Updated 26 May, 2012, 4:18 pm IST

An Interview with Atindriya Bose

04 Sep, 2009, 9:00 am IST | by Avinash Bali

You asked the questions and now he answers them.

Last week we let you – the community - interview the head honcho of PlayStation India, Atindriya Bose. We received a ton of questions, all of which sadly couldn’t be answered by him (can’t expect him to answer 100+ questions). We did however send him a list of some of the more interesting questions and here’s what he had to say.

I purchased a 60GB PS3 from the US at launch date and was shocked to hear of Sony India's stand on PS3 repairs - We don’t repair PS3's . So what of the 2 controllers, 1 BD remote and the 7 Games?

Why not offer a 3-year warranty ? A price cut is one thing, by do you expect people to shell out 18K every year to buy a new unit when it fails?

This is very disappointing for the early adopters of technology. I have a PSP, PS One as well, and both are still working. It’s the PS3 that needs the warranty! – Tarun

Hello Tarun,

While we have a specific service policy for all consoles bought in India or belonging to formats usable in India, it is not possible to maintain a service facility for consoles with different zone codings. This is clearly stated in the service policies which we expect all buyers to be aware of.

In terms of local service support, we use the wide service network of Sony India Pvt Ltd across the countries. They extend the within warranty/out of warranty service supports to all the consoles that are under the purview of the local service policy.

We have a specific One Year Warranty for all consoles sold officially in India and all other PAL territory consoles that have been imported are covered under ‘Out of Warranty ‘ service policy. In such cases, the console is replaced with a current model at a specific percentage of the market price.
3 Year warranty policy has financial consequences and needs to be evaluated before any consideration towards this idea can be made.__STARTQUOTE__We have little choice but to hold back the PS Stores (which is a part of the services on PSN ) for the Indian market, given the state of broadband infrastructure in the market.__ENDQUOTE__Main question I'd like to ask is about their stance on PSN India. Why haven't they released it yet, what are they waiting for? They showed a set of games to journalists more than a year ago! Everyone is forced to go online and buy PSN cards from the US just to get the full "Playstation Experience". Do they not wish their customers to have the "Total Playstation Experience"? Also Related to it, is the question of PSPGo, it can be released, only if there is a proper PSN store. - Y.V.Reetesh

Hi Reetesh,

With the PS3 as well as the PSP sales being impressive for the Indian market, the PSN is being used by more and more Indians and the registrations from the consoles keep increasing. We have little choice but to hold back the PS Stores (which is a part of the services on PSN ) for the Indian market, given the state of broadband infrastructure in the market. The broadband quality of India dissuades easy downloads or streaming that allow an enhanced Playstation experience.� The possibility of such sub-optimized service on PlayStation is not desirable and delays the roll out of the store.

We are constantly monitoring the Indian market as well as looking at all possible variations to meaningfully make PS Store available in the market in the shortest possible time. But unfortunately, there is no specific timeframe that can be communicated to the esteemed Indian users as of now.
We are not immediately launching the PSPGo in the Indian market – as the source of games will be difficult for the Indian consumers at this point of time. Primary requirement will be the availability of the PS Store. But with the right opportunity, we will move fast enough to introduce PSPGo in Indian market.

I want to ask you why PS3 SDK is so expensive? It is really out of budget for casual developers who wish to make utility apps for PS3 (and not games!). I cannot understand why there cannot be 2 SDKs - one for normal software development and another for game development (super set of software development)? - Aniket Bhatnagar

Hi Aniket,

We have started a number of collaborations with Indian developmental companies to allow creations of games. As of now, our partnerships are with PS2 & PSP games. But there are parties who are working independently as well as have the competence of working on the PS3 platform. It is our firm belief that India holds a huge potential in game developments and hence we are putting forth investments in terms of monetary and qualitative means (time, technology handholding, support and guidance etc). Over a period of time, we see the PS3 developments also getting fast-forwarded in India.
The SDK policies are determined centrally keeping in mind the needs of the platform.

Tags: Atindriya Bose Interview , PlayStation India