E3 2007: Sony Press Conference Recap

July 12, 2007 by Chapree

Image: us.playstation.com

Sony is the final big 3 company to roll off their media briefing. They are facing a tough uphill battle since they are way behind the console race against Wii and 360. Will there be any announcement that would boost Sony’s performance this year? There’s still hope so let’s dive in to the highlights!

- New PSP model: 33% lighter, 19% slimmer, improved battery and…a video output! The console itself looked the same to me.

- Bunch of new games are coming to PSP with more than 140 game will be released in North America this year.

- A new puzzle game will be out for PSP and PS3 called Echochrome. Said to be inspired from a number of legendary puzzles such as Rubik’s Cube. It looked like a combination of Super Mario Paper (the angle changing part) + Line Rider + optical illusion to me. This game (plus Warhawk, Wipeout HD, SOCOM Confrontation and Pain) will be available via Playstation Network (PSN) digital download and boxed Blu-ray disks.

- PSP/PS3 interface going to mobile phone. Take picture with your phone and poof, it appeared at your private space @ Home and a brand new social networking site integrated within PSN. Plus, now you can launch your games from Home as well.

- Old news recap: new PS3 with 80GB HDD coming this August for USD599 and current 60GB price is cut to USD 499, effective since Monday.

- Sony said PS3 going to have 15 exclusive titles. Totally exclusive or time-limited exclusive, eh?

- NCsoft is “joining Playstation camp“, said Sony. That means NCsoft will churn out a number of PS3 -exclusive MMORPG.

- Another PS3 exclusive title that looked quite pretty is Ubisoft’s shooter Haze. Trailer shown were a mix of in-game footage and live action. Intense shooter action and woah, vehicles!

- Unreal Tournament III is confirmed as PS3 and PC exclusive this year….as Xbox 360 version will be out on early 2008. Further information revealed that players can import mods from the PC version to PS3. Is this mean that inter-platform play will be possible? We shall see.

- Hideo Kojima finally showed something new about Metal Gear Solid 4. A new trailer using in-game graphics were shown and also a release date, early 2008, shown at the end of the trailer. No demo at E3 but Hideo promised that he going to flash one soon at Tokyo next week. He also announced that he will retire from game designing after MGS4.

- Heavenly Sword from Ninja Theory looked pretty solid, developer claims that they take full advantage of Cell and Blu-ray huge disk space. Believable to me.

- The star of this year’s GDC, LittleBigPlanet made a short appearance. It’s madness with cuteness times infinity. Genius.

- Gran Turismo 5:Prolog are coming to PSN soon, featuring full online capability. First, it was GT HD, now it’s Prolog…bring the full game already!

- Killzone 2 trailer were also shown and accompanied by real-time playing by somebody at the corner of the stage. The graphic looked solid and wicked. Pretty intense game I must say. Screaming everywhere.

Conclusion: Looks like Sony still managed to get some exclusive titles in what seems to be a losing race for them. The titles looked nice but I still don’t know if they can actually penetrate Wii & 360 domination. The new Home is a nice update from the usual text and graphic based menu. I just realized there was nothing about Final Fantasy during the conference. Don’t you think it’s a bit weird? The price drop are nice but isn’t it a bit too late? With all the big 3 press conference have been unleashed, E3 2007 are now open for business! Enjoy your E3 week, people.