Croal then brought up a quote from Valve's Gabe Newell where he had unkind things to say about the PlayStation 3. According to Newell, "the PS3 is a total disaster on so many levels, I think it's really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted. I'd say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a 'do over.' Just say, 'This was a horrible disaster and we're sorry and we're going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it.'" Croal then asked what Harrison felt about this perspective, and noted that other developers agreed and had urged him to pose the question.

There were a few snickers from the audience at this point, but Harrison took it all in stride, and noted that he was a great admirer of Newell's productive output, if not a big fan of his commentary. Harrison asked "by what measure has the launch of the PS3 not been successful?" He contended that the launch was a success by any standard, with players waiting in line for days, and more products shipped in the U.S., Japan, and Asia, than during the original PlayStation and PS2 launches.

Harrison made a brief demonstration of one of the PlayStation Network's upcoming downloadable games, Super Rub Dub, a game played entirely using the SIXAXIS controller's tilt-sensing capabilities. In this game, you guide ducks in a tub by tilting the tub and using the drain and water physics to collect all the ducks before exiting each level. There wasn't much to the demonstration, but you got an idea for its simple, intuitive gameplay.

PlayStation 3's online store.

Overall, the impression we got from the question and answer session was that Harrison was quite skilled at deflecting negative attention away from the PlayStation 3's launch, and adept at giving the audience the impression that Sony was dedicated to providing a service that could compete with Microsoft's Xbox Live. He was adamant that the failure of the system was far from assured, and in fact, seemed very confident that developers would be able to provide compelling content to the system in the future. It was admirable for Harrison to subject himself to an off-the-cuff Q&A session without preparation, but the hardest-hitting questions received dismissive answers without any real follow-up.