PlayStation's most recent -- and most radical -- initiative is Net Yaroze, a special edition of the video console that allows players to create their own games. SCEA unveiled Net Yaroze in March. The consoles are available only direct from Sony (list price: $750), which means the company knows exactly who is buying them. And PlayStation is not just selling Yaroze hardware and programming software. It's also creating a Yaroze community. Users will be able to design their own games, discuss them with other Yaroze owners, collaborate on games through a private Yaroze Web site, even get expert tips from PlayStation programmers in San Diego and Foster City.
Among hard-core gamers, Yaroze has been hailed as a breakthrough concept. Harrison thinks of it as a challenge: "OK, Mister Gameplayer. You've always sat at home and said, 'This game sucks, I could do better.' Well, here you are, go do it."
No one knows how many PlayStation games Net Yaroze will create. But the mere fact that it exists creates a rare sense of openness in an industry notorious for proprietary technology and tight controls. And who knows? It just might produce a hit or two.
Harrison says he looks forward to the day when a magazine interviews the developer of a hot PlayStation game -- and the developer says the game took shape when he was a Yaroze owner. Maybe he pitched the idea to an outside company, maybe to PlayStation itself. But somehow he got the chance to build a full-fledged consumer title based on what he did at home with Yaroze.
Far-fetched? Perhaps. "But that," says Harrison, "is the dream."
Paul Roberts (proberts79@aol.com) is a writer based in Seattle and a frequent contributor to Fast Company.
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