[PBMY]™ Supreme Commander
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E3 2007: Sony Press Conference
July 11, 2007 - If you want to watch the conference instead of read about it, visit IGN Livewire and view our live stream!
11:04am: After a sweltering day in the sun with little shelter, Sony lets us in. Air conditioning... thank the maker!
11:13: Clayman, Dunham, Haynes, and Roper argue over which connection is the best with the available WiFi connections. Dunham is in charge, wins by default.
11:15: Female voice announces that audio and video devices are prohibited. We look back to throng of camera guys, room simultaneously takes an assload of flash photographs. Really chirpy techno music plays in the background.
11:20: Female voice is back -- says that we should take our seats as the presentation begins in 10 minutes. On a side note, the setup is futuristic and cool. Announcer sounds hot.
11:25: The program is going to begin in five minutes. The bass is getting out of control with this music. We expect dance scene from Matrix Reloaded to be reinacted any moment now...
11:29: One minute to go. We start debating whether or not we should shout "BEYOND!" at some point during the conference.
11:30: It's been a minute -- it hasn't started. People looking around for someone to hit "Go" switch.
11:32: Presentation starts. Montage of starts -- lots of weird shapes and colors with PSPs and button icons. Jack Tretton appears onscreen via his avatar in PlayStation Home. Looks a lot like him.
11:33: Tretton hits on some virtual ladies in "Home Square" (an outdoor environment). Jack takes the stage, makes a joke about his waistline and fly -- hopes to moonwalk and throw some high-fives.
11:37: Jack brings up new 80GB unit w/ MotorStorm and price drop for 60GB. Promises to show almost 50 games for PS2, PS3, PSP, and PSN during this presentation. Announces that several will be playable next door after show.
11:38: First up is PS2 -- 118 million units worldwide, $26 billion dollars in sales in US. More than 160 PS2 games coming in the next fiscal quarter.
11:40: PSP's turn. More than 9 million PSPs expected to ship this year; UMD sales are up, hardware sales are up (up 90% since April's price drop). More than 140 games coming for North America.
11:41: PSP game trailer montage. SOCOM: Tactical Strike, WipEout Pulse, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, NBA '08, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Silent Hill Origins, Patapon (a new game that's stylistically similar to LocoRoco, but with little tribes fighting it out), Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08, Sonic Rivals 2 (if it chopped anymore it could sell on QVC), The Sims 2 Castaway (looks cool, desert isle setting), SWAT: Target Liberty, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, and Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles. Whew...
11:46: Jack heads back into Home where his avatar talks with Kaz Hirai's avatar. Makes a Ridge Racer joke, Kaz decides to take the stage to talk about the PSP...
11:48: Kaz announces new PSP. 19% slimmer, 33% lighter, battery life longer, and expanded video capabilities. Available in September.
11:49: Hirai pulls up video of Spider-Man 2 on his PSP, presses a button, and the video suddenly appears on giant screen behind him. Part of the "display" function. Says that you can do the same thing with games, photos, and whatever else is on your PSP. New PSP will also allow you access PS3 and PC hard drives from anywhere in the world thanks to new connectivity options.
11:51: Kaz says that Japanese market will announce PSP plans soon. Jack takes stage, announces new "Ice Silver" PSP that will be offered in the "PSP Entertainment Pack." Will come with 1GB Memory Stick, Daxter, and UMD movie, "The Family Guy Frickin' Sweet Collection. Will be released for $199 US in September.
11:53: Frickin' Chewbacca comes out on the stage to Star Wars fanfare and announces PSP Star Wars Entertainment Pack. System is white with Darth Vader's image on back. Will ship with Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron. Expectg it at retail in October for $199. Trailer for the game plays and it's on to PSN...
11:56: There have been more than 20 million downloads on service since launch, two million users in seven months with 750,000 of them in North America.
11:58: Phil Harrison takes the stage to talk more about PSN. Says the two games he's about to show will be available in both PSN and Blu-ray formats. Announces that more than 80 first-party UMD games are in development. He's going to show us five of them.
12:00: First up, Japabn Studio game, "Echochrome." A black and white puzzler with an Escher-like design. The goal is to get from point A to point B while successfully navigating camera. It's very Crush-like. Looks cool and it will also be available on PSP.
12:01: WipEout HD and Pain talked about next. Warhawk and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation after that. Trailer for WipEout shown -- Clayman remarks, "Awesome, I'm buying a PS3." Visually it's very similar to old WipEout titles with excellent effects and smooth framerate. Pain trailer shown next, similar to what we saw a few months ago. Still, looks like mindless fun.
Dylan Jobe interview onscreen, talking abot Warhawk with new footage. David Seymore video interview is next. New SOCOM footage, side-by-side with PS2 games, confirms Blu-ray and PSN simul-release. Looks good if not a little framey.
12:05: It's Home's turn. Says beta program is going well and that Sony is on target for fall release. Phil announces that he has the XMB and Home service on Mobile phone. It's for users when they are away from their PS3. Phil decides to take a picture of crowd with his Sony Erickson phone.
Phil also announces that the Home Square will replace the indoor space that people see now as the main hub. Harrison's avatar is walking around the area exploring -- cuts to video of new spaces coming soon. Japanese gardens, cliff overlooks, lakesides, and ski lodge locations are among those shown.
12:10: SingStar played up. Phil claims that it's the most popular music game worldwide. After a quick promo of SingStar, Phil walks through his home space and shows that the picutre he took earlier is on the wall. Photos taken via phone will appear in Home automatically, it seems. Home also has a social networking feature that allows you to send pictures to friends for blogging and other things.
To close, Phil announces that players can launch any game from Home (regardless of whether its Blu-ray, PSN, or whatever). Shows this feature off by launching a worldwide game of MotorStorm in a new map called "Eagle's Nest" that will be available next month.
12:15: Jack Tretton comes back to the stage to talk about PS3. Goes back to PS3 80-gig talk, says that Sony's main goal is to broaden its installed base, which leads into the $100 price drop for the 60-gig unit. Apparently, since Monday's price drop, PS3 sales have doubled at the top 5 retail outlets in North America. In all, Sony expects to ship 11 million PS3s by year's end. Jack also touts Blockbuster's announcement of carrying "Blu-ray only" in its stores.
12:19: Tretton announces that NCSoft has signed with Sony to create exclusive content for the PS3 (based on original IPs and all-new ones). Ubisoft also announces that Haze will be coming to the PS3 exclusively (for more, check our exclusive Q&A with the team in just a few minutes, along with HD trailer and new screens).
12:22: Haze trailer plays. Emphasizes the ability to play both the good guys and the bad guys and the option to "Play Dead" when on the Rebel side.
12:23: Sony announces a multi-stage deal with Midway and Epic. Unreal Engine 3 is being optimized for PS3 and that Unreal Tournament 3 will be a PS3 exclusive this year. As an added bonus, and will support user-mods created by PC users. New trailer shown, it looks... well, fantastic really. Expect it in November.
12:26: Montage of other third-party PS3 games coming to the PS3 -- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Resident Evil 5, Burnout Paradise, Madden NFL 08, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Simpsons Game, Guitar Hero II: Legends of Rock, Medal of Honor Airborne, and Rock Band round out the lineup.
12:32: Tretton takes the stage to show the "PS3 exclusive" Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Creator Hideo Kojima and his translator take the stage to talk about it.
"I safely made it to E3," says Kojima. "The game is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month -- and while I've been on the series for 20 years, this game will be the grand finale for the series. The story of Snake will end and this will be my last take on this series. All the mysteries, plotlines, and other story points will be revealed."
Kojima continues, "I'm putting everything I have into MGS4 and today I brought it with me. What we're showing you isn't a trailer, it's the game."
12:36: The footage rolls. It is confirmed that Snake is being sent to assassinate Liquid Snake. Following radio conversation with the Campbell, Meryl is shown leading an army towards liquid. In the middle of the assault, the soldiers are stricken with some kind of sickness and start fighting amongst themselves. Just as it appears that the squad is about to be taken out, Raiden shows up and starts kicking ass all over the place. Cue an incredible battle between Raiden and Vamp. There are stabbings, blood, and all sorts of crazy s**t going on. It's nuts!
Finally, MGS4 is confirmed for early 2008 and it will be released worldwide simultaneously. E3 will only have a trailer, but Kojima announces that he will be giving a live demo of the game next week in Tokyo. He asks the crowd what they thought and they clap loudly.
12:45: Phil Harrison is back, both on the stage and onscreen in Home in a Ratchet and Clank outfit. Cut to video of Brain Allgeir from Insomniac talking about Ratchet Future (13 million units of the franchise shown worldwide!).
Folklore trailer is next, introduced by producer Eric Fong. New footage and areas are shown. Adventure, action, RPG elements highlighted.
Heavenly Sword is up next and there's a special Home space dedicated to it. Trailer shows a quick overview of Nariko and her story with scenes of new areas and enemies. NBA '08 is up next. Better visuals, new movesm and other elements are highlighted.
Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet is next. "Play, Create, Share" is the tagline. Today, Sony wants to focus on the creation aspect. Footage shown includes several bulding montages. Trees, bridges and all sorts of things are being made on the fly using the in-game interface.
Final game to be shown is Naughty Dog's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Studio head Evan Wells talks it up and shows off some badass video. Gunfights, explosions and various other action sequences abound.
12:54pm: Phil announces new Sucker Punch game. The premise is that you can become a super hero or an Anti-hero. Official title is "Infamous." Electricity powers and levitation shown by the main hero and it looks awesome -- coming exclusively to PS3 in 2008.
12:56: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue coming to PS3 soon as a precursor to GT5. It will have full online capabilities and looks like CG. No joke. The texture work and lighting effectgs are crazy.
1:00: Phil pretends that he is done with show. Jack says, aren't you forgetting something? Phil says, "Yes -- everything you're about to see is real-time."
BOOM! Crazy good looking landing footage with fantastic detail; looks a lot like the trailer shown 2 years ago. Dude shown onscreen playing the game to prove it's happening -- visual effects are phenomenal. Very Call of Duty-like. Cool animations. The game looks like it will rule. Crowd erupts into applause at end. Very impressive.
1:04pm: Jack hits the stage for the final time. Thanls crowd for coming. Event over.
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Jul 9 2007, 06:53 PM
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i think i need an IQ above 180 to play this game.. good stuff from Sony. Very creative.
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