E3 Day Three: Sony’s Big Press Conference

Welcome back to GameCola’s continuing coverage of the E3.  Microsoft and Nintendo both had their turns, and now, let’s see what Sony has to say in their big press conference.

• As expected, Sony had a lot to say about the PlayStation Move, their new wireless, motion sensor controller.  It comes with three parts: the controller, the nunchuck (that is, the sub-controller) and the PlayStation Eye.  It is going to be released in September this year, and it comes with a reasonable $30 price tag.
• HA!  HA HA HA!!!  Needless to say, we are totally joking.  PlayStation 3 users hate to pay reasonable prices.  The controller is $50, the nunchuck is $30,  and the PlayStation Eye costs $40.  So that’s…$120 overall, although they’re offering a bargain $100 bundle that comes with a free sports game.

• To help promote the PlayStation Move, Sony is teaming up with Coca-Cola.  They plan to promote the Move on 130 million products.  Presumably, if the PlayStation Move doesn’t sell well, they will stop putting its picture of cans of Coca-Cola, and switch to putting its picture on cans of Coke Zero.
• Sony announced a ton of games that use the PlayStation Move.  As in, over 50 games are planned, 15 of which should be ready by launch time.  The list of games includes NBA 2K11, Tiger Woods  PGA Tour 11, Resident Evil 5 Gold Collection, Time Crisis: Raging Storm, Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, and Sing Song Dance.  That last one sounds like a real winner.
• Over seventy PSP games will be released by the end of the year, and I don’t feel like writing out another list of game names, so let me just  focus on the big PSP release: the PlayStation Network.  That’s right, the PlayStation Network is now coming to the PSP.  Speaking of the PSN…
• The PlayStation Network now has a new feature: the PlayStation Plus, in which you have to Pay Station Plus.  $50 for a year-long subscription, or $15 for three months.  You’ll get all sorts of cool stuff like early demos, exclusive content and discounts on existing products.  This is totally optional for all you people who don’t feel like subscribing, and it launches at the end of the month.  Sony also bragged that there are 50 million people currently registered on the PlayStation Network.

• Various games were shown, but I can’t decipher the acronyms that are being used, like WP, MNA, TM and ROFL.  Maybe they’re different games, and maybe they’re all the same game.  The games whose titles I could figure out were Ghosts of Sparta (the next game in the God of War series), Medal of Honor: Frontlines and LittleBigPlanet 2. Oh, and Final Fantasy XIV, Gran Turismo 5 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.  Most of these games are exclusive to the PS3.
• At this point in the conference, I got a text message from GameCola staff writer Michael Ridgaway.  He had a question for me to ask: Will the Move work with Barbie Horse Adventures, Michael Ridgaway’s favorite game of all time? The answer, unfortunately, is no, but it will work with Heroes on the Move, a crossover game starring various PlayStation characters like Jak and Daxter, and Michael’s friends Ratchet and Clank.
• Portal 2 was announced for PlayStation 3, which is a surprise because Valve sent out an official press release telling us their Portal 2 press conference was cancelled.  We even put it on our list of things that won’t be at E3 this year. THANKS A LOT, Valve.

So that’s the press conference Sony gave!  There were a lot of game trailers, a lot of info about the Move, and something about the PlayStation Network.  No Barbie Horse Adventures, though.