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Sony Keynote Offers Hope For PlayStation 3 Fans
Once again, the stage was set for Sony to try to get some good will directed towards its next-gen console. Recent weeks especially have seen PR frustrations and setbacks for the company. Today was Sony's day to deliver: and in my opinion they did with flying colours. By the end of the keynote attendees were laughing and clapping with glee at the goodies that the company is going to be bringing to the PlayStation 3. Finally, finally, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel for the console. Read on for my notes on the keynote, as well as links to other coverage of the event. Note the first: There may finally be a great reason to buy a PlayStation.
Taking a page from the PAX playbook, the first notable event of the Sony Keynote was the introduction of the huge soccer balls into the audience by gleeful PR wags. Front row attendees seemed to delight in targeting photographers, beaning several unobservant cameramen with the huge inflatable spheres.
Jamil Moledina introduced Sony's Harrison, saying that this was a 'great year' for the conference. With all three console out and the tools in place, GDC is focused on 'taking control' and charting the future of gaming. With words about SCEA's future being linked to the developers here, Jamil hands the keynote off to Phil.
Opening with talk of 'audience participation' (ala the big soccer balls), Phil launches into a discussion of Games 3.0. The Time magazine 'person of the year' last year was referenced, as was the Web 2.0 philosophy. The reality is that the concepts are worthless without actual products. So, Sony is now moving in the direction of a new '3.0 philosophy'.
Games 1.0 = disconnected consoles. 2.0 games are connected, but with static content on the disc. 3.0 games are all about social interactions, community, customization, emergent entertainment, with the audience members at the center of the entertainment experience. Open standards are mentioned as a definite possibility.
PlayStation Home will be launching from Sony later this year. (video clip) There's just a new icon on the media bar, allowing access to the new content. Phil introduces Scott Walgerman, producer of the service to do a demo. The service begins with the words 'entering the online world'. When you enter the service, you are in the central lounge. Your avatar is customizable, and extremely detailed. These is *not* Miis, these are better than Second Life quality digital characters. A virtual PSP allows you to teleport around and customize your character. Clothes are added to your wardrobe by buying games. Heavenly Sword being played on the console means you have a Sword t-shirt in your bag.
Dynamic advertising is pushed into the space via banners around the world, and in billboards. HD-quality video is running on the billboards. Users are communicating around the demonstrator, with chat, voice, and emotes.
Other public spaces exist to allow opportunities for social interaction. There's a games lounge with easy games like pool, bowling, and arcade titles. The pool and bowling titles are physics based in the world. The arcade games are customizable, and ... perhaps this is the venue for indie games?
Every avatar has a private apartment, an opportunity to make a statement in the world and a place to hang out with friends. Everything is customizable, and more furniture/wallpaper is downloadable. Unsurprisingly, some will be for-purchase. More interestingly, everything is physics based. Picture frames can be pinned to the wall, and any content on the PS3 is postable up there. Phil demonstrates the ability to do 'user created content' by taking a photo of the crowd, slotting the memory stick into the PS3, and then loading the picture into the picture frame.
Moving to another apartment, which can be purchased and is quite a bit larger. Premium items like the pool tables, arcades, can be put into place. Video can be put into place as well via televisions. Scott demonstrates by putting the Casino Royale trailer onto the display.
We teleport again, to the Home Movie Theater. There's a trailer running in the foyer, and dynamic posters on the walls. The avatar moves up to 'user customized spaces', where they introduce grouper content. By walking into theaters, you can watch the content and chat with friends. Not only Sony brands and big named movies, then, but YouTube like user-created content in this world.
Porting again, we head out to locations based around game publishers. We zoom to a 'sports lounge' with information and views of minigames. Harrison says it's very simple to make these spaces, and thinks that many developers will be happy to make such areas.
The final area they go to, the hall of fame, shows off Trophies that you'll earn through play. You can place them in cases, completely 3d and physics based. It's also possible to show off defining moments from your gaming experience on video screens. The avatar then walks out onto a balcony, revealing a Star Wars senate hall style area with hundreds of other user spaces and displaying hundreds of other trophies.
The whole thing is free. There's a large-scale Beta trial beginning in April of this year, with the service launching in Fall of this year.
Phil then moves on to Singstar. Sold 7 million units on PS2, and they're now looking forward to taking it to the PlayStation Network. He demonstrates the online capabilities of the game, showing recent song additions and what your friends have been singing lately. The store is also very easy, adding songs to a cart with the push of a button. Songs download in the background, which Phil notes is a 'good feature'. If you want to, you can videotape your performance and share it with your friends. They can then be rated. That sounds ominous. May/June release in Europe for the game, with a release 'later' for the states.
The next announcement: PlayStation Edge. A set of core tools and technologies that they've used on first party titles, and will now be shared with PS3 devs. Later today they'll be talking about it in a session. One is a graphics tool, allowing best use of the chipset. The other is an optimization set, allowing 'best of breed' technology use. To be shared via the support network after GDC.
And another announcement. LittleBigPlanet. (video clip) It's the guys who did RagDoll KungFu.. Mark Healy and Alex Evans are brought out, and show off the title, which is all about 'creativity.' Alex beings by saying they'll show how easy it is to make stuff in the game world. With just a few controller elements, they make a block, add a gear, and then set it moving with physics. It looks exactly like the toolset from Second Life, only useable. Everything is very intuitive, and the avatars are adorable. Little brown felt creatures. They then begin adding images to the walls with 'stickers'. There's all sorts of weird little things, and everything is completely customizable. Content on the HDD is addable to your space as well. The two demonstrators collaborate by adding elements to each other's creations. They're even able to add elements to each other's avatars.
They then drop down to show a much more customized area, where Phil and another demonstrator join them. The new demonstrator has a really excellent dragon scarf that flows realistically in the wind behind the character as he leaps through the air. This space is a game. It's a platformer, entirely within the gameworld. They all collect little oranges, knock over blocks, and generally chaos their way from left to right. They can also collaborate to help each other across puzzles by manipulating physical objects. It's amazing. The audience is laughing, clapping, and talking amongst themselves, and the entire thing looks fantastic. There's dynamic lighting, intuitive gameplay ... as interesting as the Home stuff is, if these elements are for real, this is the reason to buy PlayStation 3. The demo gets a huge ovation, and there's a decent amount of cheering. It's just crazy. They then show a quick video showing the way your creations can be shared. It's debuting sometime this year via PSN, on Blu-Ray next year.
"The industry is on the threshold of a new era of communication and innovation." An opportunity for the industry to expand the horizons of gaming. He wraps it up with a wish for good GDC, and the audience response is very positive.
Jamil Moledina introduced Sony's Harrison, saying that this was a 'great year' for the conference. With all three console out and the tools in place, GDC is focused on 'taking control' and charting the future of gaming. With words about SCEA's future being linked to the developers here, Jamil hands the keynote off to Phil.
Opening with talk of 'audience participation' (ala the big soccer balls), Phil launches into a discussion of Games 3.0. The Time magazine 'person of the year' last year was referenced, as was the Web 2.0 philosophy. The reality is that the concepts are worthless without actual products. So, Sony is now moving in the direction of a new '3.0 philosophy'.
Games 1.0 = disconnected consoles. 2.0 games are connected, but with static content on the disc. 3.0 games are all about social interactions, community, customization, emergent entertainment, with the audience members at the center of the entertainment experience. Open standards are mentioned as a definite possibility.
PlayStation Home will be launching from Sony later this year. (video clip) There's just a new icon on the media bar, allowing access to the new content. Phil introduces Scott Walgerman, producer of the service to do a demo. The service begins with the words 'entering the online world'. When you enter the service, you are in the central lounge. Your avatar is customizable, and extremely detailed. These is *not* Miis, these are better than Second Life quality digital characters. A virtual PSP allows you to teleport around and customize your character. Clothes are added to your wardrobe by buying games. Heavenly Sword being played on the console means you have a Sword t-shirt in your bag.
Dynamic advertising is pushed into the space via banners around the world, and in billboards. HD-quality video is running on the billboards. Users are communicating around the demonstrator, with chat, voice, and emotes.
Other public spaces exist to allow opportunities for social interaction. There's a games lounge with easy games like pool, bowling, and arcade titles. The pool and bowling titles are physics based in the world. The arcade games are customizable, and ... perhaps this is the venue for indie games?
Every avatar has a private apartment, an opportunity to make a statement in the world and a place to hang out with friends. Everything is customizable, and more furniture/wallpaper is downloadable. Unsurprisingly, some will be for-purchase. More interestingly, everything is physics based. Picture frames can be pinned to the wall, and any content on the PS3 is postable up there. Phil demonstrates the ability to do 'user created content' by taking a photo of the crowd, slotting the memory stick into the PS3, and then loading the picture into the picture frame.
Moving to another apartment, which can be purchased and is quite a bit larger. Premium items like the pool tables, arcades, can be put into place. Video can be put into place as well via televisions. Scott demonstrates by putting the Casino Royale trailer onto the display.
We teleport again, to the Home Movie Theater. There's a trailer running in the foyer, and dynamic posters on the walls. The avatar moves up to 'user customized spaces', where they introduce grouper content. By walking into theaters, you can watch the content and chat with friends. Not only Sony brands and big named movies, then, but YouTube like user-created content in this world.
Porting again, we head out to locations based around game publishers. We zoom to a 'sports lounge' with information and views of minigames. Harrison says it's very simple to make these spaces, and thinks that many developers will be happy to make such areas.
The final area they go to, the hall of fame, shows off Trophies that you'll earn through play. You can place them in cases, completely 3d and physics based. It's also possible to show off defining moments from your gaming experience on video screens. The avatar then walks out onto a balcony, revealing a Star Wars senate hall style area with hundreds of other user spaces and displaying hundreds of other trophies.
The whole thing is free. There's a large-scale Beta trial beginning in April of this year, with the service launching in Fall of this year.
Phil then moves on to Singstar. Sold 7 million units on PS2, and they're now looking forward to taking it to the PlayStation Network. He demonstrates the online capabilities of the game, showing recent song additions and what your friends have been singing lately. The store is also very easy, adding songs to a cart with the push of a button. Songs download in the background, which Phil notes is a 'good feature'. If you want to, you can videotape your performance and share it with your friends. They can then be rated. That sounds ominous. May/June release in Europe for the game, with a release 'later' for the states.
The next announcement: PlayStation Edge. A set of core tools and technologies that they've used on first party titles, and will now be shared with PS3 devs. Later today they'll be talking about it in a session. One is a graphics tool, allowing best use of the chipset. The other is an optimization set, allowing 'best of breed' technology use. To be shared via the support network after GDC.
And another announcement. LittleBigPlanet. (video clip) It's the guys who did RagDoll KungFu.. Mark Healy and Alex Evans are brought out, and show off the title, which is all about 'creativity.' Alex beings by saying they'll show how easy it is to make stuff in the game world. With just a few controller elements, they make a block, add a gear, and then set it moving with physics. It looks exactly like the toolset from Second Life, only useable. Everything is very intuitive, and the avatars are adorable. Little brown felt creatures. They then begin adding images to the walls with 'stickers'. There's all sorts of weird little things, and everything is completely customizable. Content on the HDD is addable to your space as well. The two demonstrators collaborate by adding elements to each other's creations. They're even able to add elements to each other's avatars.
They then drop down to show a much more customized area, where Phil and another demonstrator join them. The new demonstrator has a really excellent dragon scarf that flows realistically in the wind behind the character as he leaps through the air. This space is a game. It's a platformer, entirely within the gameworld. They all collect little oranges, knock over blocks, and generally chaos their way from left to right. They can also collaborate to help each other across puzzles by manipulating physical objects. It's amazing. The audience is laughing, clapping, and talking amongst themselves, and the entire thing looks fantastic. There's dynamic lighting, intuitive gameplay ... as interesting as the Home stuff is, if these elements are for real, this is the reason to buy PlayStation 3. The demo gets a huge ovation, and there's a decent amount of cheering. It's just crazy. They then show a quick video showing the way your creations can be shared. It's debuting sometime this year via PSN, on Blu-Ray next year.
"The industry is on the threshold of a new era of communication and innovation." An opportunity for the industry to expand the horizons of gaming. He wraps it up with a wish for good GDC, and the audience response is very positive.
I have to give it up for Sony. Playstation Home seems like something useful and it might even transcend its inherent gimmickry. It's not reason enough to buy a PS3, but it gives me hope that someone inside of SCEA knows what they're doing.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
... than a Sims Online combined with "Mii" ripoff? I can buy the Sims for probably $20 now, PS3's still cost a small fortune.
I'm a gamer and all of that meant nothing to me.
There are obviously more games and online services for a PC than a Playstation, and these days a PC is cheaper. You can quickly hook up a notebook to an HD TV and a joystick of your choice and have a similar experience to PS3. You can disable net access, uninstall most of built in programs and enable autoplay to run games when a disk is inserted if you are concerned about ease of use.
Game consoles really made sense when they were at least 3 times cheaper than a PC, for people who couldn't afford a regular computer, or a second computer for kids. Perhaps Nintendo Wii is still in that league.
I think that, given the fact that this is a developers' conference, they were more interested in showing new technologies, platforms, and tools, as opposed to actual games. Content at a developers' conference is usually geared more toward the developers, and not the consumer.
...Sony went on a stage and said "OK everyone! We are going to rip off Nintendo's idea again, but we are going to do you one better...we are going to rip off Second Life AND Microsoft at the same time!!! Get it? See, the avatars are Nintendo, Second Life provides the apartments, and Microsoft supplies the achievement system! But no scrawny little points for our dedicated fanbase, oh no...you get TROPHIES!"
Quit insulting my intelligence and put out a game worth playing for the PS3, cunt scabs.
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It's all about buzzword-enabled games now. Interactive! Customizable! Physics Based! Communities, COMMUNITIES, COMMUNITIES!!!
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Well, done and scared me off. Next! Video games are quickly becoming as insulting as television and the local AMC; one day not to far from now I'll only have my old books as a proper escape from the capitalist bombardment.
-Buddy of DoQ
So, Sony's big announcement is that they are doing cheesy "Second Life"-type stuff on the PS3?
Jesus. What planet do they live on? NOBODY CARES! We want good games, and good multiplayer. That's it. But no, instead we get some worthless service that is designed to appeal to the "I spend $50 per month on ringtones" market. Fucking ridiculous.
they're not quite done copying the wii! notice the mii-like functionality in PS home?
09
It sounds like Sony has lost total grasp of the industry they're in, the "videogame" industry. What *I* want to see are the games. I'm stuck in a hard place now. I want to buy an Xbox 360 or a PS3. My knee jerk reaction is to go with Sony because they will probably provide more of the games that I want to play in the long run, but in the short term (next 2 years) it's looking sorta grim. I'm sure this new service by Sony will be great, it sounds like it mixes the social aspects of Wii's with the gamer oriented aspects of Xbox Live. Okay, so Sony waited to see what their competitors did and combined it and made something great. I can understand that, if I was Sony I'd play it safe and wait so I could outdo my competitors too. But instead of using this to support the games, they're using this to supplant the games and sell the system based on what it CAN do but isn't instead of what it IS DOING. And there lies the crux. Sure, I'll eventually get a 360 or a PS3, but not until the smoke settles. It's too much of an investment to get the top end of either system. Besides, I'm having too much fun with my Wii now and it didn't break the bank either. Hopefully the PS3 will be in a better position in a couple years when (if?) the novelty of the Wii runs out.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
For ages I've been coming here purely for the discussion. Slashdotters seemed to generally have a more open mind and the average maturity level seemed to be that much higher than the people over within the digg community. So I read the comments of this to find out the Slashdot reaction, and a majority of you are "Wow, way to copy Nintendo, screw off Sony." and "So it's Sims and Second Life? Give me a break", all while being modded up to +5 insightful or +5 interesting. No Slashdot, you give me a break.
/rant, awaiting the "you must be new here" and 360 fanboy flames.
I guess it's obvious that Sony can't win here anymore. They integrate what Nintendo did with the Mii system (which was widely praised) and the community of XBox Live (also widely praised) and put their own personal spin on it and take it that much farther, and all you can say is "Fuck Sony". What if they just made a system that mimics XBox Live? "Looks like all Sony can do is copy Microsoft, fuck Sony." What if they just made a system with Mii's like Nintendo? "Looks like all Sony can do is copy Nintendo, fuck Sony." They put their own spin on what they think next-gen console connectivity should be, but obviously it must still be inferior. Why? They're Sony.
That's not even all they're offering. Is no one excited by LittleBigPlanet other than me? Is that not one of the coolest game concepts ever? Hell, Zonk knows it, and he's the one that's supposedly biased against Sony. But no, screw LittleBigPlanet, let's just make remarks like "this all sucks, where are the games?". Let alone when games coming out for the PS3 ARE mentioned, XBox supporters come out of the woodwork saying "Yeah well online will suck they don't have XBox Live". I guess games only matter when Sony doesn't present a ton of games? This is GDC. You'll see games at E3. Give them a break.
Honestly Slashdot, you've let me down. The Digg community has largely kept an open mind about Sony. Finally some good news, and for the most part, there's some good (but skeptical, understandably) reception. I'm not saying Playstation Home is the savior of the PS3, nor am I saying that LittleBigPlanet is the only game that will matter. I'm saying they've demoed some really cool stuff, and yet still they get blasted. Why? Because it's not the same? Because they're not exactly like the 360 or the Wii? I don't get it guys. I really don't.
Free
* With the purchase of a PS3
* Clothes, wallpaper, and other items will cost money
* Since there will be freeloaders who avoid buying virtual goods, there's also streaming video advertisements galore to offset the cost of running the servers.
"Free" is one word for it, I guess...
Meaning that there's STILL no way for a hobbyist developer to make anything like full use of the hardware?
Look. They *make their money* selling the right to run games on their hardware. You know that half a billion dollars they sunk into developing the thing? They plan to get it back with a fee of about $10 per-title.
They are not being jerks, it's just the reality of the business model. You know making up your loss on selling the razor back on selling the razor blades. If you want an open development environment -- buy a PC. You'll be able to get the same graphics and processing horsepower, just not subsidized by Sony.
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I realise this is slashdot, and I'm really looking in the wrong place for this.
There seems to be a disproportionate amount of negativity concerning Sony's showing. Sony has said a lot of dumb things, they've done a few dumb things, but this does offer hope for Sony.
That is not to say there aren't criticisms to be brought up, I'm just disappointed at how they have been here. Sony may have obtained the ill-will of gamers, but if we're going to tell them they suck at something we can at least do it intelligently. Calling Zonk a Sony fanboy (oh the irony after all the Nintendo and Xbox related accusations), and dismissing the whole keynote as though it was by default terrible are not effective methods of changing reality. The reality is, Sony and the PS3 have seen the first truly good, even awesome, news for them in a long time. It's not all redeeming, it alone will not outweigh all the crap we've faced. However, if you are truly interested in defending the industry against Sony what I've seen above is not how it is done. This is sticking one's head in the sand.
Point out that Home is needlessly complicated, that it won't appeal to causual gamers, that it makes you unconfortable because it seems designed to overly consumerize online communities. Back up these points with expanded statements, compare them fairly to the counterparts of Live and the Mii Channel, but of all things don't simply pan this without paying attention. If you're intent on keeping Sony your beating horse, you're going to have to put effort into it.
Closing your eyes does not rid the world of light.
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As a PS3 owner myself, none of this excites me in the least. I'm not denying there is a market out there for it. But honestly, I only bought a console to get some good single-player games up on a big TV screen in the family room. It's nice to have the ability to play "head to head" against a friend who comes over, once in a while too ... and if the game is designed well enough for it, even Internet play. But wandering around in a 3D virtual world just so I can chat with people and set up multi-player games with them? No thanks. It's a big load of unnecessary extra GUI junk....
I really *wanted* to find something amazing/interesting about "Second Life", for that matter, and it failed to draw me in. If I feel like having conversations with random strangers, good old IRC seems like one of the most straightforward ways to accomplish it online. If I only want to chat with specific people I know, then you can't beat a video conference with a web cam, or alternately, instant messenger. I don't feel any need to express myself through some made-up "avatar", or spend my *real* money to have virtual 3D items to show off to other players. It's a horrible value for my dollar.
Honestly, the most exciting part of the PS3 to me lies in the ability for software publishers to send out patches and add-ons to their game titles, and to even purchase titles and download them online. In the past, that was a BIG negative for me with console systems. You buy a game on CD or DVD or whatever, and it is what it is. Find bugs in it? Tough... you're stuck with them. I was really happy with my $19.99 download of Tekken 5, and with the updates they're doing for Resistance. THAT is where a PS3 can add real value for customers.
If that's a copy... of XBL and Mii respectively, then my house is a copy of a 10x10 toolshed.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
You're right, these absolutely are "catch up" features, and they did have a "we'll add things as they're finished" mentality. But the biggest thing I take from this is that in the age of online consoles, that doesn't matter. All 3 consoles have the ability to add big features post launch via software updates, and if one of them should decided to be noble and stick with what they launched with, they'll be buried. A year from now, nobody will care when each feature was released, only that they can have them now.
What the hell are you smoking? Most products whether you care to admit it or not are ripped off or heavily influenced by products that preceded them. You claim Sony "stole" Second Life, but the fact is that Second Life ripped off from The Sims Online, VRML (and wannabes), IRC, various 3D IRCs and MUDs. And by your reasoning The Sims "stole" from Little Computer Person which "stole" it's ideas from pet ownership. You claim Sony "stole" from the Mii, yet it's funny you don't mention countless MMPORGS that offered customisable characters way before the Mii turned up. Or Mr Potato Head if you care to go that far back. You claim they're knocking off achievements, yet achievements are just an extension of the sort of stats that you could see in GTA III, way before XBox Live popularised them. Or medals / awards in every day life if you care to think that way.
And if you're complaining about Sony "stealing", why not complain about Microsoft or Nintendo stealing. After all Microsoft is producing knockoffs of Gran Turismo with Forza, or GTA with Crackdown, or Pokemon / Dragonball Z with Blue Dragon? And couldn't you claim Nintendo is "stealing" by adding networking to their console after it proved successful in the XBox? Or Nintendo "stealing" a motion controller even though Sony has the patent on it? Or Apple "stealing" ideas from MP3 players which appeared way before the iPod ever did. etc.
The fact is that Sony's think melds and borrows from lots of sources but in that regard it is no worse than any other producer. So why single them out for the bitching? Why claim they're "stealing everything" when it is not obvious at all that they are or have. I wouldn't look at Sony Home and think "they're stealing", it's simply a progression from many things from before. It sure as hell isn't like the Mii or XBox Live Achievements. It's way beyond either and distinct by a long shot.
Please, nothing by itself isn't worth it for $600, Gears of War isn't even worth the cost of an XBox 360. It's the whole package, and every little thing that adds to the package helps. So no, PS3 Home, isn't worth $600, but perhaps as one poster said, bug fixes and patches, Blu-ray, free online, WiFi included, etc... *is* enough for some people.
I'm tired of fanboys rehashing the same invalid arguments over and over again.
It is selling at a faster rate than the PS2 at the same point in their lifetimes, despite selling slower than the Wii. Where are you getting those figures. http://www.vgcharts.org/japconscomps.php?name1=PS2 &name2=PS3&type=2&align=0 (PS2 2,250,000 PS3 754,250)
http://www.vgcharts.org/aconscomps.php?name1=PS2&n ame2=PS3&type=2&align=0 (PS2 1,309,750 PS3 1,035,500)
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"Or Nintendo "stealing" a motion controller even though Sony has the patent on it?"
wait wait wait, hang on lemme get this straight. I am just trying to clarify here, so bear with me...
the Wiimote...rips...Sony off? This is the same Sony that just a few weeks ago finally settled with Immersion? The same Sony whose controller is an SNES pad with legs? Or the one that introduced rumble a few months after the N64 (yes, Immersion's rumble)?
And they ripped off Nintendo? The company that invented the d-pad? And shoulder buttons? And the diamond button layout? And the thumbstick? And practical wireless controllers?
I'm sure Nintendo has begged/borrowed/stolen its own share, but controllers are NOT where they did it, regardless of strange, obscure patents held (but not enforced) by massive multinationals.
Someone who doesn't give two shits on the product described, but wants to flame about it. You see this RARELY on the apple news stories, but fuck - forget ANY video game story, particularly those about the PS3 which an owner MIGHT find interesting to read - but instead finds off-topic flame wars. I particularly like the fucking knobs that mod these rants "insightful" when flame-bait posts in the Apple threads get modded "troll" in a microsecond.
Fucking pathetic.