E3 Day 2: The Sony Keynote of Becoming Microsoft-y
The Sony E3 Conference, for lack of better words, was pretty good. There was no shocking “OH SNAP” moment nor was there any counterpunch to Microsoft’s own shocker. At the same time, their conference seemed to be very balanced (albeit shooter heavy) in regards to the features they would be providing in the future with a strong focus on PSN and PSP.
The conference started with President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Jack Tretton reiterating the 10 year life cycle of the Playstation 3 and that the two years into the PS1 lifecycle they didn’t even have Grand Theft Auto and Gran Turismo. So we’re just getting into what the PS3 can do, case in point Metal Gear Solid 4. Ok, I can buy that.
Following this was a demo of Resistance 2 and then a discussion of Sony sales, powered by an extremely cute Little Big Planet demo. If Little Big Planet can do this, then I’m in line day 1: this was neat and all financials should be done this way.
Then came a kind of strange focus on the still-alive PS2. Tretton stated that this year there will be more than 130 PS2 games. Moreover, the pricepoint of the core system is sticking to $129. Really? Are you serious? C’mon now, I know you’re PS2 is still selling tons and tons but where’s the worlds-more-important PS3 stuff?
Playstation Network was the next focus, beginning with the announcement of the downloadable title Ratchet and Clank:The Quest for Booty. It’s pretty incredible that full original games a la WiiWare will be coming to PSN: this game looks just like Future Tools of Destruction and will be available for like $15 online. Not mentioned during the conference was FLOWER and Pixeljunk Eden (out July 31st apparently), but PSN is really starting to shape up. The quote of the night from Jack was a jab at XBLA’s mass library of crap: “We’re not interested in filling up our stories with titles no one wants to play just so we can say we have the most.” Oh snap. Small mention of Home which read to me “It’s coming, just be patient!” We’ve been patient for like a year!
At the end of the PSN talk came the introduction of a HD/SD video rental service. Though it does not seem streamed to the machine like the XB360-Netflix partnership, this service allows you to purchase and download hi-def/standard-def movies onto the disk for a nominal fee, as well as transfer movies onto the Playstation Portable to go abroad. The kicker? It’s available TONIGHT. This was an awesome announcement.
Speaking of the PSP, a string of new titles were formally announced that piqued my interest. Super Stardust Portable was mentioned and boy am I excited…I still play Super Stardust HD. I’ll also be Pon Pon Pata Pon-ing whenever Patapon 2 comes out (though I do need to finish this).
There was a quick God of War 3 trailer. Rawr, Kratos is angry again!
All in all, I liked the conference with a single complaint: can we get some non-shooter PS3 disced software? Let’s get some diversity into the lineup. It’s a pretty long wait to Valkyria Chronicles and FFXIII.
Eh, Sony hugely disappointed me. I was looking for an excuse to get a PS3 (I am spend happy lately, odd odd…) and they did not give me one. They have XBox Live envy, and it shows badly. And did you hear? They had this great idea that there can be accomplishments in games, recorded to your online profile… Achievements, if you will, that mark your 133tness as a gamer… Absolutely new original invention they just thought of a month ago or so, only possible on the technology in the PS3. Trophies they call them, and no other system has ever had anything like it in the history of man. NOBODY HAS TROPHIES NEXT QUESTION PLEASE! Ahem. It was sad. I hoped for so much more. And yes, Sony at home Secondlife-like thing is coming, really, probably by the time the PS4 is out we are pretty sure it might be almost in alpha. Come on Sony, you can do better, damnit!
Nintendo, I think, is going in the wrong direction. They are forgetting that their casual audience is fickle, and when the machine has sat in the corner for a few months collecting dust because they moved on to snowboarding or guitar lessons or pottery it will not pay to have ignored the core audience who are actually going to buy games and maybe even buy the next Nintendo system. Gimmicks and fads don’t work long term.
MS, well, they were MS. They had the big announcement, I suppose, and yes it was major. But otherwise it was about what you expect from the 360. They should have allowed Bungie to make its announcement. Too bad MS destroyed the computer gaming industry in the psychotic desire to make a viable console… But that was set in motion long before the 360, I guess. Oh well, we still have Dawn of War II coming, that looked pretty good.
Anyway, in the next 6 months I can see myself getting a 360 and/or a PS3 (even though I have access to both and a Wii via my roommate…) and/or a DS, perhaps. Not saying I will, but I almost certainly will get one of them. I already have the newest thin PSP, and there is no chance of me ever owning a Wii unless they really change the way things are going. And the PS3, well, I will probably only get it if I can get a decent emotion engine 60gig, because I have tons of PS2 games I have never played and would really like the ability to play them. We shall see.
It’s kind of funny that Sony has Xbox Live envy because where Sony moved forward to catch up to the more evolved online that Xbox has, the Xbox kind of took a step back by cutting out their streamlined interface in favor of a Nintendo-ized version of the Playstation Cross Media Bar. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Sony XMB…but the new Live interface sucks.