The Sony E3 2006 Press Conference
I'll be updating on the Sony conference from here. If you'd like to watch yourself, Gamespot seems to have the only live, free feed here.
Update: Okay, the conference is over, and I'll summarize here. If you want the ongoing notes I was taking, they're below.
In short, that was downright shameful. The first hour and a half of the show was boring, with games that looked less than thrilling. Most games will still shown as movies rather than showing actual gameplay. The team tried to get the audience excited about using your PSP as a rear view mirror for a racing game on the PS3 (???) and playing Ridge Racer on your PSP through their PSX games download service, but judging by the lack of response people just weren't having it. Basically the only two notable games on display were FFXIII and Metal Gear Solid 4. FFXIII looked great, what little you could tell about it. MGS4 was another movie type preview, with no gameplay shown, but it drew enough attention simply with the appearance of Meryl and with by ending with Snake (or Old Snake, as it called him) saying there was one more thing he had to endure, and putting a gun in his mouth. One of the last lines of the trailer was "some legends are meant to die." Definitely intriguing.
But the real shock of the night was a two hit punch at the very end. One, they unveiled the PS3 controller, which is simply a PS2 DualShock painted silver with no cord and an extra button in the middle (most likely serving the same function as the 360 guide button). More importantly, it features motion sensor controls, much like the Wii remote. Hell, the same as the Wii remote. They ripped them off, basically, the same as they did when they created the DualShock upon the introduction of the N64. That's business, I suppose. I should note that from what it seems from the conference (and their insistance that the controller "doesn't even need an external sensor"), that what the PS3 has is essentially a tilt sensor. So it can be controlled by moving it around, but the system can't know where the controller is in space, which is what the Wii does in addition to being tilt-sensitive. So they don't have everything Nintendo does.
But it's hard to imagine they're creating much competition for Nintendo anyway, after their next announcement. The system will launch worldwide November 11 in Japan and November 17 in the US and Europe, in two SKUs. One will feature a 20 gig hard drive, and the other will have a 60 gig drive. The prices of each are -- wait for it -- a staggering $500 for the 20 gig SKU and $600 for the 60. That's right, Sony wants consumers of the world to believe that the $500 unit is the cheap option.
In my humble estimation, Sony has taken a major blow here. They've got a bloated, expensive hunk of plastic with very little coming to it that actually looks interesting. Practically every game they showed on tape was a shooter of some sort, either an FPS or a GTA-type. Now they need to convince everyone that it's worth $500 for a new Metal Gear.
The original conference notes follow below:
4:12: They are, naturally, already 12 minutes late getting started. Apparently people are still being seated.
4:14: According to Club Skill, even Hideo Kojima is still in line to be seated.
4:18: There's still a big line waiting to get in. In the meantime, people have found their way into Sony's online press kit. Change the number in the URL to between 28887 and 28926 for various PS3 images.
4:27: Zzzz...
4:36: The Gamespot feed has switched to music, and it seems the show will be underway momentarily.
4:45:"Momentarily" obviously not meaning within the next ten minutes. At least the music on the feed finally went to stereo.
4:53: HOLY CRAP IT'S ACTUALLY STARTING
4:57: Kaz Hirai is out, talking about the PS2 right now. Over a billion software units have shipped for the PS2 worldwide.
4:59: Onto the PSP. Over 17 million PSPs sold, almost a million for every month it's been out. 47.3 million units of software sold.
5:00: Footage reel for PSP. Games include Syphon Filter, map and translation software, and.. uh.. a break dancing game. Seriously.
5:07: Now they're showing us how great the Playstation brand by having people from around the world talk about how cool blue discs are and god make it stop
5:12: 7 controllers can connect at once, gigabit network adapater. System will ship with HD
5:16: There will be playable titles at E3. Phil Harrison taking the stage.
5:18: Gran Turismo creator on stage, demonstrating GT HD, essentially a demo created for the show taking GT4 assets and upping them for the PS3.
5:21: He's playing it now (on what looked suspiciously like a DualShock 2 painted silver), but on a 30K web stream, it basically looks like GT4.
5:31: The PS3 controller? (unconfirmed)
5:34: They just demostrated some card battle game using the EyeToy in which you place cards on a board under the camera and can interact with them on the screen by moving them around on the board.
5:38: Kaz back on stage, talking about downloadable PSX games to the PSP. Shows a demonstration of Ridge Racer on the PSP.
5:41: That went over like a lead balloon, so on to Phil talking about microtransactions, even within games. Talking about downloading new music for their karaoke SingStar series.
:5:50: Just went through a frighteningly bad demonstration of Genji 2. It didn't look particularly great and the guy couldn't play worth a damn. Now they're demonstrating a racing game in which the PSP can be used as a real time wing mirror. I can't think of a more useless idea than that.
6:00: Demo reel rolls, mostly CG clips of things like the Getaway and Lair. The audience didn't even clap afterwards.
6:05: Footage of a couple more games, still with nothing that looks like gameplay.
6:09: Guy from Insomniac came on to actually play a game called Resistance: Fall of Man, and it's the first game to actually look kind of good. It's a typical FPS, but it has a lot of detail and things going on. And rendered almost entirely in the color brown.
6:15: Another demo reel, this time third parties. Virtua Fighter 5, Tekken, Virtua Tennis.. and then the stream cuts out. :(
6:22: Got the feed fixed, it seems all I missed was EA. So, nothing important. Oh ho!
6:40: FFXIII demo is pretty, MGS4 demo is shocking, but the big secret? Sony has ripped off Nintendo. The PS3 controller -- which is indeed just a DualShock -- has motion sensors basically the same as the Wii wand. Demonstrates it by playing Warhawk by moving the controller around, and looks really goofy doing it.
6:43 -- PS3 launch details: November 17 2006 in US, two SKUs, 20 gig HD unit $500, 60 gig $600. 2 million units shipped in the launch window. Jesus.
Comments
Wow, thats really shitty that Sony stole the motion sensor idea. I expected it but not from the launch controller. I wonder how Nintendo plans to respond to that. I'm willing to bet that if they package the wand peripherals with their respective games (which it seems like they might considering their notion for giving more bang for your buck) then they would still have an edge over the new DualShock, considering how manyt hings can be done with the wand because it's so basic that the standard features on the DualShock prevent it from reproducing certain things. Sword fights for example.
Aw hell, I'm just one pissed Nintendo Fanboy. I'm man enough to admit it. :(
Posted by: Mugsy | May 8, 2006 10:06 PM
I've added a note to the post about the sensor. Near as I can tell, it's essentially a tilt sensor. You can move the controller to control the game, but the system can't tell where the controller is in space, like the Wii remote. So there is one bit of difference.
Posted by: Ermac | May 8, 2006 10:19 PM
$600? Get the fuck out of here.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 9, 2006 3:47 AM
Shit. That was me. But seriously, $600? Get the fuck out of here.
Posted by: Jim | May 9, 2006 3:48 AM
What's hilarious is that the "cheap" option is utterly useless. Way to go Sony. My money is going to the Wii. No way am I spending $600 to play MGS4 (this is the only game I am interested in so far).
Posted by: Brinstar | May 9, 2006 6:49 AM
Well it's good to know that Nintendo can retain most of their originality in their controller, even if parts of it were ripped off.
FFXIII looks alright, but if it has a large price tag like XI did in addition to the ungodly price, I doubt it will be worth it.
Posted by: Mugsy | May 9, 2006 7:32 AM