Taking place in America’s Playground, Las Vegas, CES presented the opportunity for geeks from around the globe to gather around in awe over the latest and greatest in electronics. Everything from high def televisions, cameras, video recorders, car tech, music & sound tech, mobile devices, videogames and so on. CES had it all for four days.

From a videogame standpoint, the event was pretty small but that did not stop Sony from making a huge showing in relation to the PlayStation brand. Now that the show is over, a few members from the PlayStation Universe staff: Dave, Danny, Sarad, and Justin have all discussed their opinions on the show. How did Sony fare? What were their hits and misses? It is all discussed in PSU’s first roundtable of the year.

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Dave Wales (Editor, Journalist)

The Consumer Electronics Show of 2008 came and went again with a flurry of high profile announcements that involved the Sony brand name. A little over a year has passed since the PlayStation 3 was released and a lot of questions were raised about whether Sony knew what they were doing or not. Tons of poor marketing decisions were made that caused consumers to question the company on a large scale. However, it’s now a year after all of the smoke and mirrors and we’re officially on the eve of a Sony takeover of the gaming world for the third time straight.

A lot of people had doubts about Sony delaying the console’s release date to implement the ability to play Blu-ray discs. Fortunately, it’s looking like this was a decision that is going to pay off big time for the Japanese giants, with a multitude of Blu-ray information and earth shattering news hitting the headlines out of Vegas. For many, the most crucial development was from Time Warner, who announced that they would back the Blu exclusively this year and bring its 70% of the Hollywood market with it. This announcement literally sank the competition. Following Time Warner was the umbrella of companies below it, including New Line Home Entertainment, HBO, and the separate entity known as Constantine Film.

This all caused a tornado to pass through CES as the HD DVD camp canceled their press conference and there were no release dates given for future HD DVD’s by any company at the event. Paramount has also let slip that they have an escape clause that allows them to support Blu-ray once more companies have taken the same path as Warner. It’s believed that the company will announce its change in February; for now, however, this should be treated strictly as a rumor.

Meanwhile, Universal’s contract with HD DVD is up and it seems as though no plans have been made to renew it. A lot of people believe this is because Universal is going to test the waters of supporting both formats to see how it pans out. If either of these two companies took that leap to support dual-format, the end is within months for HD DVD.

In regards to the gaming department at Sony, the news was just as big and just as exciting as it was for the Blu camp. The PSP has been announced to have a slew of new updates coming that are sure to sell even more units. Among these updates is the implementation of Skype, a VOiP system allowing PSP users to phone other Skype users anywhere in the world, free of charge. Along with VOiP, we will be seeing the GPS navigation ability that will allow you to download city maps with points of interests such as nightclubs and restaurants. It will also allow you the ability to get point-to-point directions as well.

The PlayStation 3 had a strong showing as consumers got the opportunity to be reaffirmed that Metal Gear Solid 4 would be a PS3 exclusive, despite rumors suggesting it will eventually be ported to the Xbox 360. Kojima has also stated that there will be no delays with his key title as the company has announced that it is ... (continued on next page)