Sony’s E3 Conference: A little more of the same
Sony’s Jack Tretton took the E3 stage today to tell us all about Sony’s new offerings for 2009. After bragging about the upcoming ~350 games (including 35 exclusives) for the PS3, PS2 and PSP, and the (fact?) that the PS3 is the only console powerful enough to make use of the stage’s 40×80 foot screen, and the usual “we’re doing awesome” rhetoric, he cut to the chase.
Unveiled was Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, including some very impressive looking single-player action. Also talked about was the incredibly ambitious MAG, a concolse-based MMOG game debuting this fall in which 256 players can join the same game. Yes, that’s right: 256 players at once. Other titles include a Mario-Kart type racer from the Litle Big PLanet guys, Assassin’s Creed 2, Final Fantasy 13 (and a sneak look at FF14), and an absolutely stunning-looking fantasy saga in the form of The Last Guardian. Of course, Gran Turismo 5 stole a lot of the gaming thunder with its demo video, showing for the first time ever the use of a damage engine, but not nearly as much as the announcement of God of War 3, in which Credos exacts his vengeance on Zeus and all of Olympus (but not until March 2010).
The PSP GO. This isn’t it, but it’s pretty close.
But this show was really all about the PSP, which got a new little brother in the form of the PSP GO. Sporting integrated WiFi, Bluetooth, slide out gamepad, and a form factor less than half the size of that of the existing PSP, the PSP GO is “designed for the digital lifestyle” and is not designed to replace the existing PSP. Of particular note is the lack of a UMD drive on the GO; it’s obviously designed for OTA download gaming. Otherwise, though, it’s promised to have the exact same functionality as the PSP 3000. The GO will be available for $249 (USD) on October 1 in North America and Europe, the same price as the original PSP when it originally launched.
Beyond the PSP, the big news that SONY hyped was its new motion controller. The as-yet unnamed device operates by using a wand that interacts with the Playstation Eye. The device is certainly interesting, able to render your actions in a true 3D space. Using an FPS as an example, they took very mild potshots at the 360’s new Project Natal, saying that “you COULD do this without a controller, but there are cases when not having a trigger just wouldn’t feel right”. In a 3rd-person environment, the wand tracks your movements directly to a character model; using 2 wands at once allows you full freedom and control of your character. While extremely cool, it feels more like “WiiMote 2.0” than it does a great leap forward in gaming engineering like the WiiMote was, or like Project Natal appears to be.
All in all, SONY brought no great surprises to the press conference, often joking that their announcements were “the worst kept secret at E3”. They certainly lacked the “WOW” factor that XBOX brought yesterday with their Project Natal announcement. Microsoft had Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Steven Spielberg. SONY had Hideo Kojima and about an hour’s worth of promo reels. To quote Doug, “Iām not sure if the folks at Redmond have changed their water supply, (but) Microsoft has been getting a lot more right than they have wrong.” That’s not to say that the title lineup isn’t exciting; it most certainly is. But from a technical achievement/engineering standpoint? Point: Microsoft.
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no price cut… idiots
however you didnt include any of the motion remote stuff…
although not as ambitious as natal, the functionality they displayed was pretty sick…
mind you the prototype control sticks, which are rather sex toy looking, making the fanboys go nutty on all sides…
safe to say nintendo just received a huge uppercut by the other consoles…
edit: nevermind i spoke too soon i see
The potshot at Microsoft’s lack of controller for the motion stuff is kinda funny, because unlike the PS3 controller, the Xbox one is actually comfortable to hold in one hand, so the player doesn’t NEED to wave around a personal massager as a trigger.
I like their tech, but the dig was too easy to counter. š
Yeah, Nintendo’s got some stuff to worry about, but considering how far ahead of the game they are, they’re probably not too panicked at the moment.
You mean in terms of market share. Ya that’s true. But if they wanna stay that way they better innovate soon. The Wii is 2 years old now. What have you done for me LATELY??
At the end of the day, it all comes down to functionality and game library. I’d say the PS3 and the XBOX are pretty much running neck and neck in those regards, now with NATAL.
And speaking of Natal, pure human interaction and future-proof MoCap technology beats a bluetooth vibrator any ‘ol time.
Agreed. Sony IS right that some things are better with buttons, but they’re assuming one can’t hold a normal controller in one hand, like that’s some sort of mortal sin.
that was completely reactionary… natal left sony stunned thats for sure, what did you WANT them to say lol š
the controllers are prototypes though even the presenters laughed while stressing that point…
if either of these tech’s arent applied well then it all means nothing
its about who makes their shit work the best and i could see both doing well AND both failing miserably, time will tell…
I was heving some technical issues…There’s lots abotu the MoCap remote now š
i know see my edit š
Too fast, too furious š
I agree, NES has a majt uphill battle ahead of them, now that their one element of uniqueness has been taken away from them. But with all this going on, the Wii2 had better be IN-SANE.
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