Jack Tretton has taken to the stage and starts out the conference by letting everyone know that Sony easily has the most passionate fans in the industry and that while they have some incredible gaming names in their stable the most important people here today are the gamers, keeping Sony’s focus entirely on gaming right from the start.
Jack’s chatting about how expansive the PlayStation world is claiming that no one comes close to the experience that you can get from the PlayStation platform which covers the PS3, PS Vita, PSN and more.
First up we have the new IP from Quantic Dreams as David Cage takes the stage to announce their new IP for PlayStation 3, Beyond: Two Souls. As in PlayStation Beyond?
Beyond is very much based around death and the world beyond, Beyond tells Jodie’s (the lead character) story over a 15 year span. Ellen Page has been revealed as the lady behind Jodie and now we’re getting a real time demo of the game and it’s looking very movie like.
Yup that looks incredible.
Now Jack’s back chatting about how powerful the PS3 is and even in it’s 6th year it is still breaking boundaries and giving people the most immersive experience in the industry.
And here we have PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale and they have made the surprise announcement that it will also be available on the PS Vita and that you are going to be able to cross play with the PS3 in real time… awesome
I can’t say I’m overly excited about this one as we have enough fighting titles, it does look like a lot of fun but is it good enough to be a lead title taking this much time at their E3 conference and they finish off with the announcement that Nathan Drake and Big Daddy are also in the game.
Jack’s back now and pushing the cross play idea along with cross save so that you can switch between the two seamlessly. That’s pretty cool and hopefully we’ll see a lot more of that moving forward.
Oh look they are announcing that you can use the PS Vita as a second screen for PS3 gaming, which is pretty much another death knoll to Nintendo and the same idea that Microsoft announced earlier.
According to Sony 80% of all PS3’s and PS Vita’s are connected to their PSN network which is pretty impressive really. He’s now announcing that Journey is PSN’s best selling title of all time but is only one of 1500 downloadable items on the PSN with 200 more games coming in the next few months.
PlayStation plus members are now getting 12 new games for free and not useless games, they include Prototype 2, Infamous 2 and Saints Row. That’s pretty incredible for a mere $5 a month and they are apparently going to be constantly adding new titles to this free online library. Take that Xbox Live. (But be warned this is only for North America), and the journalists all just got 1 year free vouchers.
And now beginning this winter PlayStation 1 classics will be coming to the PS Vita, I can’t say that’s exciting seeing that we’ve moved on quite some way since the PS1.
Jack’s now chatting about all the entertainment offerings that PSN offer but none of this is interesting really as it doesn’t apply to us so let’s move on.
Oh and nicely done Activision, not only have they announced that the Xbox 360 will be getting the Blacks Ops 2 DLC exclusively for a timed period but now Jack has just announced that the PS Vita will be getting an exclusive Black Ops: Declassified title. Way to please both sides of the fence.
And now we have Assassin’s Creed 3 on the PS Vita, with Assassin’s Creed Liberation which if you have the PS3 version as well will unlock a flurry of new content which is a nice touch.
And now the Ubisoft guys are on stage with a secret Assassin’s Creed 3 announcement, maritime warfare. Check out the unexpected new addition to the Assassin’s Creed 3 series right here
And now we jump straight into one of my most anticipated titles of the year, Far Cry 3 and they are showing us some awesome co-op action and chatting about how we are getting map editors to build our own experiences in Far Cry 3 and if you are interested in the game then keep an eye out on the PS3 version as you will apparently be receiving some exclusive DLC content with the PS3 copy.
And now that the hardcore titles are out of the way Jack introduces Andrew House to talk to us about the PlayStation Move and motion controlling in general.
But it’s not PlayStation Move that they are talking about it’s actually a book, for kids to use in front of the PlayStation Eye. The book offers an alternate reality experience while reading a book and the idea sounds pretty intriguing. It could well help out getting kids into reading but it depends on the story I guess.
And Sony just blew me away by announcing that the first Wonderbook has been written by the incredibly talented J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. That’s sold me, I’ll definitely give this a go as soon as possible.
And from wholesome family entertainment we are thrust straight into the world of God of War and Kratos and unsurprisingly he doesn’t look happy.
We’re watching some incredibly violent footage that you’d expect from God of War with a lot of blood, slinging chains and larger than life enemies. But seriously Sony do you need to have such long demo’s this is getting a little overboard now.
And that great demo, but long demo, is now over and we go straight into another expected PS3 mega title, The Last of Us.
This title is looking better and better everytime we see it and with the incredibly gifted Naughty Dog behind it I can’t imagine it’s going to be anything less than incredible.
And that’s the end of Sony’s conference so a quick wrap up.
They’ve made it all about gamers, showed us a ton of new IP’s and ended on something original instead of yet another Call of Duty. I’d say Sony outplayed Microsoft this year.
But unfortunately no PS3 or PS Vita price cut which the Vita seriously needed
Last Updated: June 5, 2012
