The overall reaction to Sony’s press conference at E3 earlier this week was positive. Here are our personal impressions on the speech:
Bhavin Shah, Editor & Journalist:
Sony did a fantastic job this year. Granted it wasn’t the spectacular showing from 2005, but at least this year everything was real, and it was signficantly better than their performance at E3 2006.
The focus at their conference was clearly games, games and more games. And it was great. It’s been a uphill struggle to justify the $500 and $600 price points, but hopefully consumers will find the investment a little more justified now.
Games of note were, of course, Killzone and MGS4, as well as 2007 exclusives Unreal Tournament 3 and Haze, Uncharted, Gran Turismo 5, which simply looked incredible, and, whilst not a game in the traditional sense, PlayStation Home.
The great thing about the Sony conference was that there were no awkward silences and no PowerPoint slides with an exec harping on about how great Sony has been for the industry (Nintendo did more than enough of this). For an hour and a half, Jack Tretton and Phil Harrison spoke about hardware for a short period of time, but mostly focused on presenting many, many games for the PlayStation brand. There were no tedious demonstrations, no big hiccups and a clear message: look at all these great games, you can get them on PS3.
At the same time, there were no huge announcements. Nothing was mentioned about rumble in the controller or a PSP Store. But then, perhaps, Sony is reserving a few things for the many events down the road. Leipzig in August, TGS in September and E for All in October.
Sony came out on top in terms of conferences this year. But it wasn’t because they made that bombshell revelation or showed that CG footage. It was because they showed an excellent selection of games which really demonstrated the PS3’s capabilities. The future is bright for PS3 owners.
Matt S, Journalist:
Sony’s press conference was way better then I expected. It started off very slow, like most press conferences, but within the first 10 minutes it was instantly kicked into high-gear.
Sony showed off a total of 50 games for the PS2, PS3, PSP, and PSN. It was a marvelous event that showed that Sony is dedicated to its consoles and fan base. Each and every game, from Echochrome to Unreal Tournament 3, showed the diversity in genres across PlayStation platforms.
The game everyone is talking about that definitely matched up and probably even surpassed its hype was Killzone 2. The game looks fantastic. There are no FPSs or shooter that look so well made at the stage of production the demo on display is in.
A few other games were quite innovative. Everyday Shooter and Echochrome both add something to their genres that many others don’t seem to do. Echochrome makes you think about how to get your guy safely from one side of the maze to the other while avoiding plenty of obstacles that will make your brain hurt. Everyday Shooter blends music based gameplay with the traditional top-view shooter.
Sony kept everyone on their toes at their press conference announcing and displaying game after game after game. There wasn’t a single game shown that was a disappointment. The only real disappointment was that they didn’t show more. If I was to rate Sony’s press conference I’d give it a 9/10.
Dustin Spino, Journalist:
This year, Microsoft came out fighting first with new trailers of upcoming games, and in the end the best surprise was probably Gears of War heading to PC. Nintendo disappointed many gamers by showing off accessories and leaving the hardcore in the cold.
Sony was the biggest of the 3 this year. With an extremely hyped eyes only Killzone event leading into E3 this year, the hopes of Sony fans were extremely high.
Luckily Sony lived up to all this hype, and didn’t back down once during the whole event. As the show progressed, Sony was pounding PlayStation owners with games galore hoping to justify what a powerhouse the PS3 really is.
Finally the show moved into the heavy hitters with an outstanding display of graphics and game play with Metal Gear Solid 4. The game has been hyped for many years but the question wasn’t about the visuals, the question was about Kojima’s announcement regarding exclusivity and release date. Then Sony finished up the show with a even more impressive Killzone 2 trailer, a game that wasn’t expected to live up to the hype of 05.
Sony did a extremely well job of keeping all their systems alive for E3 this year, with new games coming to, PS3, PSP and PS3, and a new package and revision of PSP. Sony’s E3 07 was surely a show to remember.