Sony’s 2013 E3 Press Event
- Scott
- Jun 12, 2013
- 6 min read
Late into day zero, Sony is set to strike out against Microsoft and their announcements. It was said by a few people, myself included, that this E3 is for Sony to lose. Here’s what transpired, in highlight form.
Things open with the usual montage of games in the Playstation family of consoles. After the music fades, out comes Jack Trenton, looking pretty upbeat. He knows something we don’t… yet.
Jack opens the show talking about the Vita. Apparently the Vita will get a new special edition featuring a Walking Dead make over. This will also include the Tell Tale game as well as their upcoming DLC “400 days”. This is coming in August. According to Jack, the Vita is going to be the “ultimate companion device for PS4.”
Next there is mention of the upcoming game from Naughty Dog and how it is already critically acclaimed, which it is, apparently. A trailer is show, more of what we have already seen before. Immediately following this are some very quick trailers for two games, “The Puppeteer” and “Rain”. Absolutely nothing is said about them and are blazed past to show a new more action orientated trailer for Beyond: Two Souls, from Quantic Dream, staring Ellen Page and Willem Defoe. It comes off as a complete departure from what was shown before of the game. Apparently she is military trained. It’s weird. Finally Gran Turismo 6 is shown. It’s got fancy looking cars and apparently “new tire models”. This is the extent of the Playstation 3 games and tech they show.
Andrew House takes the stage. “Playstation is in a state of rapid evolution.” He basically says that gamers want to see what the PS4 hardware will look like. Well here it is. It’s a strange sort of trapezoid shape, and sort of resembles a PS2 fat, if it was pulled in two different directions. Personally, I am not a big fan of the look, but so long as the tech works, I don’t really care what the thing looks like. (Later it was revealed that the Eyetoy and PS4 controller would be separate and would retail for $59, each.)
CEO of Sony Entertainment Michael Lynton takes the stage. He spills a bunch of information about how Sony and Playstation will continue to give “gamers what they want” and then tells the crowd about their music and movie library. He also reveals they are working on “original programming” for the PS4 as well. I just hope it’s not more “The Tester” episodes. As Andrew House retakes the stage, he says that Verizon’s “RedBox” will also be part of the PS4 offerings online along with the Music and Movie purchases from Sony.
President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida now on stage. He has one of the more infections and shy laughs I have ever heard. Yoshida says there are 40 different teams under the “Worldwide” development team. They collectively are working on 30 different titles for the PS4. Yoshida unveils one of those titles in a video. It is a collaborative effort from Sony Santa Monica and Ready At Dawn. The video shown is a strange Victorian steam-punk past. Flying ships but horse-drawn carriages. It appears to be something like a mashup of King Arthur (pretty sure I heard Knights of the Round Table names) set in something like a Sherlock Holmes period of time. The game is called “The Order;1886” and it is exclusive to the PS4.
A flurry of new videos for games already made public. Killzone: Shadow Fall, Infamous Second Son, Knack and Drive Club. Apparently Knack, Killzone, and Drive Club will be available at launch for PS4. Second Son is out in 2014.
Then there is an elaborate joke video made by Quantic Dream. It’s about an old man taking over the kingdom, or some such nonsense. The the character forgets his line, and breaks the fourth wall. It’s a very strange moment. No idea if any of that represents anything at all.
Adam Boyes is now on the big stage to talk about what he knows best with Sony, indie games. First he brings up Greg Kasavin and Amir Rao from Supergiant Games to talk about Transistor. From then its a cavalcade of indie devs playing the games they have, and are bringing to the PS4. Games like; Don’t Starve, Octodad: Deadliest Catch, Ray’s The Dead, Outlast (super interested in that one) and a remake of Abe’s Odessey called the “Nice ‘N Tasty” version, and finally Galak-Z from the Skulls of the Shogun guys.
A video of Tetsuya Nomura introduces another video. The sizzle reel video is this time for Final Fantasy XV. Yes, they are still numbering them. Oddly this this game started out named Final Fantasy XIII Versus. It was lost to the sands of time for quite a while. Personally, I won’t say I have to have it, but it seems interesting. Nomura comes back to introduce another video, this time for Kingdom Hearts 3. It’s basically Sora running around a town. Nothing more.
Demo for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag takes center stage. I’m kinda getting tired of these games, but it looks fantastic. Lush jungles, great lighting, and boats. Too bad the demo hitches to the point of it totally freezing. Hey, live demos. At least you know it was actually being played and not pre-taped.
A new Watch Dogs demo comes on. Shows off some driving and more “stealth” game play. It’s a beautiful looking game and one I am really looking forward to. This is one of those games that I really don’t want to see any more of until I am playing it.
Next… Sports. Fifa, Madden and NBA demos. They allo look good, but hey… it’s sports.
Elder Scrolls Online is up and, it looks like Elder Scrolls. Not really excited, especially if it is a MMO with some subscription.
The next trailer is a bit of a surprise to, well… everyone. Mad Max! Nothing more than a video of a dude, a car, and a name. Being made by Warner Brothers and Avalanche. Consider me completely interested in this new title.
Trenton comes back on stage, and this is where it really got exciting. He starts by saying that there are over 140 games in development over all of the playstation brands. Jack then turns his attention to squashing not only rumors about the PS4 and how it handles games in general, but kicking Xbox One and Microsoft square in the junk.
The PS4 will not impose any restrictions on used games. Buy them and sell them as you already do. “We believe in the model that people embrace today.” When they buy the disc, they have the right to use the game. They can trade it in to retail, sell to another person, lend to a friend or keep it forever.”
No need to authenticate your purchases. Your system will not need to check a server every 24hours. Disc based game will not need to go online at all.
Day one, games will have cross-game chat, and “play as you download” games. Existing Plus members will carry over to the PS4.
Playstation Plus will be required to play games online.
Plus members will get a new game every month, for free.
Final demo of the night is for the new Bungie game “Destiny”. This game looks to be a mix of a post-apocalyptic earth, the Bungie style of weapons, and a loot driven economy. As the demo goes on it looks simply amazing. The couple of players on screen are joined by several others in what they called a “Community” event, or fight. Think of an MMO instance. Very interested in this. It looks to be more of a departure from one game to the next, more so than what Respawn did with Titanfall.
Andrew House hits the stage one last time. Playstation “Cloud Gaming” will allow you to play “critically acclaimed” PS3 games. Not really sure if that just means their highest rated games, only first party games, or what. Then the bomb drops. Sony’s Playstation 4 will release holiday season at a price of $399. A hundred dollars less than the Xbone. Crazy. And that was the end of the show. Lots to think about, for gamers and for Microsoft.
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