Sony’s 2009 E3 Press Conference can be viewed here.  See also my 2008 Sony E3 coverage. Click on images below for larger views.

Exclusive PS3 Games Shown

 God of War III:  (demo’d – coming March 2010 ) Looks terrific! Except, that is,  for Sony’s continued reliance on quick time events in boss battles. Grrr! But I still can’t wait GoW 1 and 2 were terrific games.

Gran Turismo 5 (polyphony – teaser trailer – still no ship date) – photo realistically gorgeous as you’d expect – first time cars show damage in this franchise – still a SIM that is likely only playable by extreme racing gamers.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (demo’d – naughty dog – no ship date – multi-player beta starting immediately) I’m looking forward to this one! Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is still my favorite PS3 game to date. Demo looked terrific but the female lead has changed. Elena Fisher seems to be gone  

MAG: ‘Massive Action Game’ (demo’d – zipper interactive) – 256 online players can play at once – was announced at last year’s Sony E3 press conference – It looked impressive! I wonder how they’ll ever get teams of 126 people to work together under a few commanders. In my experience, everyone wants to be the commander in online shooters.

Final Fantasy XIV (trailer shown – square enix – 2010) – This being an exclusive was a surprise as was a scheduled 2010 release date – has online play – to be released in the same year as FF13.

MODnation  Racer (demo’d) A customizable cart racer that embodies the play, create, share philosophy of Little Big planet. Users can create and share race tracks, carts and players. They created a track onstage in minutes.

Last Guardian (trailer shown – by Fumito Ueda, creator of Shadow of the Colossus – no date).  A little boy befriends a gigantic dog-creature and take on the world together. That was one compelling trailer!

Agent (Rockstar – announced only) A third party spy thriller coming exclusively to PS3 but not demo’d. No date announced.

Non-Exclusive PS3 Games Demo’d

Assassin’s Creed 2 (ubisoft – holiday 2009) – Set in Italian Renaissance,  in Venice – 30 weapon types – now with guns (or at least ‘a’ gun)! Includes a ‘flying machine’ invented by DeVinci – Looks good. I’m looking forward to playing it on the Xbox360!

Final Fantasy XIII: (teaser – no game play shown – square enix – spring 2010) Looked good – pretty much the same as it looked on the 360 yesterday.

New PS3 Motion Controller

New PS3 Motion Controller: The controller has a glowing sphere that the PlayStation eye-toy can track. The demo was more impressive than the Nintendo Wii Motion Plus demo and much  more realistic than the Microsoft motion control demo.

PSP Announcements:

PSP Go: (no surprise – was leaked days in advance) Will not replace PSP 3000 – slide-out controls – integrated wifi & bluetooth – plays same games as earlier PSPs – 50% smaller & 40% lighter than original PSP – 16 GB flash memory – expandable memory – movie and game downloads – $249 U.S. – available Oct 1. in U.S./Europe

Media Go: PC app store for the PSP Go – used to transfer pictures, music and movies to PSP – All PSP titles to be available via downloads going forward. ‘Sense Me’ application to create custom music playlists on PSP

Movies & TV on PSP: PS3 video delivery service announced last year coming natively to PSP. Note: It’s still not available in Canada  

PSP Trailers Shown

Gran Turismo PSP (polyphony – Oct 1, 2009) 60 fps – 800 cars – 35 tracks – 65 layouts in tracks – single and 4 person multi-player modes – trading and sharing cars.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (konami – 2010) 10 years after MGS 3 – true sequel on PSP – set in the 70s – Kojima writing the script

PS3 Notes

• 22 million PS3s sold globally in 2008 – anticipate 13 million PS3s to be sold in 2010 (I’m not sure if I have these numbers right)
• 35 Playstation exclusives coming this year (presumably including on PS2 games)
• 6.5 million ‘Playstation Home’ users (85% return users) – though I don’t know why. Home bites!

PSP Notes

• Games Coming in 2009: They showed a video of many PSP games coming in 2009 including Resident Evil, Little Big Planet, Socom Fire Team Bravo 3,  Motorstorm Arctic Edge & Harry Potter.
• 24 million users – 11 million in North America
• 200 titles on PSP so far – 90 are exclusive
• Adding Final Fantasy 7 to PSP lineup as of June 2, 2009
• Decreasing price of PSP development tools

PS2 Notes

• Intend to keep PS2 alive beyond 10 years
• sold 9 million more PS2s in 2008
• 100 new PS2 titles coming out in 2009

Live Blog Coverage

• 1Up.com
• CrunchGear
• Engadget
• Gamasutra
• Gizmodo
• Joystiq

My Thoughts

The press conference and list of PS3 exclusives shown were better than I expected. I’d put the press conference on par with the Microsoft press conference.

I was impressed with their marrying of a motion controller with high-end graphics. Though, as with Microsoft’s Natal, they are still only in the prototype stage.

I was a bit surprised that Sony did not announce any social networking functionality like Microsoft and Nintendo did.

The modding functionality of the MODnation game was terrific. The question is, of course, how easy will it be for users to share their mods and what will the limitations be?

The two PS3 game exclusives I’m most looking forward to are God of War III and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Nintendo’s 2009 E3 Press Conference can be viewed here. This has to be the most boring E3 conference I’ve ever watched.  See also: My 2008 Nintendo E3 coverage.

Announcements

• Multiplayer Mario co-op: (holiday 2009 – yawn)
• Wii Fit Plus: 6 new exercise modes, 15 new balance games, available as software-only (fall 2009)
• User Generated Content: Some user generated DS content initiatives discussed:
  • FlipNotes Studio: animation drawing app (this summer)
  • WarioWare DIY: Microgame creator
  • Mario v. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again – level editor and online sharing (DSi – June 8, 2009).
  • Will be able to upload DSi pictures to Facebook this summer.
•  Wii Vitality Sensor: Monitor health, pulse. Some kind of health / relaxation / stress diagnostics tool (no release date)
• Super Mario Galaxy 2: New 3D Mario game

Retreads

The following were previously announced but demo’d at the show.

• Wii Motion Plus: Provides more precision control. This was announced at last year’s E3 press conference.
• Wii Sports Resort – archery and basketball shown (July 25, 2009)

DS Games Shown

• Kingdom Hearts
• Mario Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (this fall)
• Golden Sun
• Women’s Murder Club: video book brought to DS and DSi
• Cop, the Recruit (Ubisoft)
• Style Savvy – (girls fashion game)
• Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

2009 Third Party Wii Exclusives

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (RPG – Square-Enix)
• Red Steel 2 (exclusive to Wii with Motion Plus controller)
• The Conduit (shooter – Sega – June 2009)
• Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (shooter – Capcom)
• Deadspace Extraction (EA)

Just One New Nintendo ‘Hardcore’ Wii Game

 Metroid Other M  (2010) That’s it! No other new Nintendo ‘hardcore’ games announced

Platform Numbers

• 15 Million Wii fit balance boards sold
• 100 million DS’s sold
• 1 million DSi’s sold in 2 months in America

Live Blog Coverage

• CrunchGear
• Engadget
• Gamasutra
• Gizmodo
• Joystiq

My Thoughts

This was slow and boring compared to yesterday’s Microsoft press conference.

Their focus was, once again, on audience diversity – bringing gaming to everyone. Little of interest to hard core gamers.

I appreciate their getting into the user-generated content space.

The third party exclusives and their one new ‘hardcore’ game were the only games that were somewhat interesting to me. Enough to purchase a Wii? Not even close.

The Microsoft Press Conference can be viewed here. See also: My 2008 Microsoft E3 coverage.

Big Announcements:

• Halo Reach: Bungie teased this new Halo game, set for a fall 2010 release. Whoo hoo! If its a Bungie shooter, and it has the name Halo on it, I’m in! Is ‘Noble 1’, Will Master Chief?
   
• Metal Gear Rising: The next Kojima / Konami Metal Gear game is coming to the Xbox!!! Holy Cow! The final coup de gras against Sony.  Kojima seemed genuinely happy to appear on stage for the announcement.
• Project Natal: A ‘controller free’ , full body motion capture, item scanning, facial and voice recognition. Will work on every 360. See demo here. I’ll believe it when I see it! I don’t believe the Lion’s Gate Milo demo pictured on right. It had to be heavily scripted (click for larger view).

New Console Features (coming this fall)

• last.fm coming to Xbox Live free (globally available)
• Netflix Queue on 360 will be manageable from Xbox Dashboard (no need to do it on PC anymore)
• HD download library being upgraded to full 1080p
• Instant 1080p HD Movies/TV – Worldwide: Faster movie downloads. Higher high def. Doubling number of countries where HD TV/video content will be available from 8 to 18
• Facebook on Xbox 360 (very much an Xbox 360 look)
• Titter coming to Xbox Live

Microsoft Exclusives Coming

• Shadow Complex – An Epic Games Xbox 360 exclusive arcade – reminds me of Little Big Planet. A side scroller. Bizarre!
• Joy Ride – a free Xbox Live bumper car-type game that uses your Xbox 360 avatar (next winter)
• Crackdown 2 (can’t wait – crackdown 1 was a big surprise when I first played it)
• Left 4 Dead 2 – zombies in the daylight! (Nov 17, 2009)
• Splinter Cell Conviction – Wow! looks very different from prior Splinter Cell games (fall 2009)
• Forza Motorsport 3 (Oct 2009)
• Halo 3 ODST – is it me or are the Halo graphics starting to look dated? (Sept 22, 2009)
• Halo Reach (fall 2010)
• Alan Wake (spring 2010 – looked interesting). This game is from the makers of one of my all time favourites – Max Payne. Can’t wait!

New Skateboard Peripheral

Non-Exclusive Demos Shown

• Beatles Rock Band. Likenesses of the Beatles sing and play along as you play the game.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward – looked great!)
• Final Fantasy XIII (spring 2010)
• Tony Hawk Ride – using new skateboard peripheral (see below)

Live Blog Coverage:

• CrunchGear
• Engadget
• Gamasutra
• Gizmodo
• Joystiq

My Thoughts

I enjoyed their focus on games and not things like console sales or attach rates.  I’m most looking forward to Halo Reach, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo ODST, Crackdown 2 and Alan Wake.

I don’t believe that Project Natal will do all that it is promising. It seems to be more a ‘vision’, ‘proof of concept’, or ‘goal’. As far as I know, no actual shipping product was announced.

I’m delighted to see that Microsoft has finally got the last major PS3 third-party exclusive franchise (metal gear) coming to the 360.

I was disappointed that there were no more details about Zune HD integration. I continue to be sad that Microsoft continues on with its ridiculous Microsoft Points system.

 [Update: Post press conference Microsoft announced FULL game downloads for real money (not Microsoft Points) via credit card. This is a big deal! Coming in August. See this Gizmodo post. Still sketchy on details – whether it will apply to other content like HD movie downloads.]

While Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm are nice, I won’t use them on the 360 – especially without a keyboard.

Sony Movie and TV Service: The biggest ‘news’ of the Sony press event was the U.S. launch, today, of the previously announced (see here) video service. Sony, Fox, MGM, Lion’s Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount and Turner Entertainment have partnered with Sony to provide movie and TV content for the on-demand download service. The system uses progressive downloads so users can watch as a movie/TV show as it downloads. Sony says, content is playable a minute or so after ordering. Purchased content only plays on PS3 and PSP. No PC, iPod, iPhone or other device support was announced. No official word yet on how long rentals will be available for viewing – one site mentioned that it will be the usual 24 hours and 14 days to start.

Note: While the previous announcement stated that a service like this would be made available ‘world-wide’, I checked my PS3 in Canada and there was no such content available. Note the "video" button circled in red in the picture above (click for larger view). If it isn’t there, no movies for you!

Resistance 2: They showed a little of Resistance 2. It’s looking good and includes 8 player online co-op support (probably only for certain missions). I quite enjoyed Resistance 1 so I’m looking forward to this one. What is it with the ‘brown’ colour in all the PS3 and 360 games this year?

Massive Action Game ("MAG"): This massively multiplayer shooter looked interesting. MAG supports up to 256 simultaneous players with 8 player squads, ongoing faction campaigns and character growth. The trailer looked great. It’s hard to imagine that 255 players will follow a command hierarchy that goes up to one or two generals. In my experience 8 players will rarely ever co-operate in an online shooter battle. I’ll have to see this one to believe it. See the blatantly pre-rendered trailer below.

God of War 3 Teaser Trailer: A teaser trailer was shown [watch here]. I enjoyed God of War I and II so I’m definitely looking forward to God of War III. I’m a little nervous with the departure of David Jaffe from the project however.

No Killzone 2 Update: Given how Killzone 2 has been played up by Sony over the last several E3’s it was surprising that it wasn’t even mentioned this year.

Worldwide News Service: As part of the movie and TV service the Playstation Network will provide a ‘world-wide’ news service.  This is to be launched by the end of July. No word on whether ‘world-wide’ means available outside the U.S. or not.

Gran Turismo TV via GT5 Prologue: (Aug 1): Yet another TV-like service was announced. Watch real world racing programming through the PS3 – but only if you own the GT5 Prologue game.

Downloadable Ratchet & Clank: Sony announced that there will be downloadable Ratchet and Clank games over PSN.

Game-Specific Theme Lobbies in Playstation Home: The long-over-due Playstation Home was briefly mentioned and they showed a new ‘feature’ where player avatars can "hang out" and wander around with other player avatars inside games – in a Warhawk hanger or a bar in Drake’s Fortune for example. I hadn’t see this before. I’m assuming these are game-specific lobbies. Otherwise I don’t know why any gamer would want to use these.

Developer Testimonials: I found the high-profile developer testimonials to be interesting. There’s been very little praise from the developer community about  PS3 game development. It was nice to see that ameliorated somewhat by seemingly realistic praise from real-world developers. It seems like they are getting used to developing games on the multi-core system.

132 New PS2 Titles: Amazingly, Sony announced that 132 new titles will ship for the PS2 in this, its 9th year.

Additional Coverage: Engadget | Gizmodo

And nothing happened. Nothing captured my interest and certainly nothing was announced to satisfy the hard-core gamers.

New Products

Wii Speak: A microphone that sits atop the TV that picks up all the sounds and voices from a room. This will be used in games in lieu of a headset. But the Wii doesn’t have a system-wide voice system (let alone a decent online game strategy). This will need to be supported from game to game.

Wii MotionPlus: An add-on that plugs into the WiMote to add wrist based twisting motions to its repertoire of recognized real-time movements. One wonders how developers are going to appreciate the burden of developing titles that work with both the WiiMote alone and with the MotionPlus adapter.[gizmodo review here]

Wii Sports Resort: A new game, similar to Wii Sports, but situated at a beach resort. They demoed Frisbee throwing (with a cute dog catching it), sword fighting and lumber chopping. This game uses the new Wii Motion Plus for accuracy. Coming March 2009.

Wii Music:  A new music game featuring 50 virtual instruments was announced. A virtual piano, violin, sax and drum kit were demonstrated. Unlike Rock Band and Guitar Hero, the user doesn’t need to purchase physical plastic instruments. Nor do they follow note patterns on a screen to play. The instruments are ‘virtual’. Waiving/moving the WiiMote around in a manner similar to the instrument being played simulates the instrument. The virtual drum kit (see picture below) that uses the WiiMote and Numchuk as the drumsticks and a WiiFit board as the drum peddle was clever. But the other instruments looked like little more than air-instruments where regardless of what the user does some facsimile of music will be produced. Lame. And it sounded pretty awful. [more info here]

Animal Crossing: Animal crossing is coming to the Wii.

Statistics Can Say Anything

Nintendo used statistics to contrast the first ‘19′ months of sales on each console. For example Nintendo pointed out that in the 360’s first 19 months they had just 126 games on the market compared to Wii’s 246 in their first 19 months. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant because the 360 is in its 32nd month and by the end of 2008 there will be 1,000 games out on the 360 and about 300 for the Wii. 

Nintendo also failed to mention that their attach rate (the number of games sold per console) is the worst of the three current devices with Microsoft doing circles around the other two. Microsoft has sold more games for the 360 than the Wii and the PS3 combined. This is somewhat astonishing given that the Wii has outsold the 360 2-1. Console owners are playing the 360 far more frequently and playing more games on it than they are the PS3 and the Wii. Most Wiis are sitting unused and collecting dust on shelves around the world. Once the initial novelty of Wii Sports has worn off most Wii’s are rarely used again.

Finally, Nintendo failed to point out that almost all of the big selling Wii titles are Nintendo franchise retreads. Third party games are largely selling poorly on the Wii.

I applaud their initiative to grow the market to grandmas and non-gamers. But the Wii is no longer a main-stream gaming machine. It’s a mass-market toy.

Now, the DS, that’s another story. Kudos to Nintendo for outstanding sales on an outstanding portable game playing device.

Additional Coverage: Engadget | Gizmodo

(Click image to watch abridged version of Microsoft’s 2008 E3 press briefing)

[Full Microsoft E3 2008 coverage is here]

A new Dashboard Interface for the 360: It’s coming this fall. [ Watch demo here]It’s nicer than, but seems influenced by, the PS3 ribbon. It looks like it will be easier to use than the current blade system. I question whether people will want to learn a whole new interface.

Avatars coming on 360: Looks like Microsoft is trying to bring a bit of the Wii and Playstation Home to the 360. I’m not sure if my adult friends will take the time to create their own avatars.

Integrated Netflix coming to the 360: Netflix users will be able to queue up their Internet ordered videos to be played on the 360. This probably won’t be available outside of the U.S. for years (if ever). Regrettably, it appears that movies will only be streamed through the Netflix service and not downloaded. This means (i) fastforwarding and rewinding will janky; and (ii) the quality of the picture will vary depending on your Internet connection speed.

Final Fantasy XIII Coming to the 360! The hitherto PS3 exclusive franchise is coming to the 360 on the same day and date as the PS3. Final Fantasy XIII coming to the 360 is another Microsoft coup. Other than Sony Studios first party games and Metal Gear Solid, I can’t think of any major game franchise that is a PS3 exclusive any more. Interestingly there will be no Japanese 360 version.

Live Game Shows: Microsoft announced a partnership with the Endemol U.S. subsidiary of the Dutch Endemol, a major game show producer, to create live game-show like games playable during prime time, through the Xbox with up to 100 other participants. Real world prizes will be winnable.

Exclusive Portal Something?: Coming this fall. Something related to Portal will be exclusive to the 360. I originally inferred that new levels would be available. But it really wasn’t clear what Microsoft is offering here. If its just the original Portal game split out of the entire Orange Box package I won’t be impressed. Too bad I’ll need to pay for whatever this is with Microsoft Points denominated in 2006 Canadian dollars. 

New Cross-Game Party System: Just as you can party-up in Halo and play with your friends from Halo match to Halo match, soon you’ll be able to party up with your friends and move from game to game – not just within one game. I have expected this for over a year. It’ll be interesting to see how they integrate this into prior games (if possible). More interestingly, incorporating this function into the interface frees up developers from the burden of recreating the wheel every time they want to add party system functionality to a game. Fantastic!!

Sharing Movies with Friends Over XBox Live: Soon 360 users will be able to pop the popcorn, sit down and watch movies with other 360 users – across the city or across the country. Presumably users will be able to talk about the movie through the headset while watching. The implication of the announcement was that only one user needed to purchase/rent the movie for all the friends to share. If this is not the case and all users have to separately purchase/rent the movie, this will be less interesting. I’m not sure if this will be limited only to movies rented through the new Netflix feature or not. It’s also highly probable that this will not work across international borders or be available outside the U.S.

Music Games: Lot’s of new music for both Rock Band and Guitar Hero was announced. I dislike the trend of tying up bands to exclusive contracts with one game or the other. This in no way benefits the users. It keeps the purchasers of one music game from accessing music that is tied to the other game. Just like guitars that can’t be played from one game to the other, some songs/bands will be exclusive to specific games. Sad. I do like Guitar Hero’s decision to make songs purchased with prior versions being playable on future versions. That is a much needed improvement.

Games: No new blockbuster games were announced.

• Gears of War 2 (exclusive): Gears was the only game that I’m interested in. But I was interested in it already. Co-op will return and bot play is being introduced. (Nov 7, 2008)
• Fable 2 (exclusive): I didn’t like Fable I, so I’m not looking forward to Fable 2. I did like that they introduced co-op into an RPG though.
• Fallout 3 (not exclusive - by Bethesda, the same gang that brought us Oblivion). The demo was disappointing. So far I’m not seeing what all the fuss is about. But then again, I’m not an RPG fan. One thing is for sure. You’ll be able to dismember enemies in seemingly infinite gruesome ways.
• Resident Evil 5 (not exclusive): The wonky Nintendo centric control system, camera fighting and on-rails game play made the prior Resident Evils unplayable to me. This one looks like it may be playable. But killing thousands of mindless zombies doesn’t appeal. As with Fable 2 and Gears 2, I’m happy to see the inclusion of online co-op once again.

I especially like the emphasis on online coop shown in these games. After years of anticipation, online coop now seems to be a permanent feature of major game titles.

Additional Coverage: Engadget | Gizmodo