why the Xbox 360 got the online multiplayer option despite the lag problems that also plagued the PS3 SKU, Steinberg said that AM2 - also known as Sega Amusement Machine Research and Development Department 2 - felt that they can do online gaming with the 360, and managed to come up with online multiplayer with almost unnoticeable lag. He continued:

I think they felt like, "hey, let’s surprise the world" (referring to AM2). That’s how it all kind of came down, so it was one of those great, just serendipitous kinds of moments where it happened and we weren’t expecting it.

So there you have it, the skinny on why Virtua Fighter 5 for the PlayStation 3 didn't have online multiplayer according to Steinberg himself, but he didn't close the interview with this.

Click on the Full Article link to find out what else Sega's planning.

Despite its current soaring popularity in the market, Sega's Scott Steinberg believes that Nintendo Company Ltd.'s ever-popular Wii console will lose its hype next year.

While the Wii is now leading the games industry with its attractive price and the unique gameplay provided by the controller (among other interesting features), the console's sub-par graphics compared to next-gen consoles as well as lack of any special technological specs may weigh it down in the long run, Sega's top brass explained.

"I am a little concerned about the creative depth of the Wii pool... I'm not sure if they will top out in 2008 or 2007," Steinberg said in an interview. He goes on to explain that the Nintendo Wii will be eventually left behind as soon as game developers make even better games on the PlayStation 3 and on the Xbox 360.

At this point, game developers are devoting more and more resources for Nintendo Wii games, now that the quirky console is at the height of its popularity. Electronic Arts, for one, has decided to make more Wii games while Ubisoft is set to make exclusive Wii games.

Sega has a surprising choice when asked who will turn out to be the winner of the console wars in the long run: Sony's PlayStation 3. Right now, Sony PlayStation 3 is flagging behind its two rivals, Wii and Xbox 360. Even its handheld console sister, the PSP, is outdone by another of Nintendo's strange products, the touchscreen kid-friendly DS.

Sega believes that the PS3's graphical power and Blu-ray DVD player will make it a staple for 10 years, and will provide just enough juice for the game developers to tinker with and be satisfied for a long time.

In an interview with GameSpot, Sega's VP of Entertainment Marketing">Scott Steinberg, VP of marketing for Sega of America, said that their bid for the Western market was partly driven with their acquisition of the superheroes franchise from Marvel Entertainment. Earlier, Sega preached that the movie-game adaptation development will improve this time around, and it's anticipated that Sega will be first to bring forth this revelation.

After having previously secured a deal to the Iron Man game, it appears that Sega is also working on the movie-game adaptation of the Hulk, closely linked to the next (yet totally different from "The Incredible Hulk") Hulk movie starring Edward Norton (of "Red Dragon" fame).

It was revealed earlier that Thor and Captain America were also in the planning stages, but Steinberg was able to reveal that the two IPs were already part of the Marvel deal and they are definitely going to come out as separate games, too. However, Steinberg has avoided spilling any details into the development of the titles, only making it clear that the games will be coming in next-gen and current-gen platforms, including the PS2, DS, PSP and PC, although there are no concrete details on that.

There has been mention of the Wii, but Steinberg only said that "it's still [to be determined] right now." There are a lot of developers approaching Sega and hoping to grab a part of the titles to work on, so hopefully an experienced developer for the Wii would take the challenge.

But most importantly, Sega has revealed that they are closely working with movie producers and significant entities in the movie production so that they can "understand what's going on with those guys from a creative standpoint" and deliver a title that "fully [articulates] what [is] going on in the movie."

Here's to hoping, folks!

If you've just spotted this title and muttered, "Well, it's about ******* time!" you definitely aren't alone. Game adaptations of movies are mostly sub-par (with a few exceptions), being half-games that don't even pass as half-movies either.

But in a recent interview with Next Gen, Sega's VP of marketing Scott Steinberg believes that the movie-licensed game will improve in the near future. He believed that the problem of rushing games in a six-month period was to blame.

Movie licenses would usually get shoved into game developers throats and had to be developed in a short deadline. He commented, "No surprise [the licensed game] might not have been the greatest."

But recently the movie and game industry have matured to a point that they take things more seriously now. The movie company see the importance of how a game reaches out to more people, therefore strengthening the fan-base for the franchise. Steinberg explained:

As publishers and the different movie studios are recognizing how important videogames are to the marketing of a film to the [target] demographic, movie studios realise that they can't trivialise the interactive space.

In 1991 or '92 the [movie] studios saw videogames as sort of chump change. They'd bounce perhaps a property six months before a game, basically when the movie was in the can, and publishers tried to crank it out with using an existing engine, threw a couple of artists on it, and shipped a 16-bit game.

Having recently secured a deal with Marvel Entertainment, Sega will now be one of few game development companies to create games based on the Marvel franchise. It's been reported that characters such as Captain America and Thor will also be given their own title, and to have "upcoming movie tie-ins."

Apparently, Sega also licensed the Aliens franchise for two games (an RPG and an FPS) and The Golden Compass franchise, both of which also made it big in the big screen prior to going interactive. What comes out of these games will certainly make or break Sega's claim and rep, but it would be nice to see an improvement after years of poor game adaptations. Now only if someone could do something about games becoming bad movies...