They're Baaaaack...According to Gamespot

[Ocelot9]

Gamers, analysts, and by now, even hermits living in the Outback, knew that Sony went from gaming behemoth to another fish in the pond since E3 2006.

But guess what? They're baaaaaaack.

The Sony keynote delivered by Phil Harrison at the 2007 Game Developers Conference was exactly what the company needed to re-establish itself as a gaming giant. The announcements of Home and LittleBigPlanet were the types of things gamers had expected to hear about a year ago, but as the old adage goes, "better late than never."

Even just waiting for the keynote to begin, the crowd could tell that something was up--that this wouldn't be another Sony keynote like the ones from E3 2006 or Tokyo Game Show 2006. This would be the Sony of old, the one that wowed the audience at its E3 2005 press conference.

Among the faces I happened to spot in the crowd were Keiichi Yano, the creator of Elite Beat Agents and Gitaroo Man, Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and even Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America. And of course, DS owners were furiously sending entertaining (and obscene) messages back and forth to each other over Pictochat.

About 10 minutes before the keynote began, Sony staff threw gigantic soccerballs into the crowd which were bandied about like beachballs at a baseball game--with the intent being to knock the balls into makeshift goals set up on the flanks of the stage. Giant screens kept score of the "game," which was a heated match between team A (a portion of the crowd on the left) and team B (a portion of the crowd on the right). If you're keeping score at home or had money on the match, team B won.

That was a glorified example of audience participation--a key component of Sony's strategy moving forward. The buzz phrases "user-generated" and "emergent gameplay" were used about a billion times during the keynote, but they were backed up.


Home, the PS3's answer to Nintendo's Miis, Microsoft's Xbox Live and achievements system, and Linden Labs' Second Life, is a free service designed to foster communities among PS3 owners in a virtual world populated by corporate-branded virtual items and locations (hey--the Home service is free). The audience was clearly impressed with the seamlessness of the software, which allows gamers to bowl, play arcade games, hang pictures (customized of course), furnish their own digital apartments, and more.

However, the real darling of the presentation was LittleBigPlanet, a game from the makers of Rag Doll Kung Fu, now under the studio name of Media Molecule. The game is LocoRoco on steroids, or hallucinogens, or probably both. The word 'cute' doesn't do the game justice, nor does the phrase 'totally fricking insane and fun.' At it's heart LittleBigPlanet is a fancy tech demo showing off an incredible range of physics, but on the surface it's an adventure created by the player--and that player will range in age from 5 years old to 90 years old. I haven't heard applause like that which followed the LittleBigPlanet demo in a long time.

Miyamoto and Nintendo, it's your move.

To watch the Sony keynote in its entirety, watch the video:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=25430683&sid=6167002& om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;12


Category: Bulletin
Posted by TimSpot, Mar 7, 2007 1:49 pm PT 93 Comments PrintE-mailCommentTagDigg this

Considering Gamspot was considered Biased or deemed PS3 haters. Topics such as this disproves all that. While I still don't think Sony will be what they were with PS2, it seems they are starting to show signs of what we have come to expect from the Playstation brand. Now I just want to see some killer games on those shelves. They need to get by this launch window delay BS and start getting the games out on time to boot. Congrats Phil on a stellar performance.:thumbsup:

[curryking1]

Hats off to Sony.

'Follow the leader' no? :P

Can we keep this stuff in a more general 'Home' or Keynote thread though?

[n1n9tean]

I saw this yesterday.

[xbdestroya]

What upsets me about these types of articles are phrases like this:

The announcements of Home and LittleBigPlanet were the types of things gamers had expected to hear about a year ago, but as the old adage goes, "better late than never."

More like, get some perspective Gamespot. Of *course* Sony has been working on these things for quite a long time - but if they told us last year, and still had two years of development left, how would they have any edge on their competetors while still having revealed their next moves?

Stupid.

I'm glad for Sony's announcements, and glad that they were able to keep the secret in this super-competetive environment. When people are saying you've got nothing left, but you yourself know you've got the killer apps in reserve... you don't need to tell the world or prove anything to anyone. You just bide your time, and that's what Sony rightly did.

[Coded-Dude]

I haven't heard applause like that which followed the LittleBigPlanet demo in a long time.

Word.........

[curryking1]

Good calls there xb. Very strategic thinking by Sony, you're right, they've obviously been working on this for a very long time. Presented it at a strategic time for quite a massive effect as well, what an example of product promotion at it's finest, and that's almost the finest even by Sony's standards, which is totally impressive in itself.

[Domination]

Originally Posted by Ocelot9

Considering Gamspot was considered Biased or deemed PS3 haters. Topics such as this disproves all that. While I still don't think Sony will be what they were with PS2, it seems they are starting to show signs of what we have come to expect from the Playstation brand. Now I just want to see some killer games on those shelves. They need to get by this launch window delay BS and start getting the games out on time to boot. Congrats Phil on a stellar performance.:thumbsup:

So basically what they are saying is, "we prematurely judged them"

" Why am I not surprised?" I wonder.

[curryking1]

Because you're right?

This might be even premature judgement in itself ironically, but at least Sony has shown to us, publicly, they still have some serious staying power and quality product to deliver.

It's still a bit of time until this stuff is released and so on, but singling out this move, it's one seriously amazing ploy.

[GTShotoKen]

You make a great point Xb.

I'm glad that Sony was able to finally turn the tide.

E3 looks to be an extremely promising venture for Sony now. I wonder what else Sony has up their sleeves? I know it's more than Killzone (even though that would be more than enough for many people).

[Raijin]

Originally Posted by Gaming Guru

You make a great point Xb.

I'm glad that Sony was able to finally turn the tide.

E3 looks to be an extremely promising venture for Sony now. I wonder what else Sony has up their sleeves? I know it's more than Killzone (even though that would be more than enough for many people).

Killzone? Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, The Getaway, Warhawk, maybe GT5? Dont forget Eight Days, Wardevil, White Knight Story, Wipeout next-gen... + most likely tons of new PSN games announced.

[acousticvan]

Anyone remember when Ken Kutaragi mentioned about Global Map and user created contents? This is what he meant a year ago. He just gave a hint without any explanation. Good move.

[Applefiend]

They never went away. As much as I like LBP and Home, they're still not in my top 5 reasons to like PS3.

So is not bashing the PS3 flavour of the month now because of these two demos? This is basically what's wrong with the world, people can't think for themselves and need permission from others.

Everybody with two brain cells to rub together knew 360 was outshining PS3 because PS3 had only been out a month or two and 360 had Unreal Engine 3.0 games (Gears'n'Graw), and a better dev kit.

Now PS3 is coming into it's own suddenly it's not the devil incarnate.

Makes me crazy that kinda thing. Grrrr...!

[Raine]

Wow.

I kind of thought Sony was done for. I guess not. That's fun.

[GTShotoKen]

Originally Posted by Raijin

Killzone? Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, The Getaway, Warhawk, maybe GT5? Dont forget Eight Days, Wardevil, White Knight Story, Wipeout next-gen... + most likely tons of new PSN games announced.

Your definitely right about that!!!!

I am wondering if Sony will announce anything at E3 that is a little less....unexpected or....unlikely (ok...Wipeout would definitely count as one)?

Maybe a new vibrating controller (the immersion lawsuit is over so anything is possible), or another huge improvement in PS3 functionality (I'm still waiting for more linux support and focus from Sony).

[OmniCloud]

Did everyone see the new Mario Galaxy trailer??? Awesome...

Big Little Planet, and Home releasing this year....

Huge exclusives like the ones in the post above...

Sheesh....step the freak up MS...Halo better be the best FPS ever made or something....

[Applefiend]

Wii is filling my April nicely with Super Paper Mario too. Yum...

[Kabbage]

This Is the Reason I bought a Goddamn Playstation with all the doubt, hate, and FUD Sony has never disappointed me with a console.. PS3 will be no exception.

[curryking1]

There's always a tendency to go with the flow Apple, and it might also have to do with the fact that not many people on forums can see past a time frame a week in the future.

And yes, Mario Galaxy = mega duper hawtness..... wow...

[dantruon]

the tide had indeed turn !!! from now to E3 we will only hear positive news in the media im telling you the genius of Sony Marketing is just ingenious.

[Domination]

Originally Posted by Applefiend

They never went away. As much as I like LBP and Home, they're still not in my top 5 reasons to like PS3.

So is not bashing the PS3 flavour of the month now because of these two demos? This is basically what's wrong with the world, people can't think for themselves and need permission from others.

Everybody with two brain cells to rub together knew 360 was outshining PS3 because PS3 had only been out a month or two and 360 had Unreal Engine 3.0 games (Gears'n'Graw), and a better dev kit.

Now PS3 is coming into it's own suddenly it's not the devil incarnate.

Makes me crazy that kinda thing. Grrrr...!

Thank you! My sentiments exactly.

If you invest in something - especially when this expensive, at least have an idea as to what you will be investing in, or in a more simplistic case, do some freakin' research. It baffles me how the media, being the main ones which you would probably count on to be more experienced at this, are so easily convinced (rather good or bad) to only what's infront of their faces for a brief period and not what could potentially emerge later on. It's like they have no foresight what so ever, hence the reason you get journalist reportering news articals like the one above. It's almost hilarious at times. I mean, what did they expect to happen on a launch compared to a more established product, and did they really think thumbs would be twiddled all the way up to a successor?