[E3 2010] All About Sony’s Press Conference

3D Gaming Coming Right Away

Sony had their press conference today at E3 2010 and revealed their plans to enable 3D gaming right away. The president of Sony’s Networked Products and Services group, Kaz Hirai, touted the company’s “end-to-end” 3D offerings, from the Bravia 3D TVs Sony released previously to the new roster of 3D enabled games for the Playstation 3. Hirai said games like Super Stardust, pain, and Wipeout, as well as more than 20 additional titles will all on the roster of 3D games released by the end of 2010. He mentions even more 3D titles will be coming next year, including blockbuster titles such as Killzone 3, Mortal Kombat, NBA 2K11, and Gran Turismo 5.

After 3D gaming, the second major part of Sony’s announcements was about the new motion-controller system, the PlayStation Move, which it first unveiled at E3 a year ago and talked more aobut in detail in March at the Game Developers Conference. Senior Vice President of marketing and the PlayStation Network, Peter Dille, boasted how the Move benefits from having three sensors that provide its pointing and motion capabilities, which allowed Sony’s publisher partners to focus on development and not worry about the device’s technology. He also mentioned how the PlayStation Move will be available in Europe on September 15, in North America on September 19, and in Japan on October 21. The price was said to be $50, while an accessory, the Navigation Controller, will run $30. Sony will be offering a number of bundles, including a $100 sports package featuring a Move controller, a PlayStation Eye camera, a Sports Champions Blu-ray game, and a PlayStation Move demo disc. For $400, Sony is offering another bundle that has everything in the package mentioned before plus a PlayStation 3. Sony then proceeded to uncover some of the games that will be coming out that will be enabled for Move. The titles included Sorcery, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, and a brand-new game that included many of the previous PlayStation games called Heroes on the Move (Sony’s answer to Super Mario All Stars.)

PSP - Still Alive and Kicking

The next big announcement that Sony made was about the PlayStation Portable (PSP), rumors of a new PSP coming were shot down. Sony Computer Entertainment of America president and CEO Jack Tretton talked about the handheld and boasted about titles such as the Metal Gear Solid package which recently hit shelves for the PSP and further discussed new exclusives that are soon to come such as God of War: Ghost of Sparta and Invizimals. Game such as Tron: Evolution, Toy Story 3, Madden NFL 11, EyePet, and many others were coming to the previously rumored “dying” handheld system.  All in all, 70 new PSP titles were mentioned to be released by December.

Little Big Planet 2

Next up, Media Molecule’s Alex Evans came up to the stage to announce Little Big Planet 2, the follow-up to the very popular Little Big Planet. The sequel to the popular game is said to be released later in 2010 and will allow players not just to make all-new levels as they could in the original, but to make entirely new games including racers, RTS games, side-scrollers, RPGs, and more.

PlayStation Plus - Premium PSN Service

The last thing that Sony discussed which has been rumored for a long time now, was the PlayStation Plus, a new service that for $50 a year or $18 for three months, will give subscribers a wide selection of new downloadable titles, new content for existing games, discounts on things in the PlayStation Store, and more.

Sony then had a wide variety of developers come up to the stage to announce some titles that will be introduced to the PS3 in the upcoming year. These included Medal of Honor, Valve’s Portal 2, SOCOM 4, Killzone 3, Dead Space 2, Mafia II, Madden NFL 11, NBA 211, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, Sports Champions, Te Fight: Lights Out, NCAA Football 11, EyePet, gran Turismo 5, ModNation Racers, Motor Storm Apocalypse, True Crime, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, Mortal Kombat, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Dead Nation, Sorcery, DC Universe Online, The Sly Collection, Tron: Evolution, Final Fantasy XIV, and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.