Harrison predicts big role for user created content on PS3

Phil Harrison has signalled Sony's intention to make user-created content a significant aspect of the PlayStation 3 platform - and he's not just talking about wacky avatars.

"I have to be really careful not to give the game away because we're keeping this secret," he told the UK's official PlayStation mag, "but don't think about it in terms of maps, think of it in terms of behaviours, environments, physics, rules... all the tools that you could want, but in a very consumer friendly way."

Pointing to Second Life as "a very, very powerful metaphor for where we're going," Harrison went on to say that users would be able to use a USB mouse to find "a deeper level of finesse, that you could get in terms of pixel manipulation and paint programs or fine tuning things". (The PS3 also supports USB keyboard input throughout.)

"We've got two things in development," he specified. "One in this building and one with an external developer that, [and] when we do share them with you, I think you're going to go 'Ah now I know what he was talking about.'"

News that Sony is considering how to make use of content creation facilities is likely to draw comparison to Microsoft's XNA Studio Express suite, which has been up and running in beta for a bit, and will soon allow users to make their own playable Xbox 360 games using simple tools - albeit for the cost of a subscription fee.

Elsewhere in today's latest excerpt from Harrison, the Sony man talks about old-days PS3 prototypes, whether there are any Easter eggs in the Cross Media Bar ("There are some secrets"), and how Afrika is a sort of metaphor for his wanting to be a striker for Liverpool (good man).