Sony E3 Conference 2009

[eternalinferno]

Why would you want to play video games when you can play with real girls?

ah yes u can do both and at the same time...good memories

 

[Electro UK]

Seeing as I've been away for a while and I've had some time to reflect, I just thought I'd post my thoughts on the conference.

- It was a very strong showing from Sony, but it didn't top Microsoft. Initial reaction was like most of yours, meh. But after a while it starts to sink in, we got 2 great new exclusives to look forward to with Agent and Final Fantasy 14, along with this Mod Racers game, which doesn't really interest me, but hey an exclusive is an exclusive.

- PSP could end up being the platform of E3 for me. A sweet new model, new Metal Gear, Gran Turismo Portable looked gorgeous, and Resident Evil PSP coming. All this meant there wasn't even enough time to show of Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier, Assassin's Creed: Bloodline, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, Soul Calibur, or any of the other awesome titles hitting soon.

- I think spending so much time on motion control and Modnation was a huge mistake. Sony were building up to have a truly momentus final half hour, which all went away at the very mention of motion controls. They were cool, but whatever these guys say, you don't get "Gamer games" with this kind of stuff. I don't want to dive around my living room pretending to avoid bullets. Speaking of wasted time, might want to keep your montages on the short side, guys.

- It does however show how good a line up PS3 has at the moment when Sony doesn't even bring friggin' Insomniac out on stage. Ratchet and Clank, Heavy Rain, Demon's Souls, and White Knight Chronicles were just some of the great exclusives Sony couldn't put into the show.

- There were somethings missing. Why couldn't Kojima announce a day earlier that Rising would indeed be hitting PS3? It would have made his segment even more satisfying. I'd personally really set my hopes on one of the big shockers being BioWare coming out on stage and announcing Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the PS3. I thought the complete absence of the word exclusive for those games so far meant we'd be seeing them real soon in Sony land.

- Again, I keep saying this everywhere, but I've never seen an E3 crowd have such a "WOAH" reaction to anything until that FF14 announcement came up. It was one of the biggest surprises of any E3 I think, not only have Sony swooped back in and made up for lost ground after last years FF13 revelation, but no one expected to hear about 14 for a year or two after 13, let alone before the game has even been released.

- God of War 3, you knew it had to close the show. What can one say? It looked phenominal. Those graphics climb up with Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 to make for the best looking console games around, imo.

- Assassin's Creed 2 proved that people don't learn. Wait 'till its out to say this one is awesome.

So yeah, I'd give the conference an 8/10, while Nintendo get a 7.5, and Microsoft a 9.5.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Seeing as I've been away for a while and I've had some time to reflect, I just thought I'd post my thoughts on the conference.

- It was a very strong showing from Sony, but it didn't top Microsoft. Initial reaction was like most of yours, meh. But after a while it starts to sink in, we got 2 great new exclusives to look forward to with Agent and Final Fantasy 14, along with this Mod Racers game, which doesn't really interest me, but hey an exclusive is an exclusive.

- PSP could end up being the platform of E3 for me. A sweet new model, new Metal Gear, Gran Turismo Portable looked gorgeous, and Resident Evil PSP coming. All this meant there wasn't even enough time to show of Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier, Assassin's Creed: Bloodline, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, Soul Calibur, or any of the other awesome titles hitting soon.

- I think spending so much time on motion control and Modnation was a huge mistake. Sony were building up to have a truly momentus final half hour, which all went away at the very mention of motion controls. They were cool, but whatever these guys say, you don't get "Gamer games" with this kind of stuff. I don't want to dive around my living room pretending to avoid bullets. Speaking of wasted time, might want to keep your montages on the short side, guys.

- It does however show how good a line up PS3 has at the moment when Sony doesn't even bring friggin' Insomniac out on stage. Ratchet and Clank, Heavy Rain, Demon's Souls, and White Knight Chronicles were just some of the great exclusives Sony couldn't put into the show.

- There were somethings missing. Why couldn't Kojima announce a day earlier that Rising would indeed be hitting PS3? It would have made his segment even more satisfying. I'd personally really set my hopes on one of the big shockers being BioWare coming out on stage and announcing Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the PS3. I thought the complete absence of the word exclusive for those games so far meant we'd be seeing them real soon in Sony land.

- Again, I keep saying this everywhere, but I've never seen an E3 crowd have such a "WOAH" reaction to anything until that FF14 announcement came up. It was one of the biggest surprises of any E3 I think, not only have Sony swooped back in and made up for lost ground after last years FF13 revelation, but no one expected to hear about 14 for a year or two after 13, let alone before the game has even been released.

- God of War 3, you knew it had to close the show. What can one say? It looked phenominal. Those graphics climb up with Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 to make for the best looking console games around, imo.

- Assassin's Creed 2 proved that people don't learn. Wait 'till its out to say this one is awesome.

So yeah, I'd give the conference an 8/10, while Nintendo get a 7.5, and Microsoft a 9.5.

I agree with these points. If I had a PSP I would have been much more enthusiastic about the show. I don't though so that part was kind of lost on me.

Spending as much time on motion, I concur, that felt like a waste. They could have cut out the first bit entirely and had a good 5-10 minutes freed up by that.

I guess the main disappointment for me was that I felt there should have been more there since we know there was more at the show, in playable form no doubt. They should have at least had Ratchet & Heavy Rain. Admittedly those aren't going to be blockbuster titles, but they're still most likely going to be fantastic, it could have done nothing but bring the quality of the show up.

I too was a little surprised that we didn't see an acknowledgment of Rising on the PS3. We more or less knew it was going to the PS3. I guess MS and Konami/Kojima did agree to keep the announcement exclusive to MS's conference and/or wanted to keep focus on Peace Walker. I don't really get either of those. It's not like a 10 second teaser of Rising was going to wipe out PW's presence and it wouldn't have voided the big deal of MGS on 360. I guess that's just the way of these things

 

[Fading]

I can see the above points. It's just now that I've given it time to sink in, Sony's show impresses me more than it did earlier. There was enough content that they didn't have to show everything, tho they did linger a bit in some spots. They showed off (IMO) the best shocker of E3 in FFXIV, and showed off several other exclusives I was excited about. Not to count I'm far more hyped for my PSP than I've been since I bought it, Sony breathed a lot of life into the PSP. Not counting the 50 PS1 classic deal.

The only thing MS had on Sony was presentation. MG:Rising was a shocker, but just like with FFXIII...it's multiplat. So really it's just saying, "Hey we get this amazing 3rd party game too!" as PS3 owners get it too. Now if Rising was exclusive, that would be huge. Other than Alan Wake and SC, none of their other exclusives wow'd me. Even their long opening was about a multiplat game, as is MW2. The Twitter crap, and Natal bored me.

Not taking anything away from MS tho, both MS and Sony had great shows.

 

[Fading]

A seperate note from the above tho, gotta admit...I think I wore myself out on the "Who won E3" stuff this year. I'm burnt out on the way the video game media and net try to spin it into a competition. Above I was saying which I thought had a better show, but in reality both Sony and MS did what they meant to do....excite their base and pull in potential new customers. I mean if MS has an excellent show, do Sony/Nintendo owners lose something (or vice versa)?.I think E3 was a success overall this year, and the gamers won. It's not up to it's old glory yet, but it's a huge improvement over last year.



I mean just think about the games we know about before and after E3 and I'm a happy PS3/PSP owner-

PS3 - White Knight Chronicles, Agent, FFXIV, GOW3, ->Uncharted 2<-, GT5, MW2, AC2, MAG, MG:Rising, Castlevania, Bioshock 2, Modnation Racers, Last Guardian, DC Online, 50 PS1 classics from Square/Capcom/Sony, etc.

PSP - RE, Jak & Daxter, LBP, GT, MGSW, AC that connects to the PS3 AC, Hanna Mon....err

 

[Havok83]

This is an amazing time to be a PSP owner. What a turn around Sony ahs made since last year. The 3rd party support coming to it is AMAZING. They had such problems in that department before but they got publishers to commit to the system and alot of major franchises are coming to it.

I find the PSP Go a bit expensive but the new model and what its offering is a great concept. I love the idea that all games will be offered in digital format. Along with this comes an increased effort to bring more PS1 games to the store and thats always a good thing. A year ago, it kinda seemed as if Sony didnt really care too much about it but they showed that they are invested in it and giving owners stuff to look forward to.

On a side note, I watched the conference yesterday and I loved how the crowd was quiet but cheered when the pink Hannah Montana PSP was announced. WTF? LOL. Im glad there are some people looking forwards to it...lol

 

[Electro UK]

Hahaha oh man I can't believe Square Enix. They're already saying that there's a good chance FF14 will be finding its way on 360 too. Do these guys have no loyalty at all anymore?

 

[StrainedEyes]

Hahaha oh man I can't believe Square Enix. They're already saying that there's a good chance FF14 will be finding its way on 360 too. Do these guys have no loyalty at all anymore?

It's a business. Companies need to pay for loyalty.

 

[Electro UK]

Yeah I know, I mean I'm not fanboying this up or anything, I just find it funny is all. They kick Sony right in the balls right after their best E3 surprise.

 

[Fading]

FFXI eventually went to the 360 as well. It's just hilarious to me that they give the go ahead to say it's exclusive, then 2 days later say, "well maybe it's not".

 

[Electro UK]

I wonder if its timed and Tretton just worded it cleverly. "PS3 will be the only console you can play it on WHEN it launches"...

 

[Fading]

I wonder if its timed and Tretton just worded it cleverly. "PS3 will be the only console you can play it on WHEN it launches"...

I'd take a guess it is. They'll probably make it for the PS3 and PC. Have it out for a year. Sometime during that year after they iron out all the bugs on the PS3 and PC versions they'll start coding the 360 version. I'm guessing after that they'll release a 360 version as they announce an expansion pack to build hype, but not at the same time so they can get 360 owners to buy the expansion rather than bundle it in.

 

[TLH]

GOWIII looks great. Makes me stoked I own a PS3.

 

[eternalinferno]

well for now at least versus 13 is still exclusive... for now anyway...

 

[Electro UK]

Yeah, but that wasn't even mentionned this E3. At least we know the PSP exclusives won't be hitting 360 anytime soon!

 

[roach]

wow I just finished video 1 and I wasnt hyped for MAG but after seeing the video I totally am gonna get it now

 

[KALEL114]

Yeah, it was nice to see the interface and command system it is using. I have read a ton of articles on the game, but nothing beats actually seeing it in action.

 

[roach]

wow Assassin Creed 2 looks awesome

 

[roach]

Pinhead is in Modnation racing...im there

 

[KALEL114]

The track creator looked easy and fun to do. I am keeping an eye on this. I'd like to know if it is going to be disc based or download.

 

[roach]

I kept waiting for the Neverending Story music to start while watching the Last Guardian

 

[KALEL114]

LOL.

Sebastian!!

 

[Mastodon123]

Take-Two believes Sony will offer the same kind of support that made Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas--all initially PlayStation 2 exclusives--three of the top 10 selling games of all time. Said Feder, "At this phase in the cycle, when you're trying to launch a new franchise, exclusivity can really help you launch the franchise. It can give you the kind of platform that you need to start exclusive, start in the right kind of way with the right kind of partner. Exclusivity does work."

Rockstar probably signed a limited exclusive deal with Sony like they did for GTA series on the PS2. Its funny how these game companies throw around the wold exclusive. Theres no doubt in my mind that Agent will end up on the 360 too.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I'm pretty sure that nowadays whenever a 3rd party makes an exclusive for either console it's assumed it's a timed exclusive of 6 months to a year

 

[Electro UK]

Yeah, but that's not really a problem. Not that I believe them right now, but if Agent DID have the same impact that GTA did then it wouldn't matter. You said GTA back last gen, you thought PS2. By the time it got to 360 it was like... uh.