I hope Resident Evil goes back to its roots, like the first 3 games.

Well at least they adress it.

Damn right I am!
Where is my million $ check?

Sony addressing the PSN outage/hack right out of the gate. Good move to hit it head on and then move onto the games.

Well Leon was wearing a police uniform so it's probably a remake of the second game or they convert a Chronicle part.

Isn't there a Resident Evil game where you play as an elite Umbrella group cleaning Racoon City during RE2 time frame already announced? I'm sure I saw a trailer for that the other day.

EDIT - Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

I so don't care about 3D. Nobody cares about 3D, nobody has a 3000£ telly.
I'd rather watch another Kinect presentation.

get a move on already!

Uncharted 3! Woooo!

Drake has the best ass in videogames right now.

Uncharted 3 looks amazing.

Ok. Uncharted 3 alone made Sony worth the wait.

Who the hell needs Tomb Raider and Lara Croft? Nathan Drake is a badass.

Was there any sign of elena?

Look it's Helen Mirren

And Matthew Fox!

Yeap. She's there.

And holy shit that trailer was awesome. I want it now. Now.

Hey look the Insomniac guy has a pretty pink controller. How not at all fitting for a Resistance 3 demo.

Jeeze he's a friendly bugger.

I feel like I'd probably get on with him...

Resistance 3 is doing nothing for me though and I feel like there's been a ridiculous overload of FPS' this year.

Also do you think this lead Sony guy will follow up the presentation of a game with - 'What the hell was that shit? Get off my stage!' That would be awesome.

Some awesome HD and 3D conversions there. If only I had a 3D television...

It's Ico no eeeeco.
I already have all the GoW games, don't need them again, thx.

Holy shit that Playstation display is awesome! And that bundle's pretty nicely priced. As are the PS3D glasses.

Yeah keep telling that to yourself.

That monitor is awesome (if it does what they claim) and (again if it does what they claim) brilliantly priced. Hell even if its just 3D and doesn't do the multi-screen/image stuff well $500 for the monitor, game and 3D glasses is a pretty good price.

And here's the 'we haven't given up on Move. Honest.' section.

Not you, him.

You have to be more specific about these things damn it.

My bad.

NBA star Kobe Bryant there. In no way paid to endorse that official NBA licensed game obviously.

On another note could Sony have found less charismatic people to present this conference in general? I think not...

I agree which is why I'm off now.
I can't keep my eyes open any longer. Will catch up tomorrow morning.
Have fun guys, it's been a pleasure once again.

I can't workout if its this Medieval Moves game or the bloke talking or both but good lord this is dull.

Indepth Move functionality coming to InFamous 2 and Little Big Planet 2 later this year. I honestly don't care.

Big old meh to Star Hawk but a big thumbs up to a new Sly Cooper next year.

PS3 exclusive Dust yet another shooter. But at least this is an ambitious one I suppose. If they can deliver on the promise to link multi-player with the PC game then that has the potential to be huge.

That Bioshock: Infinite trailer (all in game footage) was undeniably impressive but does E3 really need another FPS? I think not. I'm just burnt out on them by now. Far too many have been pushed today its very depressing to think that FPS' take up 90% of the game industry these days.

And a Bioshock title is coming to NGP. I don't care. Meanwhile Bioshock 1 will come bundled with Bioshock: Infinite on the PS3.

I want the 3D TV.

Move is getting a Star Trek phaser peripheral for next year's Star Trek game. Nerds the world over just came a little. And the Star Trek game doesn't look horrible. It doesn't look particularly good either but still.

Exclusive EA extras on PS3 for SSX (Mount Fuji), Need for Speed: The Run (extra cars) and Battlefield 3 (Battlefield 1941).

And here comes NGP...

NGP!

Playstation Suite is being launched allowing Sony to launch Playstation content on Smart/Android phones. Basically what they should have done instead of the Playstation Phone.

Playstation Vita (PSV) is official - front and back touchpad. Multi-touch pad. Axis control. Two cameras. Two analogue sticks. Online access via 3G and WiFi.

Playstation Vita looks and sounds incredibly impressive. The Uncharted demo is brilliant and beautiful. It looks and seems to play exactly like an Uncharted game with some really clever uses of the touch screen. I'm now terrified by how much this is going to cost and a price point announcement has been conspicuous in its absence.

Sticking with Vita Ruin also makes the device look impressive. The sync up with the PS3 via cloud saves is particularly brilliant but again makes the price of this thing terrifying. I don't understand how Sony can possibly keep this price under control and actually have any real level of performance. So either they're going to price themselves out of the market, kill the performance of the device or sell it at a loss...

ModNation Racers on Vita also impressive and they're porting all the PS3 creations over to the Vita on launch day. And Wipout 2048 will have cross play with the PS3 - up to eight players can race each other playing on both the PS3 and the Vita. The potential for this is awesome and the price terrifying.

Modnation looks cute.

Street Fight X Tekken for the Vita (just got an Oooo from the crowd when announced). Cole from InFamous has also been added to the line-up of characters.

The fact you can play a game on Vita against someone on the PS3 is a major USP.

It is indeed. It is also quite a terrifying one in terms of pricing.

That trailer of games in development for the Vita is impressive. This is an ambitious device. If Sony have pulled this off then I'm very impressed.

Christmas 2011 release with the following prices

WiFi only $249/249euro
WiFi & 3G $299/299euro

I am amazed.

I dont get the pricing:

$249 = £152
€249 = £222

Straight conversion about £150 (WiFi) and £190 (WiFi & 3G)

To put into context 3DS launched at $250 in the US. So Sony are right on price point on that front and I assume Vita will launch in the UK at about the same price as the 3DS as well.

Fucking hell! That price is actually amazing.

It is indeed amazing. It looks like Sony have decided to match the 3DS price point which is a clever strategy. It'll be interesting to see how quickly and how steeply Nintendo drop the price of the 3DS now.

EDIT - Worth pointing out that the straight conversion may not (and probably won't) be the price for the UK release. Like I said I'd guess Sony will look to match the 3DS launch price so you're looking at around £200 although given that the 3DS hasn't flown off the shelves they might opt to come in lower than that if they can.

So apart from the Vita price, there was no new games announced that we didn't already know about? Seems a bit of a waste

This is why I'm so excited for Nintendos show later, we have a whole new console and a tonne of new games nobody knows about (I'm assuming anyway)

Well the 3DS did very well and will no doubt get a second start as soon as more core games are being released. Sony would have to pull off a hell of a trick to compete with that. The price is one step in the right direction but they would also have to make the console more relevant. PSP with all it's great games was never more than a small Playstation which doens't make it appealing to people who already have one.
So if all they do is throw out portable versions of the big games again I doubt it will do the trick.
I also don't think it looks very practical, especially the touch screen on the back and I also don't like that you have to use it the console like a normal PSP and then just let go on one side and touch the screen only to go back. The DS can be hold with one hand and in the other you have the stylus.
To be honest I don't get why it has to have touch screen at all it just a feauture they think they have to include it because of the DS.
They should have found their own USP.
The compability with the PS3 doesn't excite me at all. If I wanna play PSP I play PSP and if I wanna play PS I play PS why would I wanna mix it?
Now don't get me wrong I love my sexy red PSP and it has some great games but I don't think they learned antyhing from their past mistakes.
The whole multi gadget device angle is flawed imo. People don't want or need that. They have mobile phones for that or PCs/Laptops at home.
Having all those extra function might be a nice bonus but shouldn't be the main selling point to it. They should focus on the games and as I said give a reason why the PSP is relevant.
The DS does that perfectly. For example it's the only consoles were traditional RPGs and Point and Click adventure are still alive and kicking and doing very well. It also has the whole retro thing going which appeals to core gamers and the mini game based games for casuals.
It's just a well rounded product that works fine.
PSP relies to much on being cooler and more mature but ignoring the fact that people of all ages play the DS so that alone is not gonna sell it (it didn't sell the PS3 either compared to the Wii).
Bring out some more games that gives the PSP it's own game feel and not just games where people wish it would have come out on the big PS instead.
Patapon for example is a franchise whch made the PSP it's own, they need more of that.

Loving the notes Mikes, sums it up perfectly.

Thanks. And also, Astron you fanny.. The schedule for the big ones is in the First post

I must add. I don't DO live blogging. Hence the format of this topic. Why bother looking and typing in here whilst there's something to watch and absorb??

p.s I have made 10 pages of notes during the conferences (sony and MS)

Front and back.

So did we and I actually had a good time. At least we had a good moan together about how boring most of the stuff was.

I just can't do it. Attention must be on one thing only.

Well you have to take notes. You're excused.

I’d just like to say that I hate all this ‘isn’t the 3DS great’ nonsense. It isn’t. The 3DS is an expensive DS with some awkward 3D functionality. It (like almost everything Nintendo related for the past decade) is a gimmick and in reality it’s absolutely no more or less relevant than a bog standard DS which is why sales haven’t exploded like people thought they would.

On the subject of the PSV

Astron I don’t think the cloud saving so you can pick-up your game on the PS3 is particularly impressive or much of a selling point but what absolutely is a selling point is the promise of crossplay with the PS3. If I can go online with my PSV and play with people who are playing the same game or in the same game world on the PS3 then that’s huge and opens up a massive world for them. That they’re looking to port all the ModNation PS3 user created content to the PSV games is also a potentially brilliant selling point because it opens up a huge online world that isn’t limited to the PSV. If Sony can live up to the promise of crossplay then I think the PSV has a massive amount of potential.

On the subject of making the system relevant they announced that 80 games are in development for it which is a big number and dedicated Uncharted and Bioshock releases developed specifically for the PSV aren’t exactly small irrelevant games either. It will however be interesting to see what some of those 80 in development games are. What’s been confirmed so far?

Uncharted
Bioshock
ModNation
Street Fighter X Tekken
LittleBigPlanet
Wipeout 2048
Ruin
Super Stardust
Hot Shot Golf
Virtua Tennis
Dynasty Warriors

What else am I missing from the coming soon video?

Having said all that I still think that (potentially) the most impressive bit of kit from the Sony conference was the Playstation Monitor. If that delivers on what they’re promising and at that price then that could be a big thing for them and their 3D push.


In fairness to Sony they did pull a couple of surprises out of the bag.

Bioshock with Move compatibility was somewhat surprising.
Bioshock for the PSV was a surprise
Streetfighter X Tekken for the PSV was a surprise

And did we know about the new Sly Cooper going in? Either way that was awesome. Also in general the amount of Move related content there was, was massively surprising. There was a feeling going in that Move would be the ugly Sony stepchild…

In general though I think a big surprise game announcement would have been the wrong move for Sony yesterday. They were launching the Vita and they needed that to be the story of their conference rather than anything else. If (for example) they'd announced GTAV yesterday as some people wanted/thought/hoped they would that would have diverted attention away from Vita and equally as importantly Uncharted 3 which was set up to be the other star of the Sony conference.

It is.
The DS, the 3DS, the Wii all record breaking consoles in the sell departments.
Wether you think they're just pointless gimmicks or not is irrelevant cause either way they work/sell.


They are actually. While I have no doubt that those games will do well, they won't be enough to make sells jump up like many games on the DS do.
Those are the games I mentioned earlier where people wonder why they didn't just come out on the actual PS3. The PSP had top games like God of War, Silent Hill, Jak and Dexter, Ratchet and Clank, Metal Gear Solid, GTA etc. all franchises who defined the success of the PS2 but didn't manage the same for the PSP.
I doubt it will be any different with the PSV as long as they don't give it a twist to it which make it more relevant.
Being a handheld worked for the Gameboy 10-12 years ago but everything is mobile these days it's not enough anymore. If people are supposed to spent that much money Sony has to offer something that they can't get in basically the same way from a fancy mobile phone.


And yes we knew about Sly Cooper, given they gave the first three parts a HD make over and included Sly in that Heroes game it wasn't a surprise at all.
I personally think Move and Kinect are too late. The Wii satisfied the market in that area and Nintendo is already working on the next console while Sony and MS still haven't manage to give their products that finishing touch they desperately need.

A few points

1 – Strong sales don’t mean that the system is great or even good. I don’t deny that the Wii and DS are popular nor do I deny that the Wii is a good gimmick but what I am saying is that the 3DS is just a gimmick and is no more or less relevant to consumers than a bog standard DS.

2 – The 3DS hasn’t been selling amazingly well. Retailers have certainly brought a lot of them but consumers haven’t. As an example at the end of April US retailers had received around 1.3 million 3DS’ but sold around 600k of them. And the same is true in Japan and across Europe. Sales to consumers are well under what Nintendo (and retailers) were predicting/expecting and again I think that’s largely down to the fact that it’s just an expensive DS with awkward 3D functionality that nobody really wanted.


I find the counter intuitive nature of this argument a little ridiculous.

People have explained away lower than expected 3DS sales by talking about the lack of core launch titles and arguing that when games like Zelda or Mario land on the system sales will go up. However Sony announce a potentially decent line-up for core games for their handheld console and the argument is that those core games hold no interest for portable console gamers because if they wanted to play them then they’d play them on the PS3. Why does that argument not translate to the all-powerful can do no wrong Nintendo?

I would agree that just sticking a scaled down version of a PS3 game on to a portable won’t work. The issue with the PSP was always that it was essentially a pared down and scaled back Playstation with the same game mechanics so the portable titles weren’t particularly exciting. With the PSV there’s potential for Sony to fix that problem by adding new gameplay mechanics that make use of the dual touchpads etc. rather than simply being a bog standard scaled down PS3 title. The fact that (if the Uncharted demo is any indicator) the PSV has the potential to produce some comparatively beautiful games is a big plus for it as well.

The big issue that Sony has to overcome with the PSV is working out who they’re aiming the device at. Again a huge issue with the PSP was that it was never really clear who the device was marketed toward so it just sort of floated there. Whatever else they may or may not be Nintendo are brilliant at pitching their consoles to an audience and that makes it much easier for people to develop games for it (or not as the case currently is) and for people to know what to expect from it. Sony now have to decide whether the PSV is aimed at casual gamers, hardcore gamers or someone else entirely. They cannot once again let a portable device just float around looking for an audience.


I don't agree that Move and Kinect came too late (and Kinect's sales would suggest that's not true either). I do think you need to keep in mind what the stated goal is or has become for each of those products. Move is really designed to be an extra facet of the PS3 at this point rather than a central key aspect of it whilst Kinect was designed to breathe new life into the 360 and its undeniably done that.

In other news looks as if Vita will have a UK price point of £229 for the WiFi version and £279 for the WiFi/3G version. So the WiFi version is right around the 3DS launch price.

Actually it does.
Videogames are not music where people are quick to spent a few pounds for the novelty effect, they're simply too expensive for that.
Games who top the charts always have a certain quality to it. Yes people laugh when the 59th version of PES is once again number one or some Dance Party game is the Wii's best seller but people forget that for their genre those games work very well and they do what they're supposed to do. People wouldn't buy them if they weren't good cause a game has to be good to be fun.
In the end of the day it doesn't even matter cause what matters is that the games/consoles sell.


Actually it has, in both US and UK it was the most successful handheld launch Nintendo had so far. That's all the more impressive given it had christmas in it's back and the DS XXL was just launched a few month earlier. It's true it hasn't quite hit expectations but those where massive to begin with and would have been met with a Zelda or a proper Mario game for the launch and as said earlier those games will revive sells once more.




Ermmm....maybe because those games were in 3D and/or made use of the TOUCH SCREEN?!
Meaning there was a reason why those games appeared on the DS and they made sense.

That is demonstrably untrue particularly in regards to games. Quality doesn’t necessarily drive sales what has driven sales (particularly for the Wii) are a brilliant marketing campaign, a great gimmick and fantastic pricing. The fact that Nintendo aggressively targeted the 'casual gamer' market also inflated sales as well. Popularity is not a sign of quality for anything in this world regardless of how expensive it is.


Only not so much at least not in regards to units sold to consumers. In America the DS launched with 500k units sold to consumers in the first week. The 3DS had sold about 600k to consumers by the end of April a full month after its release. The sales stats that Nintendo released for the 3DS (3.6 million sold and best selling launch for example) are the sales to retailers and not sales to consumers. Like I said before retailers absolutely snapped up the 3DS expecting to shift loads of them but they haven’t and what little indication of the actual bottom line sales to consumers (rather than retailers) there has been is not particularly impressive for the 3DS. Not a horrific one either but not the roaring success that has been suggested.


Yeah because core titles only matter to Nintendo and nobody else


Uncharted: Golden Abyss clearly made use of the PSV touch screen as part of its game mechanics so did ModNation Racers and it appears as if the vast majority of the PSV titles will do the same. And presumably since it is being developed specifically for the PSV the Bioshock title will also make use of the PSV features as well. So in reality this is all about the counter intuitive logic that Nintendo can do no wrong...