httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR1WZ_zaTgY
For those of you who totally missed the event, we’re bringing you our coverage which was on Twitter earlier today to recap what was announced during this press conference. The trailer above was shown just before announcing the NGP (Next Generation Portable), which is the code name for Sony’s successor to the PSP.
Here’s what happened (more after the jump):
– Kaz Hirai takes the stage, talks about making data out of reality and converging both virtual and real worlds.
– He showed a trailer of Sony’s visions, back from E3 2005 and wanted to reflect on how much they have achieved since then.
– Kaz Hirai: “we take pride that we take the center of the living rooms”
– He then talks a little about the PS3 and it’s specs, stuff we all already know very well. He says that they wish to extend this experience beyond the player’s living room.
– Hirai reveals the “Cross Platform” system Sony is offering developers.
– Kaz Hirai: “Portable gaming gives the players a sensation that can only unfold in their hands”
– They seem to be acknowledging the casual “smartphone gaming” market.
– He then formally introduced the PlayStation Suite. Much like Microsoft’s XNA platform where devs may develop for multiplatform purposes.
– PlayStation content for Android phones was also announced. This brings support to Android phones in order to play PlayStation 1 titles on the devices. This is pretty much the PS Phone related announcement.
– Kaz Hirai: “ultimate portable entertainment experience”, it’s time for the NGP reveal.
– He describes the next gen portable device with location based entertainment and revolutionary UI and social connectivity.
– NGP reveal! Looks similar to PSP, 2 analog sticks, back panel touch pad? Rumors were true it seems! It also has front and rear cameras, a gyroscope and a 5 inch OLED screen and flash memory based.
– Shuhei Yoshida on stage to show us how NGP works. He also showed a trailer that includes some of the games in development for the platform such as Hot Shots Golf, Killzone, Hustle Kings, Reality Fighter, Little Big Planet, Wipeout, Resistance, Uncharted(!)
– He then demonstrated Uncharted for the NGP: The OLED 5 inch screen looks stunning according to the viewers, you can use both the touchpad or the analog sticks to control the character, touch back panel and gyrosensor both pick up movement commands for Drake, or you can draw lines and Drake will follow.
– Muneki Shimda hits the stage. He’s from software developement and dubs the NGP’s design with “Super Oval Design”
– Yoshida plays Little Deviants. He controls the cute characters using the back panel touch pad. Back panel touch pad is also 5 inches. You can touch anywhere as on the screen.
– Next is the announcement of LiveArea.
– LiveArea. Will have info about other games and publishers. It is the user interface that is touch based and user friendly.
– LiveArea also shows you your friends and they can comment as well. Its a communication function. It will also connect the NGP to mobile networks.
– Near: application that allows players to see what other players are talking about and what is being played near them. Players can see which is the most popular game played within an area. You can also check rankings within the area. If you find a cool title on Near, you can purchase it from the PS Store.
– Hirai talks about converging reality with virtual world. Yoshida then plays Hot Shots Golf to demonstrate the concept: he switches the view to first person view and uses the gyroscope sensors to look at objects in the game’s environment, as if he was in the game.
– Hirai: “Cross Platform will offer new forms of entertainment”. “content for PlayStation will be expanded”
– He also announced that you can play downloadable PSP titles on the NGP.
– Next, Hirai invites game developers to talk about their projects for the NGP on stage. First was Jun Takeuchi from Capcom. He shows us a demo of MT Framework ported to the NGP called MT Mobile. It showcases Lost Planet on the NGP. He also announced and played a downloadable Monster Hunter Portable 3rd version on the NGP. Analog sticks were supported and he mentioned that the game looked beautiful on the OLED screen.
– Next was Yakuza/Monkey Ball creator Toshihiro Nagoshi. He showcased a demo of Yazuka 4 ported straight from the PS3. He mentioned that it was a very easy conversion.
– Nagoshi: “I’m really excited to be developing something new for a networked gaming experience.”
– Next was Akihiro from Tecmo Koei. He showed us a demo of a Musou game. He showed us the new ways they could implement to their gameplay such as touching the screen to attack enemies, and some other ideas that they came up with quickly thanks to the new controls.
– It’s Hideo Kojima’s turn! Kojima: “I don’t have an announcement for a new title. ” He showed MGS4 running on NGP though. Kojima: “the game used the model data and environments from PS3, but were exported to NGP” “on NGP we can enjoy the same quality as PS3”.
– Kojima thinks cloud computing this the future. Kojima: “the dream to play home console games on a portable hasn’t been realized yet, I want to work on making it possible. I am working on a title for that dream, and will present it on E3”.
– Tim Sweeny from Epic Games hits the stage. He showcases a tech demo of the Unreal Engine for the NGP. He also demonstrated Dungeon Defenders on the NGP, stating that it was an easy conversion from the PS3 version of the game.
– Activision’s Philip Early announces a Call of Duty game for the NGP and that they’ll be supporting the platform. Early: “we believe CoD will set the bar for the next generation of portable gaming. ”
– Lots of dev support for NGP: Rockstar, Andubisoft, Q Entertainment, etc.
– Hirai then wraps up the show, no release date or price was announced however.
Here’s a gallery of the NGP. The images are courtesy of Kotaku.
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SONY TAKE MY MONEY!