Sony conference analysis and reaction

In this early hours of Tuesday morning Sony attempted to hype up its forthcoming PlayStation 3 console, almost completely ignoring the PlayStation 2 and the PSP during the presentation. Plenty of games were shown and new features were announced, but does Kazuo Hirai’s statement that the “Next generation doesn’t start until we say it does,” now seems even more arrogant than it did even a few hours ago? In truth, you have to wonder if the President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America actually knew what games the company was going to show.

PlayStation 3: The games

What’s obvious is that some PlayStation 3 titles will look superb, but there was very little real evidence of this on show at the Sony conference. While this year’s show was nothing like last year’s CGI fest, the best looking titles were clearly just video. Eight Days, a new game from Sony itself, even attempted to show pseudo gameplay footage intermixed with obvious CGI. While I’d love to believe it to be true, based on what else was shown, I’ve got more chance of losing a fight to a CG duck.

Just where were the big guns for Sony? Sure, Gran Turismo showed up, but GT HD, as it was called, merely used assets from the last PlayStation 2 game and boosted it all into a lovely sharp 1080p image at 60 frames per second. To say the lengthy demo was disappointing is an understatement. The news of the real next-gen GT game supposedly arriving within 18 months of the PlayStation 3’s launch wasn’t exactly thrilling either, or that believable. Just how long did it take them to model each car in Gran Turismo 4?

The real demos of games like Resistance: Fall of Man, Genji 2, Formula 1, Warhawk and most the rest all looked nice, but that’s about all you can say about them at this point. There’s a good few months of development time left before they hit retail, but are any of them system sellers? It didn’t seem like it. The only game demo that really looked impressive was Ninja Theory’s Heavenly Sword, but this didn’t feature the huge enemy counts and sprawling environments that had been mentioned in the lead up to this year’s show. Metal Gear Solid 4 looked stunning as expected, but it was still only a trailer made up mostly of cutscene footage, and is a game that isn’t expected this year.

The sleekest looking part of the demos was strangely enough the interface for the online shop. Quite how it’ll translate to us peasants who don’t own a 1080p native display remains to be seen, but it was a swish interface nevertheless. Phil Harrison’s reluctance to reveal pricing details on downloads was a little worrying though. With the games over and done with it was time to make a splash with some hardware announcements, but unknown to Sony, it was more of a belly flop.

The PlayStation 3 hardware

The first bombshell came with the news of the new PlayStation 3 controller. “It’s a DualShock,” we all said, but no, it’s not. It certainly looks the same, but it includes 6-degrees of movement. This was demonstrated with a rather out of control looking Warhawk demo, but given that the poor developers were apparently only informed about the controller’s secret last week, it’s no surprise that the demo was a little flaky. Not revealed at the conference, but in a post-conference press release, was news that the DualShock’s feature that spawned its name is no more. There’s no rumble on PlayStation 3 controllers. Sony say it’s to do with interfering with the movement sensors, but a lawsuit to do with the rumble technology might have something to do with it as well.

And then came the big one; the clanger. The price of the PlayStation 3 was announced at Euro 499 (~£350) for the 20 GB model and Euro 599 (~£410) for the 60 GB hard drive equipped model. It is perhaps not as bad as had been feared, but is still £70 more expensive than the price of the Xbox 360 at launch. What wasn’t said was how the cheaper model PlayStation 3 is missing many features of the more expensive model, and, unlike with the Xbox 360 Core pack, it can’t be upgraded at a later date.

Most notable is that the cheaper model is missing HDMI output (potential problems for transmitting HD Blu-ray signals, which could see video being downscaled to 960×540), a missing card reader port and no wireless built in to the unit. The lack of HDMI is something that doesn’t appear to be upgradeable, and a card reader add-on also seems unlikely. While the digital rights management that would prevent HD output from a non-HDMI Blu-ray unit, it doesn’t look like coming into effect for a few years, it’s up the movie houses to decide, and could leave Sony with egg on its face.

The missing games

Last year two games made quite a splash: Motorstorm and Killzone. Did they even get a mention at this year’s conference? Not even a word. While Killzone certainly wasn’t a given, an appearance by Motorstorm was definitely expected, and its absence has to cast some doubt over how it compares to the rather ambitious video shown last year. Real games from third-parties were also in short supply, at least in demo form. There was no Unreal 2007 demo, and EA’s expected appearance on stage was almost embarrassing in the absence of any real demos. Tiger Woods looked nice as a computer generated model, but visuals approaching CGI movie levels were a far cry from in-game action.

PSP gets moved to the back of the class. PS2 should get its coat

This year’s E3 is going to be big for the PSP, as it’s time it really showed what it’s made of. Sadly, Sony’s conference didn’t do much to please PSP owners, with a short video of new (and old) games being about it for PSP developed titles. The bigger news was the on-stage demo of Ridge Racer – the Ridge Racer that launched with the PlayStation. The downloadable PlayStation game service sounds great, but most people bought a PSP to play new games.

If the PSP was left in the cold, the PlayStation 2 might as well have not turned up. While Sony was keen to stress the continued support for the platform, the poor console didn’t even get a trailer reel to itself. With the likes of God of War 2 being more exciting than the PlayStation 3 games on show, perhaps this was no surprise.

Second opinion from a tired Olly

As someone who was expecting Sony to come out last night with all guns blazing I came away slightly disappointed. And really tired. It was late.

When it comes to the power of the system, I was impressed, but it seemed to me that there was little that the Xbox 360 or a decent PC couldn’t do. Certainly nothing to match what Sony has been boasting about over the past few months. We’re talking the difference between Xbox and PS2 here, if that, and it didn’t help that the list of games wasn’t particularly inspiring – Tekken, Ridge Racer, etc. The stuff that I really wanted to see, like Virtua Fighter 5, didn’t even get any in-game footage.

The games aren’t all bad, though. The EyeToy demonstration with the Yu-Gi-Oh style cards certainly impressed me, MGS4 looks as fantastic as ever, and they showed Final Fantasy XIII. Nuff said. The real question is whether or not people are going to pay $600 for whatever it comes out with (Tekken and Ridge are good bets).

The most controversial announcement was that the new controller is motion sensitive, a la the Wii. Nintendo always say that they don’t like unveiling features in advance because they get stolen, and I’m guessing that certain people there are absolutely livid right about now, but I must admit that I laughed when they called it an “amazing innovation.” The fact that the features for Sony’s online service, that didn’t exist six months ago, read like a feature list for Xbox Live from a few years ago doesn’t do much for their reputation as innovators either.

I suppose how successful Sony were last night all depends on what Microsoft and Nintendo can show off this evening. Nintendo will need to show that the Wii can do something that the PS3 can’t, and Microsoft will be out to prove that the 360 can match the PS3 with some of its second generation games.

Early internet reaction

Sony’s pre-E3 conference was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated video game events in years. We scoured Neo GAF, the most popular and outspoken internet community, to see what the reaction to the conference has been like.

During the press conference

“Why didn’t someone in the audience stand up and yell, You copied Nintendo ?!&*nuts.“

“LOL, Nintendo am cry.

Sony is just shameless in their ripping off of Nintendo. Just shameless

It’s going to take people some time to be able to use that controller just like it will for Nintendo.”

In reaction to the apparent missing features of the 20GB PlayStation 3, which features no HDMI, no WiFi and no memory port

“PS3 Tard pack = No wifi + No HDMI + No MemoryStick /SD/CompactFlash“

“My god I mean, at least with the 360 tard pack you CAN upgrade to premium but now with the PS3 if you buy the retarded pack you’re *censored* for life.

Seriously, WTF Sony is thinking, it doesn’t make *censored* sense at all. Zero sense.”

“What a monstrous *censored* up in releasing a $500 retard pack that isn’t upgradeable!

I mean what the *censored*? At least with the 360 tard pack you could buy the hdd and it was just like the premium.”

Overall Summary

Sony’s conference this year may well have been the most important and most-hyped in years, but it failed to capitalise on this. Without a handful of stunning games to talk about, the gaming community is forced to discuss the differences between the console packs and the rather reactionary new PlayStation 3 controller. There seems to be a feeling that Nintendo and Microsoft have a real chance to dent Sony’s seemingly insurmountable lead, and their conferences today might be their most important yet. Of course, how frenzied internet opinion translates to the people that couldn’t care less about internet forums could be a very different matter. The Sony hype train may well continue without missing a beat.