My internet connection wasn’t great and I lost some of it, possibly important stuff. But here’s what i caught, with my running commentary.
The intro music sucks.
“Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.”
“We didn’t build a box.” Nice jab at MS.
Andrew House takes the stage. “A bold step forward for PlayStation.”
Connectivity between devices… has been essential.
Vision for the future is consumer-centric.
PS Vita can bring value to the gamer’s living room. More on this later this year.
Expanding PS content to smartphones via PS Mobile.
Reconceptualize how the next-gen gamer wants to play. We once changed the gamer, now the gamer is changing us.
Today is a glimpse into the future of play.
[connection glitch]
Today we are revealing the genesis of [garbled glitchery].
Whoooo. PS4 logo. He’s actually talking about it. Must have missed the sentence that actually said it was coming.
Andrew House making a prolonged introduction of Mark Cerny.
Cerny is jabbering a lot and trying to make old shit sound important.
Nothing between you and the game.
Sony’s been talking to developers since 2008 about what they want in a new console.
Willhave: Supercharged PC architecture
X86 CPU
Enhanced PC GPU
8GB unified memory
Local storage HDD – size not mentioned
Live demos on new Dualshock 4. Touchpad (not screen, similar to PS Vita rear pad), light bar, share button, headset jack. I still see start and select buttons (I think). Enhanced rumble, reduced latency.
Unreal engine 4 from Epic “running on realtime.” [Glitchy feed means little to me.]
Two teraflops of computational performance. Streamlined conversion from PC development. System memory sounded like cool initials but glitched in his sentence.
Million object physics simulation running on Havok using the GPU, not CPU. [Tech-talk, means little to me.]
Video of a title Cerny is directing. [Bad lag.] I see a castle, woman talking about war. Goofy animation maybe talking about a mech fighting goblins.
[Seriously bad feed problems.]
Able to start playing games while they’re downloading. Nice.
Able to watch live videos of what your friends playing. Keeping PSN IDs and other features of their networking.
Companion applications of Vita and/or tablets.
System is learning something about your gameplay? [Sorry, more feed problems.]
Sharing function looks cool. You can watch your friends remotely and take over their game to help.
Remote play from Vita is crazy expanded.
Games from any PS device ever may be possibe to stream direct to PS4. But it’s not backwards compatible. This seems to be a Gaikai addition.
Michael Denny of worldwide studios coming to stage.
Showing off games now.
Killzone: Shadow Fall is up first. Holy graphics! If they can make this, I can’t wait to see Coruscant. Gameplay is nothing special. FPS with futuristic weapons in futuristic envrionments. I can do that on current hardware. Now an on-rails segment (hanging from a rope on a helicopter). Still nothing new even if it is pretty.
Time for some racing, Driveclub. Again, looks cool. But I’ve seen racing games before. Supposedly they’ve concepted this for ten years. Definitely saw real company logos on cars. You’ll be in actual driving clubs and challenging other clubs around the world. Will have an app on phones and tablets to send challenges worldwide. Thousand player, week-long tournaments. First-person perspective driving (I’m out).
Talking about millions of cameras watching us all the time. Looking like WatchDogs. Could be inFamous 3, talking about superpowers. From Sucker Punch, must be inFamous. Now gameplay video. It is inFamous Second Son. This one excites me.
Now talking independent games. Providing self-publishing on PSN.
Jonathan Blow has a new game “debuting” on PS4, The Witness. A “game about epiphany.” Open world, but a compact open world. Cutting filler to make it streamlined, not longer (about 25 hours). Puzzle game. Roll clip. Phongraph in a tree stump. Mazes being solved. Like mazes on paper. Hmm? Looks pretty, but probably just as obstinately obscure as Blow is known for.
Done with game presentations, time for a glimpse of the future and challenge our notions of gaming.
David Cage talking about emotions in gaming. Now he’s talking about silent films (The Great Train Robbery). Now he’s talking about polygons in characters, apparently in regards to emotion conveyed. Beyond will have 30,000 polygons for characters. Creepy old man on screen being rendered in real time on PS4. Wow. Still in the uncanny valley, but it looks like they’re climbing up the other side.
Media Molecule is up next. Talking creativity. [Damn, browser crash.] Looks they’re modeling clay with a Move? Easy 3D sculpting for everyone (clearly they don’t know about my lack of hand skills). A make-your-own Rock Band featuring Move puppets? Cute. Not sure it means anything, but cute.
Let’s talk third parties. Virtually every major third party partner is supporting PS4.
Yoshinori Ono of Capcom. A brief history of Capcom on older PS platforms. New era: Panta Rhei engine; Deep Down (working title), Zaeed Massani is fighting a dragon and it looks incredible, did the player just ask for help from a PSN friend?
Square Enix’s Yoshihisha Hashimoto: More beautiful graphics, looks Like an Arab desert with a twist, possibly Brazilian favelas. Someone is summoning a beastie. Gun shots, Force lightning, something that looks like Magicite, porcupine wolves, healing potion, eclipse. Not saying the name, but this looks for sure to be Final Fantasy [MCMXLVIII]. Knowing Square Enix it will be coming on PS5. Shinji Hashimoto (Brand Director for Final Fantasy) has one thing to say, new Final Fantasy title, be excited for E3 this year.
Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot: This is Watchdogs. Next-gen games “blur the lines between real and virtual worlds.” More connected and immersive games. Some other guy whose name I didn’t catch: “Hyerconnectivity has changed us.” New live demo: Opens with Abrams’ style lens flare; crime in progress, hero jumps into action, chase scene (reminiscent of Sleeping Dogs but techier), cops are involved, hero running, tire shot, train hack; demo over.
Senior VP from Blizzard, Chris Metzen: Why is Blizzard on stage at a console event? Blizzard and Sony are partnered. Blizzard started on console and now want to come back. Announcing their game for PS4: Diablo III. Also coming to PS3. Four player, full screen, couch co-op.
Eric Hirshberg, CEO Activision Publishing: Supporting PS4 with multiple blockbuster titles from their best developers. One developer in particular for their debut PS4 game, Bungie. Talking Destiny, obviously. Jason Jones, Project Developer: co-op will be mind-blowing, rah-rah chatter, pretty visuals. More people on stage, lots of jeans and sport coats. Destiny is an online-connected experience for multiple devices. PS3 and PS4 versions will be available with exclusive content.
Sounds like wrap-up talk from Andrew House. Summary video. Coming Holiday 2013. Thank you for watching.
No price announced? Guess that’s coming at E3.
I had a running commentary going with a couple of our ‘bots during the show. Everyone seems tentatively excited, and are currently planning to reserve our systems tomorrow if retailers start taking preorders now.