E3: Sony Keynote Thoughts

I'm going to be totally honest here: after taking a day to mull over Sony's keynote presentation, and re-watching the broadcast of it, I can't decide if Sony had the Ace up their sleeve or not.

As expected, they formally announced the leaked-long-ago PSP Go, the next iteration of their Playstation Portable platform. The PSP Go sticks out because of its download-only feature; Sony removed the UMD drive, so players will have to buy PSP Go games online and download them straight to the platform's hard drive, which tops out at 16GB. Along with the announcement of the PSP Go was announced Gran Turismo PSP, Resident Eveil Portable, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which Hideo Kojima stated is a true sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3.

I was a little surprised to see the Go priced at 249.99 USD; a Wii can be brought for the same price! Toss in the three games for the Go mentioned above and you'll be topping 300.00 USD. Sony said that they see the Go as being the upper end of the PSP line, with the PSP-3000 catering towards the lower income teen end of the line. Even with that being the case, the high price-point of the Go seems somewhat prohibitive for it to have a decent run at success on the market.

On the software side, Sony definitely nailed it, displaying demos of Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, MAG (Massive Action Game), and Mod Nation Racers, to name a few. MNR is the next game in Sony's "Play.Create.Share" line, as it offers palyers the ability to create their own tracks from scratch and share them with the online community. Also announced was Sony's placing fifty PSOne titles to download on the Playstation Network, including Final Fantasy VII; some have even spotted clues in the PSN that Metal Gear Solid will see a release date as a downloadable title sometime in the next few months.

Also announced were Agent, a new IP (intellectual property) from Grand Theft Auto creator Rockstar North, and Final Fantasy XIV, a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) which was announced as being exclusive to the PS3 for consoles (which would imply that will make its way to PC). However, Square Enix later stated that it was exploring "all options at [the] time," hinting at the possibility that XIV could make its way to the 360 as well.

However, the top software titles shown at Sony's keynote were Team ICO's The Last Guardian, Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5, Final Fantasy XIII and Sony Santa Monica's God of War III. All these titles received a warm reception from the audience, and it was good for Sony to reveal more of three of their biggest franchises (GT, God of War, and FF). The Last Guardian, in particular, looked absolutely gorgeous. The trailer alone was almost enough to make me tear up. To say that Team ICO is the master of creating an emotional connection between gamer and game is an understatement, and I'm sure The Last Guardian will be no different.

What truly intrigued me, though, was the reveal of Sony's motion controller. Basically, it is two handheld wands, each the size of a microphone, with a glowing, color-changing sphere at the end. Based on the demo shown during the keynote, it appears to create a true 1:1 translation of motion control, as well as providing at least one different input (an analog trigger). The wands work in conjunction with the Playstation Eye.

What's interesting here is that Sony might just have created a motion device that could cater to the core gamer. Nintendo has yet to do it because they simply do not have the hardware (MotionPlus could change that) or the hardware (there really only seems to be two or three titles on the horizon that could alter that issue). For the reasons I listed in my previous entry, I question whether or not Microsoft's Natal could do it as well. For a short summary, I wrote that core franchises such as Halo and Gears of War have so many control commands (shooting, reloading, walking, running, ducking, aiming, jumping) that I doubted whether developers would be able to create that kind of hardcore gaming experience (aside from the almost-guaranteed casual audience success) that will appeal to core gamers with Natal's motion sensing capabilities. Some games just need a manual input (buttons and triggers). However, just as I wrote in my previous piece, it truly will depend on the software that hits the market at the same time as Sony's motion controller and whether or not their team of first-oarty developers embrace it as well.

Just as surprising as some of the announcements Sony made in their keynote were the announcements that didn't come. A price drop was not announced for the PS3, much to chagrin of many gamers. 399.99 USD is still to high a price point to remain viable and competitive. Many thought the answer to it might be the rumored PS3 Slim (images of this leaked approximately three or four weeks ago). However, no mention of the Slim was made either. I anticipate Sony making an announcement around September or October for a price drop. As for the Slim, only Sony knows if that's real or not.

The more I consider it, I don't think Sony bombed as I initially thought they had. Even with that being said, I do not feel it is an exaggeration to say they still have a good deal of ground to make up on Microsoft.