Source: Game | Life - Wired Blogs
The show is supposed to start at 11:30 am. Yeah right. We'll believe that when we see it. Until then, Sony is offering us refreshments...of Bloody Mary's and Smirnoff.
Uh, Microsoft didn't have liquor and neither did Nintendo. We're not ones to pass up free booze here at Game|Life, but sheesh, hard liquor before noon? You gotta wonder what horrible news Sony will announce that can only be softened by a splashdown in a sea of alcohol.
11:15 AM- It's smaller and more intimate than last year. And they're all much quieter and more subdued. Iwata and Moore and Fils-Aime are pausing on applause lines as if they're expecting huge cheers...and they're getting a smattering of applause. And not just when they're announcing something underwhelming, they're not quite ready for something so scaled back.
And we're off! Hit the jump to read more about the train wreck.
11:30 -- The Sony press conference is scheduled to start right now. But then, everybody knows Sony never launches on time. Oh snap. Sick burn. No, I kid, I kid. It'll be starting very soon if the dimming lights and no music is any indication.
11: 31 -- Here we go. A video highlight reel. I saw more than enough of these at Nintendo. There's lots of PSPs on the screen. Lots and lots of PSPs. Oh, and now PlayStation 3s. It's like a kaleidoscope.
A home version of Jack Tretton is shown on screen, and Jack Tretton is speaking as his virtual version wanders around Home.
He's showing the "new Home square", which looks a lot nicer now with a much more interesting Home square.
11:34 -- The real Jack Tretton takes the stage, noting that this is his first year up there instead of Kaz Hirai.
11:35 -- Jack's warming up the crowd with jokes about being nervous about his first press conference up at the front of things. He's kicking off by recapping the price drop/ 80 GB news.
JT: "We're squeezing more than 50 titles into this presentation."
Oh man. That's a lot of games in one hour. At least they have the most comfortable chairs, this time, of all the hardware companies. Last year's wood-backed Pain Loungers made a long press conference even longer. This year? Really nice plush white chairs with soft backs. Lap of luxury.
Talking about PSP. Mentions price drop and the new "Dude, Get Your Own" marketing campaign. They've had a 90% increase in sales since the price drop. More than 100 PSP games coming this year in North America.
11:40 AM-- Video reel of PSP games. They show SOCOM: US Navy Seals Tactical Strike, Wipeout Pulse, Syphon Filter, NBA 08...
Joking about what a bad presenter he is, admits nervousness, says he checked his fly 3 times
Talking new pricing.
Promise to show 50 titles.
Arcade area next door, games will be playable after presentation. Don't wanna repeat last years fiasco, no one realized games were playable and just left. PS2 time:
Madden, Sinstar, Buzz. Now we're on to PSP. Sales of PSP up since price drop
UMD sales up over last year. 140 PSP games this fiscal year.
SoCom for PSP looks nice. Patapon looks awesome. Loco Roco style. More action oriented.
Pretty good applause for PSP. Jack in his home CG house
Hangin' with Kaz in home. Tretton kids Hirai over "riiiiiidge racer" line. Kaz on stage now.
Introduce evolution of PSP.
Er, looks pretty much the same
Kaz admits as much...
Same screen size and UMD discs
33 percent lighter, 19 percent slimmer.
Can be linked to Bravia TVs to watch at home
Only Bravias? Come On!
I'm gonna watch PSP jankiness on my TV set? My HDTV set? Seriously?
You'll be able to pause it like a remote, look at pics on TV, access media files on your home pc via Wi-Fi on your PSP from anywhere. The great unspoken truth--awesome for porn!
11:45-- Now I see how they're going to do 50 games in 50 minutes. They're racing through these videos. They certainly beat Microsoft in this respect. And Nintendo, really, who didn't really maximize the appeal of the games by showing the videos with no sound and with somebody talking up in front of them.
They're showing a Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles vid now. Man, looks really nice.
11:50-- Sony will bring out the new PSP in several different colors. An ice blue version will include Daxter, and a Star Wars version will have a limited edition Darth Vader PSP. Hey, Sith happens.
Available in September for 199 US dollars.
Hey Chewbacca is on stage. Ha ha, Chewie's lines on teleprompter: "short statement noise."
11:55-- President of Sony Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison comes out. Time to find out about PlayStation 3 games. Phil Harrison slightly taller than Chewbacca, it turns out. Phil is hyping up a new puzzle game with "the least graphics and the most gameplay of any title you'll see this week." It's from Sony's internal Japan studios. It is called Echo Chrome.
12:00 PM-- The video shows a stick figure walking around optical illusion and MC Escherlike drawings. You have to rotate the massive structures into the proper camera position so the stick figure can get through the obstacles. Looks like another really good-looking innovative game from Sony. I love it.
12:03-- Phil's showing a demo of Wipeout HD and Pain, two more nice looking PlayStation Network titles. In Pain, you apparently have to fling a rag doll animated character all around a cartoony world.
12:04-- Alright, Phil's talking about taking pictures with your Sony Ericsson phone. Oh, this virtual Phil looks way, way better than Virtual Jack.
12:09--Phil took a phone pic of the people in the front row. I imagine this will soon pop up inside of the Home footage that's running on screen.
They're showing some new spaces in Home, like massive homes on the sides of mountain cliffs and Japanese-style homes. These are gonna cost a lot. Phil's private space is a ski lodge, he says. My private space is the bathroom.
Phil has got Singstar running... on a TV in his virtual Home. Does this mean it's going to be linked in with Home...? Or are they just being clever?
The whole conference is very sober and subdued...none of the swagger and arrogance of last year...
12:11-- They're playing a Singstar video. I love Singstar! When the heck is it going to come out?
Phil's not saying.
The photo Phil took on his phone just went directly into his personal space on Home. "Live media blogging from the real world into the virtual world."
They're taking digital photos out of Home and sending them to PCs, so you can create a Web blog of your Home exploits.
12:13-- You can launch any game from your PlayStation 3 from directly within Home. Phil launches Motorstorm right from Home, and it takes him straight in to the multiplayer lobby.
Phil announces Eagle's Nest, a new downloadable track for Motorstorm coming next month.
Phil isn't quite as bad at Motorstorm as Peter Moore is at Rockband. He is in first place, then hits a wall and drops to seventh. Feel my pain, Phil.
12:20-- Jack's back on stage, talking about the new 80 GB PS3 with Motorstorm packed in.
"We're pleased to offer this fully functioning PS3 for a price of $100 below the original launch price." Uh, so that last PS3 wasn't fully functional?
That's only what we've been saying since last year's E3...
"We've never wavered in our belief that Blu-Ray was absolutely the way to go." Lair, he says, will come in at 25 GB of data.
200 Blu-Ray games worldwide, 120 in North America. Okay, they are getting into the meat of the discussion now. New trailers! Make me happy! Don't let me down like Nintendo.
12:21-- NEWS: NCSoft will join the PlayStation camp, says Tretton. They'll be bringing their games to PlayStation exclusively. Games that will be found nowhere else.
"Only PS Network can support the type of gameplay that NCSoft is famous for." says Jack.
Existing franchises and new IPs.
Haze is exclusive to PlayStation 3 this holiday, from Ubisoft.
They're showing a Haze trailer.
12:23-- Seriously, Sony bringing in another MMOG publisher? That's a huge dis to their MMOG arm
Haze looks great...but not Far Cry great.
12:26-- Next up: "Something for real veterans of the gaming industry," says Tretton. Looks like it's Unreal Tournament 3. Sony has signed a "multi-stage deal" with Midway and Epic. "Full optimization of the Unreal Engine for PS3 development."
Unreal Tournament 3 is exclusive to PS3 this year. Ooooh.
"From the studio that brought you GEARS OF WAR," says the trailer for UE3
Clever, but do you really want to hype up a first-party game on your rival platform? Yeesh.
Holy schnikees! Mods from PC version can be brought into PS3. Schweeeeeeet.
12:27-- Wowzers, now this is a nice looking shooter. Dirty ruined beauty look of Gears, with size and scope of Halo enviroments.
12:30-- More of Resident Evil 5. Oh sh*t! Burnout looks hot.
And even more Resident Evil 5. There's a Haitian zombie level. They kinda resemble the natives in Peter Jackson's King Kong though. You're thinking, "Man, that's scary! And racist!"
12:35-- Madden 08. Looks bone crushingly beautiful.
Harry Potter OOTP. Nicer graphics, and I am a Harry Potter nerd, but no Wiimote wand waving? Fail.
The Simpsons Game. The industry's biggest open secret revealed. Again. I hope it's awesome.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Medal of Honor: Airborne. Man, they are going a mile a minute now.
Rock Band. Why isn't Phil on stage playing this with Harmonix? We know he's good at video games, so it's not like he has to fear failure.
Jack's back on stage. So far, let me say that this has been a good press conference. Sony's two-hour-long crazy bore-fests of years past have been intolerable, but this is much, much better. Jack Tretton says that Metal Gear Solid 4 is exclusive to PlayStation 3. To prove it, he brings out...Hideo Kojima.
Kojima is wearing a great Metal Gear T-shirt. I want one! Will they pass them out? Does he have an extra in his bag?
He's talking about how Metal Gear is celebrating its 20th anniversary in this coming July.
12:39-- Kojima says this will be his final Metal Gear game. Not that it won't continue, but he's going to wrap up all his plot and storyline stuff, then retire from making Metal Gear games. Although the game will be a stealth game, there will be new elements of being in the battlefield, so stealth on a war-torn battlefield.
Showing a new Metal gear Solid trailer. Remember, if you aren't here to see it, you can get it on the PlayStation Store.
Looks like Snake's motivation in this game is to assassinate Liquid Snake...who, like Solid, is also old and grey now.
Okay this game is really confusing. Even by Metal Gear Solid standards.
12:40-- Gymkata action with cyborg Raiden...
12:41-- But damn if it ain't riveting...
12:44-- It'll have a "simultaneous worldwide release," says the trailer.
Jack says it'll be out "very soon." Since there's no date attached, I'd assume next year. They are going to have a demo at PlayStation Premiere in Tokyo next week, a playable demo that Kojima will play himself.
Yeah, great. That helps us here in Santa Monica a lot. Dang!
12: 45--Kojima says "I hope everyone can come to Tokyo next week." He tries to say "see you in Tokyo" but is drowned out by peals of laughter.
Phil is in Home dressed up as Ratchet. He's going to show us some great exclusive games coming "this financial year" from Sony.
First off, of course, is Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.
Next up is: Folklore, from GameRepublic
They're showing a few short clips of each game combined with the developer talking about it a little. Nothing too revealing.
12:50-- Alright! Phil's up in front of the LittleBigPlanet logo. Time for awesome. At GDC, Phil says, they showed how to play it. Now he's going to show us how to create it.
The first release, says the game's designer, will be on Playstation network, and it'll evolve over time. Don't think of the game as being "out" the second you have it in your hands, he says.
12:55-- Okay, so... is that it? We wait for one final megaton announcement.
Phil announces for the very first time, a game from Sly Cooper developers Sucker Punch. it's an emergent gameplay sandbox organic open-city superhero game!
It's called Infamous.
Trailer showing now...
12:58-- The main character is able to leap Crackdown style. Sweet.
Very brief trailer, not much gameplay shown. And it's out in 2008. Looks pretty hot, although it remains to be seen.
Phil is talking about Gran Turismo.
About to open up an exciting new chapter in the series, says Phil. Soon, he says, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will come to the market as a "precursor" to GT5. What? Are we going be racing around in Model Ts?
1:00-- "That's everything from me today," Phil says. Turns it back to Jack to wrap it up.
Jack sends Phil back out and says , 'didn't you forget one thing?' Oh, it's Killzone.
They're showing the Killzone demo that Susan saw and wrote up for us last night.
Only there's no sushi this time, as far as I can see. Bah!
Demo's over. Phil's out there with the director of Killzone 2. "Now I'll really hand it back to Jack," he says.
Jack's back for some final thoughts.
"We know that all of our accomplishments bring no guarantees for the future." Thank you, Captain Obvious.
The show is supposed to start at 11:30 am. Yeah right. We'll believe that when we see it. Until then, Sony is offering us refreshments...of Bloody Mary's and Smirnoff.
Uh, Microsoft didn't have liquor and neither did Nintendo. We're not ones to pass up free booze here at Game|Life, but sheesh, hard liquor before noon? You gotta wonder what horrible news Sony will announce that can only be softened by a splashdown in a sea of alcohol.
11:15 AM- It's smaller and more intimate than last year. And they're all much quieter and more subdued. Iwata and Moore and Fils-Aime are pausing on applause lines as if they're expecting huge cheers...and they're getting a smattering of applause. And not just when they're announcing something underwhelming, they're not quite ready for something so scaled back.
And we're off! Hit the jump to read more about the train wreck.
11:30 -- The Sony press conference is scheduled to start right now. But then, everybody knows Sony never launches on time. Oh snap. Sick burn. No, I kid, I kid. It'll be starting very soon if the dimming lights and no music is any indication.
11: 31 -- Here we go. A video highlight reel. I saw more than enough of these at Nintendo. There's lots of PSPs on the screen. Lots and lots of PSPs. Oh, and now PlayStation 3s. It's like a kaleidoscope.
A home version of Jack Tretton is shown on screen, and Jack Tretton is speaking as his virtual version wanders around Home.
He's showing the "new Home square", which looks a lot nicer now with a much more interesting Home square.
11:34 -- The real Jack Tretton takes the stage, noting that this is his first year up there instead of Kaz Hirai.
11:35 -- Jack's warming up the crowd with jokes about being nervous about his first press conference up at the front of things. He's kicking off by recapping the price drop/ 80 GB news.
JT: "We're squeezing more than 50 titles into this presentation."
Oh man. That's a lot of games in one hour. At least they have the most comfortable chairs, this time, of all the hardware companies. Last year's wood-backed Pain Loungers made a long press conference even longer. This year? Really nice plush white chairs with soft backs. Lap of luxury.
Talking about PSP. Mentions price drop and the new "Dude, Get Your Own" marketing campaign. They've had a 90% increase in sales since the price drop. More than 100 PSP games coming this year in North America.
11:40 AM-- Video reel of PSP games. They show SOCOM: US Navy Seals Tactical Strike, Wipeout Pulse, Syphon Filter, NBA 08...
Joking about what a bad presenter he is, admits nervousness, says he checked his fly 3 times
Talking new pricing.
Promise to show 50 titles.
Arcade area next door, games will be playable after presentation. Don't wanna repeat last years fiasco, no one realized games were playable and just left. PS2 time:
Madden, Sinstar, Buzz. Now we're on to PSP. Sales of PSP up since price drop
UMD sales up over last year. 140 PSP games this fiscal year.
SoCom for PSP looks nice. Patapon looks awesome. Loco Roco style. More action oriented.
Pretty good applause for PSP. Jack in his home CG house
Hangin' with Kaz in home. Tretton kids Hirai over "riiiiiidge racer" line. Kaz on stage now.
Introduce evolution of PSP.
Er, looks pretty much the same
Kaz admits as much...
Same screen size and UMD discs
33 percent lighter, 19 percent slimmer.
Can be linked to Bravia TVs to watch at home
Only Bravias? Come On!
I'm gonna watch PSP jankiness on my TV set? My HDTV set? Seriously?
You'll be able to pause it like a remote, look at pics on TV, access media files on your home pc via Wi-Fi on your PSP from anywhere. The great unspoken truth--awesome for porn!
11:45-- Now I see how they're going to do 50 games in 50 minutes. They're racing through these videos. They certainly beat Microsoft in this respect. And Nintendo, really, who didn't really maximize the appeal of the games by showing the videos with no sound and with somebody talking up in front of them.
They're showing a Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles vid now. Man, looks really nice.
11:50-- Sony will bring out the new PSP in several different colors. An ice blue version will include Daxter, and a Star Wars version will have a limited edition Darth Vader PSP. Hey, Sith happens.
Available in September for 199 US dollars.
Hey Chewbacca is on stage. Ha ha, Chewie's lines on teleprompter: "short statement noise."
11:55-- President of Sony Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison comes out. Time to find out about PlayStation 3 games. Phil Harrison slightly taller than Chewbacca, it turns out. Phil is hyping up a new puzzle game with "the least graphics and the most gameplay of any title you'll see this week." It's from Sony's internal Japan studios. It is called Echo Chrome.
12:00 PM-- The video shows a stick figure walking around optical illusion and MC Escherlike drawings. You have to rotate the massive structures into the proper camera position so the stick figure can get through the obstacles. Looks like another really good-looking innovative game from Sony. I love it.
12:03-- Phil's showing a demo of Wipeout HD and Pain, two more nice looking PlayStation Network titles. In Pain, you apparently have to fling a rag doll animated character all around a cartoony world.
12:04-- Alright, Phil's talking about taking pictures with your Sony Ericsson phone. Oh, this virtual Phil looks way, way better than Virtual Jack.
12:09--Phil took a phone pic of the people in the front row. I imagine this will soon pop up inside of the Home footage that's running on screen.
They're showing some new spaces in Home, like massive homes on the sides of mountain cliffs and Japanese-style homes. These are gonna cost a lot. Phil's private space is a ski lodge, he says. My private space is the bathroom.
Phil has got Singstar running... on a TV in his virtual Home. Does this mean it's going to be linked in with Home...? Or are they just being clever?
The whole conference is very sober and subdued...none of the swagger and arrogance of last year...
12:11-- They're playing a Singstar video. I love Singstar! When the heck is it going to come out?
Phil's not saying.
The photo Phil took on his phone just went directly into his personal space on Home. "Live media blogging from the real world into the virtual world."
They're taking digital photos out of Home and sending them to PCs, so you can create a Web blog of your Home exploits.
12:13-- You can launch any game from your PlayStation 3 from directly within Home. Phil launches Motorstorm right from Home, and it takes him straight in to the multiplayer lobby.
Phil announces Eagle's Nest, a new downloadable track for Motorstorm coming next month.
Phil isn't quite as bad at Motorstorm as Peter Moore is at Rockband. He is in first place, then hits a wall and drops to seventh. Feel my pain, Phil.
12:20-- Jack's back on stage, talking about the new 80 GB PS3 with Motorstorm packed in.
"We're pleased to offer this fully functioning PS3 for a price of $100 below the original launch price." Uh, so that last PS3 wasn't fully functional?
That's only what we've been saying since last year's E3...
"We've never wavered in our belief that Blu-Ray was absolutely the way to go." Lair, he says, will come in at 25 GB of data.
200 Blu-Ray games worldwide, 120 in North America. Okay, they are getting into the meat of the discussion now. New trailers! Make me happy! Don't let me down like Nintendo.
12:21-- NEWS: NCSoft will join the PlayStation camp, says Tretton. They'll be bringing their games to PlayStation exclusively. Games that will be found nowhere else.
"Only PS Network can support the type of gameplay that NCSoft is famous for." says Jack.
Existing franchises and new IPs.
Haze is exclusive to PlayStation 3 this holiday, from Ubisoft.
They're showing a Haze trailer.
12:23-- Seriously, Sony bringing in another MMOG publisher? That's a huge dis to their MMOG arm
Haze looks great...but not Far Cry great.
12:26-- Next up: "Something for real veterans of the gaming industry," says Tretton. Looks like it's Unreal Tournament 3. Sony has signed a "multi-stage deal" with Midway and Epic. "Full optimization of the Unreal Engine for PS3 development."
Unreal Tournament 3 is exclusive to PS3 this year. Ooooh.
"From the studio that brought you GEARS OF WAR," says the trailer for UE3
Clever, but do you really want to hype up a first-party game on your rival platform? Yeesh.
Holy schnikees! Mods from PC version can be brought into PS3. Schweeeeeeet.
12:27-- Wowzers, now this is a nice looking shooter. Dirty ruined beauty look of Gears, with size and scope of Halo enviroments.
12:30-- More of Resident Evil 5. Oh sh*t! Burnout looks hot.
And even more Resident Evil 5. There's a Haitian zombie level. They kinda resemble the natives in Peter Jackson's King Kong though. You're thinking, "Man, that's scary! And racist!"
12:35-- Madden 08. Looks bone crushingly beautiful.
Harry Potter OOTP. Nicer graphics, and I am a Harry Potter nerd, but no Wiimote wand waving? Fail.
The Simpsons Game. The industry's biggest open secret revealed. Again. I hope it's awesome.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Medal of Honor: Airborne. Man, they are going a mile a minute now.
Rock Band. Why isn't Phil on stage playing this with Harmonix? We know he's good at video games, so it's not like he has to fear failure.
Jack's back on stage. So far, let me say that this has been a good press conference. Sony's two-hour-long crazy bore-fests of years past have been intolerable, but this is much, much better. Jack Tretton says that Metal Gear Solid 4 is exclusive to PlayStation 3. To prove it, he brings out...Hideo Kojima.
Kojima is wearing a great Metal Gear T-shirt. I want one! Will they pass them out? Does he have an extra in his bag?
He's talking about how Metal Gear is celebrating its 20th anniversary in this coming July.
12:39-- Kojima says this will be his final Metal Gear game. Not that it won't continue, but he's going to wrap up all his plot and storyline stuff, then retire from making Metal Gear games. Although the game will be a stealth game, there will be new elements of being in the battlefield, so stealth on a war-torn battlefield.
Showing a new Metal gear Solid trailer. Remember, if you aren't here to see it, you can get it on the PlayStation Store.
Looks like Snake's motivation in this game is to assassinate Liquid Snake...who, like Solid, is also old and grey now.
Okay this game is really confusing. Even by Metal Gear Solid standards.
12:40-- Gymkata action with cyborg Raiden...
12:41-- But damn if it ain't riveting...
12:44-- It'll have a "simultaneous worldwide release," says the trailer.
Jack says it'll be out "very soon." Since there's no date attached, I'd assume next year. They are going to have a demo at PlayStation Premiere in Tokyo next week, a playable demo that Kojima will play himself.
Yeah, great. That helps us here in Santa Monica a lot. Dang!
12: 45--Kojima says "I hope everyone can come to Tokyo next week." He tries to say "see you in Tokyo" but is drowned out by peals of laughter.
Phil is in Home dressed up as Ratchet. He's going to show us some great exclusive games coming "this financial year" from Sony.
First off, of course, is Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.
Next up is: Folklore, from GameRepublic
They're showing a few short clips of each game combined with the developer talking about it a little. Nothing too revealing.
12:50-- Alright! Phil's up in front of the LittleBigPlanet logo. Time for awesome. At GDC, Phil says, they showed how to play it. Now he's going to show us how to create it.
The first release, says the game's designer, will be on Playstation network, and it'll evolve over time. Don't think of the game as being "out" the second you have it in your hands, he says.
12:55-- Okay, so... is that it? We wait for one final megaton announcement.
Phil announces for the very first time, a game from Sly Cooper developers Sucker Punch. it's an emergent gameplay sandbox organic open-city superhero game!
It's called Infamous.
Trailer showing now...
12:58-- The main character is able to leap Crackdown style. Sweet.
Very brief trailer, not much gameplay shown. And it's out in 2008. Looks pretty hot, although it remains to be seen.
Phil is talking about Gran Turismo.
About to open up an exciting new chapter in the series, says Phil. Soon, he says, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will come to the market as a "precursor" to GT5. What? Are we going be racing around in Model Ts?
1:00-- "That's everything from me today," Phil says. Turns it back to Jack to wrap it up.
Jack sends Phil back out and says , 'didn't you forget one thing?' Oh, it's Killzone.
They're showing the Killzone demo that Susan saw and wrote up for us last night.
Only there's no sushi this time, as far as I can see. Bah!
Demo's over. Phil's out there with the director of Killzone 2. "Now I'll really hand it back to Jack," he says.
Jack's back for some final thoughts.
"We know that all of our accomplishments bring no guarantees for the future." Thank you, Captain Obvious.
