Sony was the last to showcase their gaming offerings to the world today with their E3 conference that spanned 2 hours in length. The show was packed full of games, information, release dates and surprise announcements that shocked many. There is plenty to cover so without further distraction, here is the Sony wrap-up.
In typical Sony fashion, the conference started with a montage of games, spanning this generation; followed by the introduction of Jack Tretton onto the stage. He opened by thanking everyone that was in attendance and even dedicated the show to not only those present, but to all of Sony’s consumers. He then went on to speak about the Vita, saying that by years end, several Vita games would be released including Final Fantasy X and X-2 HD remakes, God of War 1 and 2 HD remakes, and Batman: Arkham City Origins, just to name a few. He then jumped to The Walking Dead Game, revealing that the 400 Days DLC would be available by the summer. But that wasn’t all as Sony would also release a Vita Bundle, package with The Walking Dead and the 400 Days DLC.
Jack Tretton continued on to reveal several upcoming Playstation 3 games, including Puppeteer, Beyond: Two Souls (scheduled for October 8th), Gran Turismo 6, and Batman: Arkham City Origins (scheduled for October 25th) He later revealed that the Playstation 3 had around 300 Games that were still incoming for the system.
Andrew House then came on to the stage to discuss the Playstation 4. He wasted little time in revealing what the console would look like. The Playstation 4 is a black parallel box that is slick and slimmer then the Xbox One.
Shu Yoshida walks onto the stage and wastes no time in revealing new games. Before however, he stresses that Sony Worldwide are working on 40 Playstation 4 games, 20 of which will be released within the first year of the Playstation 4’s life. Now, it was onto the games as a new IP developed by ReadyatDawn is revealed, called The Order. The Order, upon release, will be available exclusively for the Playstation 4. He then went on to reveal more footage for all games seen at the reveal of the Playstation 4, as well as giving them release dates. Killzone: Shadow Fall, Knack, and DriveClub will all be release titles, with Infamous: Second Son being released Q1 2014.
Another new IP is revealed, in the form of The Dark Sorcerer, with footage revealed. Something I found interesting was that the dark sorcerer had a familiar look. His head was the demo that was shown at the Playstation 4 reveal to showcase the machines power. The trailer was dramatic, shaping up The Dark Sorcerer to be an RPG but the tone quickly shifts the camera pans out, revealing a a green screen and a set.
One of the biggest announcements came when Square-Enix came onto the stage, re-introducing us to an old friend. Final Fantasy Versus 13 finally got a brand new trailer that looked absolutely amazing. After the trailer, a sequence appeared and Versus 13 became Final Fantasy XV, also revealing it for the Playstation 4. But there was one more surprise in store. Another video came on, chronicling the Kingdom Hearts franchise and personally, I thought it was to announce Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remixed but I was proven wrong. After a scene that showed Sora picking up a keyblade, the screen faded to black and rfinally revealed Kingdom Hearts 3, currently in development and also coming to Playstation 4.
Gameplay from both Assassin’s Creed 4 and Watch Dogs was also shown, with the latter announced to include an extra hour of content and a costume for Aiden Pierce. Elder Scrolls Online is later shown and it is revealed to be aiming for a Spring 2014 release date and as more good news, the beta will be available first for Playstation 4 owners.
Jack Tretton rejoined us on the stage and revealed the policies that would be implemented with the Playstation 4. He stated that the PS4 will not do away with used gaming. As he finished his sentence, the crowd roared in cheers and applauds but Jack wasn’t finished. He then revealed in a very smug manner that you would not need to be connected to the internet in order to play and you will not be expected to check in once every 24 hours. The System will not lock itself if the user does not check-in within 24 hours. The crowd roared even louder as it was clear that Jack Tretton, and Sony, we taking shots at Microsoft and their policies that they had implemented with the Xbox One.
It was also revealed that your current Playstation Plus membership would carry over to PS4. Not only that, but upon release, DriveClub Playstation Plus edition will be made available for free, with a new title being added every month afterwards. Gameplay footage was then shown for Destiny in a world premiere and it looked beautiful and ran smoothly. There were also signs of loot hunting and what seemed like talent trees.
That was the end of the conference but Sony still had one more announcement up their sleeve. Andrew House came out onto stage again and revealed the price of the Playstation 4. Upon release, it will cost $399 for North American users, with European versions costing 399 Euros and 349 Pounds. Still a rather steep price for our brothers overseas when taking money conversion into account.
Thus concluded the Sony press conference, missing only a targeted release month for the Playstation 4. It was plain to see that Sony came out with a mission and wanted to make sure that they assured us that the Playstation 3 would be supported well after the release of the Playstation 4. But one has to wonder what sort of responses Microsoft will have for some of the smug remarks from Jack Tretton, basically stating that Microsoft’s policies were garbage, and calling them out on their decisions for the Xbox One.
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