Now, before I begin this thing, I want to first congratulate Sony on yet another successful conference. It was handled quite beautifully. At its core, E3 is an expo for investors. It was Sony’s job to make a show where they show off what they have in store for the future. And, with this conference, they showed the investors that they are stronger than anyone else in the industry at the moment. Save for Nintendo, who still needs to run their show.
Now, the main complaint from everyone else is that the show was boring. Just consider yourselves lucky that you’re even allowed to watch the show. It isn’t meant for you, geniuses. It’s for the investors and for the press as well. These conferences aren’t meant to be awesome and epic. The truth is that Sony did their best to cater to the regular crowd as well. And for that, I give them the first place. For now. As I said, Nintendo is yet to come.
Sony began the show with a more than five minute long video that showcased almost all of the games that were going to be shown at this conference. It might have lasted a tad too long.
Jack Tretton quickly came on stage. First order of business was a discussion about the infamous PSN outage. He addressed the press first and said “you’re welcome”. He then deeply apologized to the third party developers and said thank you to the game retailers that have stuck with them in their time of need. Lastly, Tretton addressed the consumers themselves, apologizing to them. Following this is a PR filled speech that includes a lot of numbers so that the investors know how Sony is doing. He then announces some new partners. First was Cinema Now. Then came Subway, who is doing something Uncharted related.
Wells and Belastra are welcomes on stage and come on hot with a demo for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Drake’s on a large boat, either a cruise or a yacht. It’s a very expensive looking boat with huge chandeliers and red carpets all around. The typical high class stuff. Accentuating the beauty of the rich interior are the more than impressive graphics, that seem to have been given a polish after Uncharted 2. Which is quite impressive on its own. Outside of the interior of the ship is a huge storm that is raging over the waters. And it too looks amazing.
But, after Drake showed that he was a complete and utter badass, he did blow the hull of the ship wide open. The water coming in did look very unrealistic, causing a bit of an uncanny valley moment. This was followed by a rather impressive scene like in Uncharted 2 where Drake was being chased by a truck. Only here it would be a hallway and a flood. That did look very good.
Wells and Balestra then go on to say that the Uncharted 3 multiplayer will be available, in full, at Subway. Not just a beta, but in full.
To finish, they showed a trailer showing Drake is indeed back alongside Chloe, Elena and Bruce Campbell … I mean Sully. All of them must team up to discover another adventure from Nathan’s famous ancestor.
Tretton returns to introduce Marcus Smith from Insomniac presenting a Resistance 3 demo. After a short, but overall involving, story exposition, Smith begins the demo. It appears that the game is a good looking FPS set in a destroyed world with unique weapons and abilities at his disposal. From what we saw, it’s quite clear that this is a third act game, where the action and the stakes are highest. One thing to note is that the gameplay does look a lot more steadily paced, control wise. Unlike CoD which is more fast paced.
Tretton Strikes Back with a Playstation Move Bundle announcement for Resistance 3, a 3D HD remastering of the God of War collection and a collection with 3D HD versions of both ICO as Shadow of the Colossus.
Following this is the announcement that there will be two new Playstation products to enhance the 3D experience. Which will be a Playstation TV, that will come packed with 3D glasses (which is the second product) and Resistance 3 for only $499. The cool thing here is that the 3D functionality of the TV allows for dual screen experiences. Meaning that there will be no split screen. Each player will be looking at their own, separate screen.
Tretton finishes this talk with a PS Move speech, some numbers again and then introduces Snyder and Boenish from 2K Sports.
The announcement is made that NBA 2K12 is now “On The Move”. Yeah, it looks like it could be good make people move. Since, you know, sports game. But, as of now, it doesn’t look like it will contribute anything at all to the gameplay experience.
Koby Bryant is brought in to demo the game, but he fails to make the move functionality remotely interesting. Yeah, the guy is good with the crowd and he does make a good point that the game itself is solid, but the move functionality remains a bust.
Mayer and Ray are introduced to talk about Medieval Moves: Dead Man’s Chest. It’s a Move game through and through where you control a very cartoony character that is either solid, see-through or invisible depending on what you are doing. It actually looks like a fun game, if it is not on rails like most Kinect games are. We weren’t told anything about it, so I can’t make a judgement on it yet. But, if it isn’t, we have a winner right here, folks.
Tretton returns with some Move Ready Title announcements like Spider-man, Transformers, Little Big Planet 2, 007 and more. This then proceeds in to a trailer for inFamous 2. Which comes out tomorrow from when I’m writing this so yeah. Still. WHOO, ZEKE!
He continues to talk about a unique user generated content experience for the game and then makes the announcement that LBP2 will indeed get a Move upgrade, as we’ve only seen this title as a logo on screen.
Continuing on, Tretton introduces a new title created by the men and women behind the Warhawk game. It’s a run-n-gun Third Person Shooter for which we are now seeing a trailer.
It opens to a badass, modernized cowboy with electric powers, partnered by a Space Marine killing monsters. After which we see a Warthog and a Decepticon Transformer. Followed by an epic space battle. Best game idea ever? Yes.
And Tretton is back, talking about a family friendly franchise that started all the way back in 2002. Following this was a trailer for a game many have been crying out for. Namely: Sly 4, now known as Sly Coopter: Thieves in charge. It was a short trailer that didn’t show much except for some cool CGI.
Next up is Pétursson from CCP with DUST 514, a new Playstation exclusive FPS that got an incredibly generic trailer in SPAAAAAAAACE. It’s also cross-platform able to connect to EVE Online for the PC.
Tretton then segways in to a beautiful, realistic yet stylized Bioshock Infinite trailer. It showcased some great potential with awesome set pieces and familiar, but good gameplay.
Levine then gets on stage to discuss the game some more, telling us a story about how he and his company got the idea to implement the Move. But, quite honestly, this just feels like a Move sales pitch then anything else. Because that’s all we get. Other than the announcement that Bioshock will be getting a Vita game at some point down the line.
Even more news coming from Captain Tretton. The entire Bioshock game will also be exclusively put on the Blu-ray disc of Bioshock Infinite. There’s also a new partnership with THQ for some unique Saint’s Row The Third content exclusive for the PS3 including gamemodes and more. These will also be Move oriented. Another exclusive coming the PS3’s way is a full game and a prequel, PSN game to the new Star Trek game based on the J.J. Abrams made universe. It will be a co-op action adventure game that will also be bundled with a Move Peripheral … a Phaser. Oh, hellz yes.
Early footage is also shown and it showcases a very Dead Space like adventure set in the Star Trek universe by Abrams. Definitely has its look and feel.
Even more exclusive content is revealed with 3 EA offers. SSX is getting Mount Fiji. Need for speed: The run, will be getting a special disc with 70 exclusive cars. And lastly, Battlefield 3 will be getting Battlefield 1943 on the same Blu-Ray Disc.
Honestly, this part right here just blew me away. So much free, exclusive stuff. Amazingly well done. And very effective for reeling in potential investors.
Kazuo Hirai is called on stage. After reminiscing about the 10 year plan they drew out not so many years ago, he tells us that they value the trust and loyalty of their consumers and that they value the trust already shown by their them. This segways in to PSP talk, namely a NGP sales pitch. Though the NGP is now officially named. It’s the Playstation Vista! No, wait, it’s Vita. My bad. Thank god.
In short, the Vita is everything you need in terms of service and hardware. Everything that needed to be improved on the PSP’s end, is in fact improved. Sony will partner with AT&T in North America for provider services and information for the rest of the world will be released shortly. There will also be XBL like cross-game chat. And it also has NEAR, which allows your VITA to communicate with nearby VITA’s. Kind of like the 3DS does.
Rohde is welcomed on stage to talk about the games that Vita has to offer. Awesome name. Sounds like Roadie. Anyhoo, Rohde quickly welcomes two new guys on stage. Garver and Reese talk about Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the Vita.
Holy mother of god, that looks AMAZING. If the PSP had PS2 style graphics, then this one definitely has early PS3 style graphics. My god, this is just amazing. This game looks like Uncharted 1. Even the gameplay looks similar. Except it has extras! Because the Vita has a touchscreen, you can also use this to play the game. This by tapping the fight button during close quarters combat or by tapping ledges for Drake to Jump to, using the six-axis in the device as well. He can also tap on screen to pick up weapons and well, you can also stroke over several ledges so that Drake will auto-jump them.
Honestly? This is definitely the game of the conference.
Rohde is back, announcing a social, action oriented RPG with a top down perspective called Ruin. It’s very close at resembling Diablo. What’s so unique about this game is that it is instantly connectable to the PS3. You can be in mid-stab on the Vita and then instantly switch to the PS3 to continue said stab on your TV.
Next up is Mod Nation Racers that uses the touchscreen, six-axes and backpanel to create the tracks. Very ingenious. Oh, the backpanel is a touch sensitive panel that basically functions as a second touchscreen. Only less fragile. But, MNR. It looks like a fun, family game that might as well have been on the PS3. It is, but you know what I mean. It just looks so FANTASTIC.
Rogde continues saying that all Vita titles will have unique cross-platform abilities to communicate with your PS3. He goes on to mention LBP for Vita, saying it will use all previously mentioned innovations to make it the ultimate LBP experience. It’s LBP2, only with awesome new controls.
And then comes the announcement that Street Fighter X Tekken will come to Vita. Using the same Street Fighter 4 style graphics to create a fast paced and exhilarating CGI Trailer.
On stage we now have Yoshinori Ono from Capcom with his translator. (Thank jesus). He announces that Cole from InFamous will be a playable character.
With some short but sweet gameplay from Cole, it’s quickly established that it will basically be Street Fither 4. Literally. You probably won’t be able to tell the difference. Except for the controls, which will include touchscreen controls.
Rohde is back on stage with thanks to all the developers that are working with them to create such fantastic games. He ends his presentation with a PS Vita games trailer that, once again, lasts just a tad too long. Like in the beginning of the conference.
Hirai returns to the floor announcing that the Wi-Fi only Vita wll cost € + $ 249 - 24,980 Yen. The 3D/Wi-Fi model will cost 299 and 24,980 respectively. For what this console offers, I can safely say that this is a very fair starting price. I can’t see how this won’t sell like hotcakes. Very impressive handheld console.
Tretton then comes back on stage and makes a short summary of why Sony is awesome. After a quick goodbye, the conference ends.
That was the Sony Conference, and I hope that you can now see just why this was a fantastic conference. Just look at what they have offered investors compared to Microsoft, EA or Ubisoft.
Now, the main complaint from everyone else is that the show was boring. Just consider yourselves lucky that you’re even allowed to watch the show. It isn’t meant for you, geniuses. It’s for the investors and for the press as well. These conferences aren’t meant to be awesome and epic. The truth is that Sony did their best to cater to the regular crowd as well. And for that, I give them the first place. For now. As I said, Nintendo is yet to come.
Sony began the show with a more than five minute long video that showcased almost all of the games that were going to be shown at this conference. It might have lasted a tad too long.
Jack Tretton quickly came on stage. First order of business was a discussion about the infamous PSN outage. He addressed the press first and said “you’re welcome”. He then deeply apologized to the third party developers and said thank you to the game retailers that have stuck with them in their time of need. Lastly, Tretton addressed the consumers themselves, apologizing to them. Following this is a PR filled speech that includes a lot of numbers so that the investors know how Sony is doing. He then announces some new partners. First was Cinema Now. Then came Subway, who is doing something Uncharted related.
Wells and Belastra are welcomes on stage and come on hot with a demo for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Drake’s on a large boat, either a cruise or a yacht. It’s a very expensive looking boat with huge chandeliers and red carpets all around. The typical high class stuff. Accentuating the beauty of the rich interior are the more than impressive graphics, that seem to have been given a polish after Uncharted 2. Which is quite impressive on its own. Outside of the interior of the ship is a huge storm that is raging over the waters. And it too looks amazing.
But, after Drake showed that he was a complete and utter badass, he did blow the hull of the ship wide open. The water coming in did look very unrealistic, causing a bit of an uncanny valley moment. This was followed by a rather impressive scene like in Uncharted 2 where Drake was being chased by a truck. Only here it would be a hallway and a flood. That did look very good.
Wells and Balestra then go on to say that the Uncharted 3 multiplayer will be available, in full, at Subway. Not just a beta, but in full.
To finish, they showed a trailer showing Drake is indeed back alongside Chloe, Elena and Bruce Campbell … I mean Sully. All of them must team up to discover another adventure from Nathan’s famous ancestor.
Tretton returns to introduce Marcus Smith from Insomniac presenting a Resistance 3 demo. After a short, but overall involving, story exposition, Smith begins the demo. It appears that the game is a good looking FPS set in a destroyed world with unique weapons and abilities at his disposal. From what we saw, it’s quite clear that this is a third act game, where the action and the stakes are highest. One thing to note is that the gameplay does look a lot more steadily paced, control wise. Unlike CoD which is more fast paced.
Tretton Strikes Back with a Playstation Move Bundle announcement for Resistance 3, a 3D HD remastering of the God of War collection and a collection with 3D HD versions of both ICO as Shadow of the Colossus.
Following this is the announcement that there will be two new Playstation products to enhance the 3D experience. Which will be a Playstation TV, that will come packed with 3D glasses (which is the second product) and Resistance 3 for only $499. The cool thing here is that the 3D functionality of the TV allows for dual screen experiences. Meaning that there will be no split screen. Each player will be looking at their own, separate screen.
Tretton finishes this talk with a PS Move speech, some numbers again and then introduces Snyder and Boenish from 2K Sports.
The announcement is made that NBA 2K12 is now “On The Move”. Yeah, it looks like it could be good make people move. Since, you know, sports game. But, as of now, it doesn’t look like it will contribute anything at all to the gameplay experience.
Koby Bryant is brought in to demo the game, but he fails to make the move functionality remotely interesting. Yeah, the guy is good with the crowd and he does make a good point that the game itself is solid, but the move functionality remains a bust.
Mayer and Ray are introduced to talk about Medieval Moves: Dead Man’s Chest. It’s a Move game through and through where you control a very cartoony character that is either solid, see-through or invisible depending on what you are doing. It actually looks like a fun game, if it is not on rails like most Kinect games are. We weren’t told anything about it, so I can’t make a judgement on it yet. But, if it isn’t, we have a winner right here, folks.
Tretton returns with some Move Ready Title announcements like Spider-man, Transformers, Little Big Planet 2, 007 and more. This then proceeds in to a trailer for inFamous 2. Which comes out tomorrow from when I’m writing this so yeah. Still. WHOO, ZEKE!
He continues to talk about a unique user generated content experience for the game and then makes the announcement that LBP2 will indeed get a Move upgrade, as we’ve only seen this title as a logo on screen.
Continuing on, Tretton introduces a new title created by the men and women behind the Warhawk game. It’s a run-n-gun Third Person Shooter for which we are now seeing a trailer.
It opens to a badass, modernized cowboy with electric powers, partnered by a Space Marine killing monsters. After which we see a Warthog and a Decepticon Transformer. Followed by an epic space battle. Best game idea ever? Yes.
And Tretton is back, talking about a family friendly franchise that started all the way back in 2002. Following this was a trailer for a game many have been crying out for. Namely: Sly 4, now known as Sly Coopter: Thieves in charge. It was a short trailer that didn’t show much except for some cool CGI.
Next up is Pétursson from CCP with DUST 514, a new Playstation exclusive FPS that got an incredibly generic trailer in SPAAAAAAAACE. It’s also cross-platform able to connect to EVE Online for the PC.
Tretton then segways in to a beautiful, realistic yet stylized Bioshock Infinite trailer. It showcased some great potential with awesome set pieces and familiar, but good gameplay.
Levine then gets on stage to discuss the game some more, telling us a story about how he and his company got the idea to implement the Move. But, quite honestly, this just feels like a Move sales pitch then anything else. Because that’s all we get. Other than the announcement that Bioshock will be getting a Vita game at some point down the line.
Even more news coming from Captain Tretton. The entire Bioshock game will also be exclusively put on the Blu-ray disc of Bioshock Infinite. There’s also a new partnership with THQ for some unique Saint’s Row The Third content exclusive for the PS3 including gamemodes and more. These will also be Move oriented. Another exclusive coming the PS3’s way is a full game and a prequel, PSN game to the new Star Trek game based on the J.J. Abrams made universe. It will be a co-op action adventure game that will also be bundled with a Move Peripheral … a Phaser. Oh, hellz yes.
Early footage is also shown and it showcases a very Dead Space like adventure set in the Star Trek universe by Abrams. Definitely has its look and feel.
Even more exclusive content is revealed with 3 EA offers. SSX is getting Mount Fiji. Need for speed: The run, will be getting a special disc with 70 exclusive cars. And lastly, Battlefield 3 will be getting Battlefield 1943 on the same Blu-Ray Disc.
Honestly, this part right here just blew me away. So much free, exclusive stuff. Amazingly well done. And very effective for reeling in potential investors.
Kazuo Hirai is called on stage. After reminiscing about the 10 year plan they drew out not so many years ago, he tells us that they value the trust and loyalty of their consumers and that they value the trust already shown by their them. This segways in to PSP talk, namely a NGP sales pitch. Though the NGP is now officially named. It’s the Playstation Vista! No, wait, it’s Vita. My bad. Thank god.
In short, the Vita is everything you need in terms of service and hardware. Everything that needed to be improved on the PSP’s end, is in fact improved. Sony will partner with AT&T in North America for provider services and information for the rest of the world will be released shortly. There will also be XBL like cross-game chat. And it also has NEAR, which allows your VITA to communicate with nearby VITA’s. Kind of like the 3DS does.
Rohde is welcomed on stage to talk about the games that Vita has to offer. Awesome name. Sounds like Roadie. Anyhoo, Rohde quickly welcomes two new guys on stage. Garver and Reese talk about Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the Vita.
Holy mother of god, that looks AMAZING. If the PSP had PS2 style graphics, then this one definitely has early PS3 style graphics. My god, this is just amazing. This game looks like Uncharted 1. Even the gameplay looks similar. Except it has extras! Because the Vita has a touchscreen, you can also use this to play the game. This by tapping the fight button during close quarters combat or by tapping ledges for Drake to Jump to, using the six-axis in the device as well. He can also tap on screen to pick up weapons and well, you can also stroke over several ledges so that Drake will auto-jump them.
Honestly? This is definitely the game of the conference.
Rohde is back, announcing a social, action oriented RPG with a top down perspective called Ruin. It’s very close at resembling Diablo. What’s so unique about this game is that it is instantly connectable to the PS3. You can be in mid-stab on the Vita and then instantly switch to the PS3 to continue said stab on your TV.
Next up is Mod Nation Racers that uses the touchscreen, six-axes and backpanel to create the tracks. Very ingenious. Oh, the backpanel is a touch sensitive panel that basically functions as a second touchscreen. Only less fragile. But, MNR. It looks like a fun, family game that might as well have been on the PS3. It is, but you know what I mean. It just looks so FANTASTIC.
Rogde continues saying that all Vita titles will have unique cross-platform abilities to communicate with your PS3. He goes on to mention LBP for Vita, saying it will use all previously mentioned innovations to make it the ultimate LBP experience. It’s LBP2, only with awesome new controls.
And then comes the announcement that Street Fighter X Tekken will come to Vita. Using the same Street Fighter 4 style graphics to create a fast paced and exhilarating CGI Trailer.
On stage we now have Yoshinori Ono from Capcom with his translator. (Thank jesus). He announces that Cole from InFamous will be a playable character.
With some short but sweet gameplay from Cole, it’s quickly established that it will basically be Street Fither 4. Literally. You probably won’t be able to tell the difference. Except for the controls, which will include touchscreen controls.
Rohde is back on stage with thanks to all the developers that are working with them to create such fantastic games. He ends his presentation with a PS Vita games trailer that, once again, lasts just a tad too long. Like in the beginning of the conference.
Hirai returns to the floor announcing that the Wi-Fi only Vita wll cost € + $ 249 - 24,980 Yen. The 3D/Wi-Fi model will cost 299 and 24,980 respectively. For what this console offers, I can safely say that this is a very fair starting price. I can’t see how this won’t sell like hotcakes. Very impressive handheld console.
Tretton then comes back on stage and makes a short summary of why Sony is awesome. After a quick goodbye, the conference ends.
That was the Sony Conference, and I hope that you can now see just why this was a fantastic conference. Just look at what they have offered investors compared to Microsoft, EA or Ubisoft.
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