'We'll never do away with retail,' says Harrison

Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison has dismissed suggestions that the company could make a move away from traditional retail channels in the future.

His comments came during a round table discussion with 'semi-official' blog ThreeSpeech. When he was asked, "How long until Sony does away with retail?", Harrison replied, "Never - weâre not going to do away with retail.

"But a game that somebody buys at retail is the beginning of our relationship with the customer, not the end," he continued. "I think retailers will be as important to the games industry going forwards as they are today."

During the discussion Harrison also talked about Home, the forthcoming PS3 feature which will allow users to customise their own online space and access extra content.

According to Harrison, "There are three revenue channels for Home: 1) object sales, 2) advertising and 3) b-to-b, where partner brands are embedded into the network."

He went on to suggest, "Maybe retailers could have loyalty programmes located in Home."