Sony’s E3 2007 Conference details so far

Ah, E3. The legendary convention where all the big boys of this industry show their hands and reveal just what they have in store for the video game community and pretty much the entire world in general. The first to do so was Microsoft, with a quick follow-up by Nintendo – and now, it’s Sony‘s turn.

Sony’s press conference began with Jack Tretton‘s Home avatar chatting some virtual ladies up at Home Square, before finally getting onto the stage himself. We’re then treated to news bits we’ve already covered – the big price drop for the 60GB PlayStation 3, 80GB with MotorStorm.

He then promised to show a total of 50 PS3, PS2, and PSN games during the presentation, with some of them being playable after the show.

The big news and the rest of the details after the jump!

 

Ah, E3. The legendary convention where all the big boys of this industry show their hands and reveal just what they have in store for the video game community and pretty much the entire world in general. The first to do so was Microsoft, with a quick follow-up by Nintendo – and now, it’s Sony‘s turn.

Sony’s press conference began with Jack Tretton‘s Home avatar chatting some virtual ladies up at Home Square, before finally getting onto the stage himself. We’re then treated to news bits we’ve already covered – the big price drop for the 60GB PlayStation 3, 80GB with MotorStorm.

He then promised to show a total of 50 PS3, PS2, and PSN games during the presentation, with some of them being playable after the show.

First nugget of big news: The PSP Slim. Kaz Hirai took this one. Available in September, the new-and-improved PSP will be 19% slimmer, 33% lighter, have a much longer battery life, and expanded video capabilities. The last feature being that you’ll be able to play games, videos, music, images on other video output devices, such as your own widescreen TV. And with new connectivity features, you can also access PS3 and PC hard drives.

Jack Tretton then strutted back to the stage and shows off the new “Ice Silver” PSP, pretty much the same PlayStation Portable goodness with a shiny new paintjob, to be bundled with a lot of extra goodies in the PSP Entertainment Pack.

If you want to know, we were somewhat expecting a celebrity to suddenly pop up somewhere. Imagine our surprise then when none other than Chewbacca himself burst out onto the stage accompanied with Stars Wars fanfare.

Touting a white PSP with Darth Vader’s likeness imprinted on the back, the world’s favorite wookie announced one of the flavors that the PSP Entertainment Pack’s being released in, the PSP Star Wars Entertainment Pack. This is to be bundled with the upcoming third-person shooter for the PSP, Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron, retailing at US$ 199.

Phil Harrison then came around to talk about the PlayStation Network and what’s in store for it. We found out about Echochrome, a 3D black-and-white puzzler that has very clean minimalistic tones, and Crush-like gameplay.

We also got a sneak peek at WipeOut HD and Pain, with the former looking much like its futuristic racing self, and the latter looking to be filled with nothing but mindless fun.

Big update on Home: we found out that the beta’s going well, and we may be looking at a Fall release. We got to see some mobile XMB and Home service functionality, courtesy of Phil’s own phone. It’s apparent that we’ll be able to play around with Home and XMB while away from the comfort of our living rooms and our PS3 units.

From Home and back to games with Jack Tretton announcing that NCSoft just signed a deal with Sony to create even MORE exclusive content for the PS3 that’s based on both currently-existing IPs and completely new ones.

Then we got an eyeful of Haze, another upcoming PS3 exclusive, and we’re treated to the Play Dead skill you can use while playing as someone from the rebel side. And yet another nugget of big news: Unreal Tournament 3 to be a PS3 exclusive. Awesome.

We learned that the Unreal 3 engine’s being optimized for the PS3, and that the title itself will support user-created mods from PC users. This means that Unreal 3‘s pretty much going to have infinite replay value, what with today’s modding scene featuring some of the most creative (and most technology-savvy) individuals in the industry.

After that, Sony delivered the biggest hit in its conference: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, with none other than the legendary Hideo Kojima to start things off. He explained that MGS 4 will be pretty much the big finale in the series, tying up all the mysteries and loose ends we’ve all been debating and speculating about.

After that, we’re treated to a trailer that pretty much blows the first one completely out of the water, with a spectacular fight scene between Raiden and Vamp.

The conference then wraps up with more updates from highly-anticipated titles: Ratchet Future, Folklore, NBA ’08, Heavenly Sword, and LittleBigPlanet. Emphasis on the last title, with Sony showing off the game’s feature of letting the player create worlds on the fly. Then we see an explosion-packed trailer of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, featuring some of the most awesome-looking gunfights we’ve ever seen.

For parting shots, we’re treated to the choose-your-own-alignment hero game, Infamous, as well as Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Suffice to say that the racing title that’s always been known for top-of-the-line graphics and engine accuracy is sporting graphics that pretty much looks just like CG. It’s that perfect.

For the final hurrah, we’re shown a brief gameplay clip of a yet-to-be-named IP that looks to push the PS3 to its limits. It’s a short video of what appears to be a chaotic landing that looks very graphically advanced, probably the closest thing to a juiced-up Call of Duty 4. The conference then ended

That’s it for our Sony E3 2007 Conference wrap up. Certainly has been a ride, hasn’t it? Updates as we get them, so stay tuned!