Ben

Sony's E3 Conference Thread

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Ok, this is starting in about 5 minutes and i'm sure some of you are preparing to watch the streams. This thread is for all Sony conference related chat obviously so keep it on topic!

(For those interested in just listening to the conference for free check this audio only live feed out from Club Skill Radio (i've never heard of it either): http://82.165.43.97:8000/listen.m3u?src=0)

In the meantime, i will listen to it and post some updates about the awesome bar and pie charts shown off by Lord Ken for anyone who can't get connected.

UPDATES:

02:50 (GMT) and CONCLUSION - So it's over. Overall, it was very dull, with no interesting details or gameplay footage bar the eye-toy card battle system. The only, truly new announcements came in the ladt 10 minutes and involved the very original controller idea which was totally new and fresh and amazing. And of course the launch details. Lets see if they can keep to their word on that. It's almost 3am here, and i have to get up for work in 4 hours. So goodnight.

02:42 (GMT) - OK, PS3 launch details! .... "Today we're pleased to announce the global PS3 launch plan. Two configuration plans for launch - one with 60GB HDD, one with 20GB. We will ship 2 million during launch period, 4 mil by he end of 2006, and 2 mil more by March 31st 2007, he says. So, six million by then.

Japan: November 11th. 20GB: 59,800 yen. 60GB will have open price retailers will set.

America: Nov 17th. 20GB: USD 499, 60GB: USD 599.

Europe: Nov 17th. 20GB: EUR 499. 60GB: EUR 599.

02:39 (GMT) - Now displaying the controller's "unique" abilities on War-Hawk. Seems very responsive, and is lighter than the PS2 Dualshock2. Will come as standard. Harrison ends with "Ladies and gentleman, thank you very much - don't you just love surprises?" Yes Phil, i bet Nintendo are loving this surprise.

02:36 (GMT) - HAHAHA, as i said earlier, quite reactionary - Harrison has just jumped in and described the unique movement/control mechanism of the new controller, which is basically a copy of the way the Revolution's controller is used. In addition to the "3-posture-axis" of roll, pitch and yaw, "3-dimension acceleration information (X, Y, and Z)" can be detected in high-precision and in real-time. Harrison describes it as offering "6-degrees of freedom" that does not require any external devices other than the controller itself for operation; and he manages to describe it all as a "fantastic innovation" without a hint of irony or even an evil cackle. I'm disappointed by that.

02:34 (GMT) - As spaff just posted on our news/front-page about 10 minutes ago, Kutaragi just "revealed" the controller is indeed basically the same Dualshock design, except with a firewire port. It got a slow clap.

02:33 (GMT) - Kutaragi comes out in a white suit! Here we go! :D

02:29 (GMT) - Metal Gear Solid 4 running on PS3 gets a big cheer predictably. All the dialogue is in Japanese, maybe they forgot ¬. Anyway, ol' Snake is moaning about how war has become an awfully ugly business. Raiden makes an appearance too. No gameplay footage is being shown, so we can assume this is as close to the real MGS experience as one is likely to actually get on the PS3. Coming in 2007.

02:28 (GMT) - Square Enix show off their FF titles, which they showed off earlier at their conference. Final Fantasy VIII and Versus VIII.

02:25 (GMT) - EA then show off a virtual Tiger Woods. Facial modelling and animation system, which was built using motion-captured faces, vocalisation. It's all real-time, running off a PS3 apparently.

02:18 (GMT) - EA's Larry Probst is on-stage talking about the "special partnership" between Sony and EA. Harrison probably shags his wife while he's away. Shows procedural awareness in NBA demo, players "look right, move right" etc. yeah yeah, it was great on Fight Night too Larry... for the first hour.

02:10 (GMT) - Harrison sums up the playable section of the conference. Hands it back to Kaz, who is now demonstrating 3rd Party games for the PS3 such as Assassins Creed, Ridge Racer 7, Tekken 6, Virtua Fighter 5 and Sonic the Hedgehog.

02:05 (GMT) - Harrison welcomes on Ted Price from Insomniac to talk about Resistance on the PS3. FPS title, set in london, player fights aliens. It'll have 32-player online multiplay too, and will be on the booth at E3.

02:00 (GMT) - 2 new PS3 titles now being shown, exclusive to this presentation. First is: 8 Days, an action game made by Sony's London studio. Second is: has no title! But it looks like a Tomb Raider (except with a bloke), or PoP style game, set in a jungle.

01:55 (GMT) - Videos of games not to be launch titles and released later after the PS3 launch - Lair, The Getaway, Afrika (working title), Hot Shots Golf, and Monster Kingdom.

01:52 (GMT) - Ninja Theory come out to display Heavenly Sword. Looks ok. Will be playable on show-floor.

01:50 (GMT) - HAHAHA - Harrison showing a Formula One game on PS3, includes a demonstration of a syncronised PS3 and PSP, with the PSP used as a real-time wing mirror, that can be placed beside the TV to act as real wing mirror. To be honest this all of this seems quite reactionary from Sony so far, both this and the Network stuff, all very gimmicky and not very new/original.

01:47 (GMT) - Genji 2 is shown and demo'd. It looks shit. Just hi-res shit.

01:42 (GMT) - Harrison is showing off Singstar on the PS3, downloading music, recording and uploading performances - powered by the Network capabilities going forward.

01:39 (GMT) - Games, music, movies will be digi-downloadable for PS3 and PSP owners. E-distribution coming later this year. Kaz demonstrates a PSP running one of the first PSone titles released years ago - Ridge Racer. He flicks to the Game menu, Memory Stick, then clicks "PlayStation". The key according to Kaz is keeping all their platforms fresh and together from a network perspective and not making older hardware obsolete. Online shopping called "microtransactions". Including a pre-pay PlayStation Card. With exclusive info for people who sign up for that.

01:36 (GMT) - It's back to Kaz, who is now talking about online network strategy's. More than three million US registered users he says, right now. He says there are no lines between online and off in gamers' minds. Basically reiterating the same info about basic online service for free.

01:33 (GMT) - New eye-toy type thing callled "The Eye of Judgement" - developed by SCEI is a Card battling demo, where players uses their hands to control the game. You place cards with your actual hands, from which monsters then appear on on-screen. They then fight. Audience sounds amazed at what is basically lawnmower man and has been promised since the Power Glove. This will be playable on the show floor.

01:27 (GMT) - Still showing gameplay footage of Gran Turismo HD. It looks kinda pretty but is ultimately dull. Apparently load times on the PS3 (for this game) will be 2-3 seconds (compared to the 10-15 seconds in GT4). Hope to deliver the next GT soon after the PS3 launch.

01:18 (GMT) - A trailer is now being shown for Gran Turismo HD (which includes cars, bikes, even scooters), introduced by game's creator - a small japanese man. Probably wondering when he will make a game that doesn't involve cars and bikes, and be released from the purgatory that Sony have created for him. Apparently the trailer is also a demo of sorts and it's being played on a regular Dualshock2 pad.

01:16 (GMT) - Phil Harrison has come on stage. So far this is boring the crap out of me.

01:15 (GMT) - "Every PS3 will ship with a hard disk drive." says Kaz. HDD will support downloadable content and network play, and HDD can serve game performance, with game saves and caching etc. "Simultaneously throughout the world this November," he says about release date.

01:12 (GMT) - Talking about PS3 key features - it's all confirmation of the stuff you've heard before. Blu Ray disc chart is being shown, comparing memory storage or something and massive Hollywood studio support. Yay for charts!

01:07 (GMT) - Sony showing a video of people talking about how they are looking forward to the PS3. Best one: "When I play games i become a monkey". Go on, make sense of it, I dare you.

01:05 (GMT) - Apparently PS2 support will continue for many more years. Sony are listing all the PS2 show floor titles including the new SOCOM title. New PSP Greatest Hits coming to North America in the coming months (Hot Shots Golf, Twisted Metal, Wipeout Pure).

01:02 (GMT) - PSP Footage of Killzone Liberation, new game B-Boy, Gangs of London, Dark Mirror: Syphon Filter, and Loco Roco being shown.

00:55 (GMT) - Ok, the conference is almost ready to begin. Two PS3s are sitting on display in front of a huge PlayStation logo. Mr Kaz Hirai (Sony America's boss) is on stage talking about sales figures blah blah. Sony are saying the PS3 is the most ambitious project they have ever undertaken, and say that the next -generation doesn't start until they say it does. Hirai mentions the November launch as GLOBAL, but doesn't specify exactly when.

00:45 (GMT) - According to "sources" who we don't know, the conference will be delayed for another 15 minutes.

00:43 (GMT) - I'm still here, there's just fuck all to update about.

00:18 (GMT) - Still hasn't started. Looks like it might be delayed for a while longer. There's a "massive gridlock" apparently.

00:07 (GMT) - Things are moving slowly (apparently Mr Kojima is also stuck in the line) and the start is obviously... delayed ¬¬. However Sony assure people that it will be ready by Spring.

00:02 (GMT) - Ok, the conference is kicking off. People are streaming in and apparently Sony are handing out free Memory Sticks to all attendees, which include game trailers and screenshots and no doubt their speech notes.

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I can't seem to get through to the gamespot-stream, there is only the stay tuned sign up... :getmecoat

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Ben, are you at the conference or are you just listening to the audio?

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Just listening, but i think it might not be possible to get access to it later as it fills up so i'm posting updates as i hear them and hear them elsewhere. Thumbs has ninjas on the ground.

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Brilliant. Just so you know, there are probably one millions of people constantly refreshing their browsers, waiting for your updates.

I know I am refreshing.

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what free live-streaming video possibilities is there out there on the net?

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from eurogamer's update:

23:13:02 -

Complete gridlock outside. No announcements about why - just lots of people looking at each other and moaning.

23:08:56 -

Even Hideo Kojima is stuck in the queue. He looks bored.

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Two guys probably tried going through the door at the same time. That always happens then.

Don't they have a back entrance for the important people, though?

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I was all looking forward to watching this live ... now I'm just frustrated that half-an-hour in, it still hasn't started.

SiN

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i'm only still listening to it because there is a horrible annoying beeping noise in my flat that i can't get rid of... meh want to sleep :'(

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The only cool thing until now was the card-game-come-real-eyetoy-thingie ..

else it is totally boring marketing crap....

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Things I did not expect:

British guy + j. allard look = BETTER THAN 360.

Playstation dualshock controller exactly the same.

Racing games. Racing games. Racing Games. Sword game, game with dragon, another game with dragons, another sword game... and another racing game.

What I did expect:

Lame presentation. Full of buzzwords. Even myspace was mentioned. I'm sure I missed words like DRM and ROI and ONLINE and NETWORK and INTARWEB.

and FOC... full of Cut-scenes.

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I was watching the whole thing on GameSpot, then they decided to crap out when showing all the third party trailers.

So far? YAWN. The card thing was cool, but it didn't seem all that practical. Every other game shown was kinda... dull. The most interesting thing they showed out of all of them was Loco Roco :shifty:

(oh wait, stream is back now. Some basketball thing. More dullness.)

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Lame presentation. Full of buzzwords. Even myspace was mentioned. I'm sure I missed words like DRM and ROI and ONLINE and NETWORK and INTARWEB.

But the Playstation is best-of-breed!!

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Amazing, Sony can't come up with anything original, they just stole the sensor movement from the Wii.

EDIT: I hope everyone calls them out on this.

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I don't think it's much of a surprise, however them calling it "amazing innovation" seems kind of... wrong. WarHawk looks cool though. I've always wanted a sequel.

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Oh great, more multi-tiered consoles :deranged: $499 for the gimped version.

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:hah: in concrusion, the praystation, like they called it, is as plain as bud light. that means a lot of people will get it because they don't have any taste for the real stuff. :hah:

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It was awesome that they played Richter - Robeatnik's Theme at the end of that, haha. :tup:

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