Sony at E3 2011

[BreakABone]

So we are just about 5 weeks shy from the start of e3, which means we are about to hit prime time for rumors and reveals and leaks.

So for the month or so before the big show, thought it would be nice to have threads detailing the big 3 going into the conference. What we know, what is rumored, what we can expect and more.

Second on our docket is Sony, who shall be most interesting.


Date: Mon June 6th
Time: 5pm PSt/8PM EST

What We Know
Going into the conference, Sony is the company with the most known X-factors. They have quite the stacked line-up for the reminder of the year on the PS3. With high-profile games such as Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, and Twisted Metal.

There's also their third party content like their first day and date release of Mass Effect 3, the new Call of Duty, Skyrim and of course Batman: Arkham City.

On the handheld front, we know that the NGP should be a focal point. We know the rough design and specs of the console, and we know a fair amount of software in the works for the device.

PS Move will most likely be there as well, and an update on Sorcery.

What is Rumored
Because we know so much, there isn't much that's actually rumored at the moment for Sony. The biggest thing floating around is StarHawk, the sequel to WarHawk will make its debut at e3.

Other than that, I haven't heard much else.

What We Can Expect
Even though, they just had a press conference, I assume Sony will continue to comfort people into knowing that PSN is safe and secure now. Probably announcement of some new features for PSN and PSN Plus members.

Besides that we should probably expect a price and launch date for the NGP. If nothing else, Sony will narrow down the launch window for the device. We can expect new announcements from major 3rd parties as a lot of them pledged support, but didn't show actual content in Jan.

Sony will continue to push the PS Move and 3D on the home front, but it won't be as focal a point this year.

A roll-out of titles coming in 2012, probably lead by Metal Gear Solid Rising and Final Fantasy Versus 13.

Perhaps, a price drop is also in order for the device?

Developers Status
1st party
SCEJ - last notable games they made was Patapon 2 and Super Stardust Portable then they made some niche PSP games could be maing one of the NGP games like Smart As
SCEI - making Gravity Daze, Broken and Reality fighters for NGP
Team ICO - making Last Guardian
Eat Sleep Play - making Twisted Metal
Polyphony Digital - likely to be working on Gran Turismo 6
Naughty Dogg - making Uncharted 3
Santa Monica - making GoW4
San Diego - they recently MLB and helped make Sports Champion with Zindagi
Zipper - recently released SOCOM4
London - making Eyepet and Friends
Cambridge - making Killzone NGP
Guerilla Games - making new IP for PS3
Liverpool - likely to be making WipeOut NGP
Bend - making Uncharted NGP
Evolution - recently released MotorStorm 3
BigBig - making LittleDeviants for NGP
MediaMolecule - making NGP game, likely to be LittleBigPlanet
The Workshop - making Sorcery for Move

3rd Party
Zindagi Games - made Sports Champion, rumored to be making another Move game
Supermassive Games - made Tumble and Start the Party
Cohort Studios - helps make Buzz Jr and made The Shoot for Move
Seed Studios - making Under Siege for PS3
ColdWood Interactive - made The Fight for Move
Bluepoint Games - making Team ICO collection, rumored to be making another HD collection
Sucker Punch - making new IP and maybe Sly 4
Clap Hanz - making Everybody's Golf for NGP
Career Soft - usually work on Growlanser games
VooFoo Studios - making HustleKings NGP
Media Vision - last games they made where Wild Arms XF and Valkyria Chronicles 3 for PSP
Insomniac - making Ratchet All 4 One and Resistance 3, then they will go 3rd party multiplatform
ThatGameCompany - making Journey for PSN
Ready At Dawn - last games they released was Ghost of Sparta for PSP
HighImpact games - last game they released was Jak and Daxter the lost frontier for PSP/PS2
Lightbox Games - making Starhawk
United Front Games - the last game they co developed Modnation Racers with San Diego
Quantic Dreams - making 2 new IPs for PS3
Relentless Studios - usually make Buzz games
Novarama - made Invizimals for PSP, could potentially make another AR game for NGP
Q Games - usually make PixelJunk games
Nihilistic - making Resistance NGP
Tarsier Studios - making City of Metronome
Dontnod Entertainment - making new AAA action adventure game commissioned by SCE

[BreakABone]

Random bump, gonna try and attach a question a week if I can remember.

For Sony, is it possible for them to gloss over the PSN problem come e3? Will the length of the service outage factor into it? What should Sony say about it?

[Angrist]

They're probably going to tell how it wasn't all that bad, they handled it well and they're giving away free games as compensation. Oh and it will never happen again. Peace?

I think they ran out of self-ridiculing jokes after Ridge Racer and 'E3's worst kept secret'.

[Typhoid]

They're probably going to tell how it wasn't all that bad, they handled it well and they're giving away free games as compensation. Oh and it will never happen again. Peace?

How should a massive multinational company handle sabotage in your eyes?
I think Sony handled it pretty perfectly. It's something that happened out of their control, despite whether or not they had sufficient precautions in place to protect themselves. Naturally, I assume they did have all the right precautions - being a massive corporation and all.

This sabotage-thing has just given life to the fanboys (not directed at you) who had quieted down in the past few years on the "Sony sucks, long live ____" bandwagon. I've noticed since this started there's been so much (not on this board) pointless negativity towards Sony from people without Playstations. Nobody I know with a Playstation has been saying burn it all - just everyone else.

Realistically, this type of thing could have happened to either of the 3 consoles. It would have just been pointless to do on the Wii, because it wouldn't effect anybody - and pointless on the 360 because the people/dude who did it probably has a 360, considering you wouldn't sabotage something you get enjoyment out of for absolutely no reason at all.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

How should a massive multinational company handle sabotage in your eyes?
I think Sony handled it pretty perfectly. It's something that happened out of their control, despite whether or not they had sufficient precautions in place to protect themselves. Naturally, I assume they did have all the right precautions - being a massive corporation and all.

This sabotage-thing has just given life to the fanboys (not directed at you) who had quieted down in the past few years on the "Sony sucks, long live ____" bandwagon. I've noticed since this started there's been so much (not on this board) pointless negativity towards Sony from people without Playstations. Nobody I know with a Playstation has been saying burn it all - just everyone else.

Realistically, this type of thing could have happened to either of the 3 consoles. It would have just been pointless to do on the Wii, because it wouldn't effect anybody - and pointless on the 360 because the people/dude who did it probably has a 360, considering you wouldn't sabotage something you get enjoyment out of for absolutely no reason at all.

That's not entirely true actually...

Sony has admitted to knowing of a potential security flaw in PSN, but not everyone in upper management knew... or something akin to that.

And something about how they encrypted their data.

[Blix]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

How should a massive multinational company handle sabotage in your eyes?
I think Sony handled it pretty perfectly. It's something that happened out of their control, despite whether or not they had sufficient precautions in place to protect themselves. Naturally, I assume they did have all the right precautions - being a massive corporation and all.

This sabotage-thing has just given life to the fanboys (not directed at you) who had quieted down in the past few years on the "Sony sucks, long live ____" bandwagon. I've noticed since this started there's been so much (not on this board) pointless negativity towards Sony from people without Playstations. Nobody I know with a Playstation has been saying burn it all - just everyone else.

Realistically, this type of thing could have happened to either of the 3 consoles. It would have just been pointless to do on the Wii, because it wouldn't effect anybody - and pointless on the 360 because the people/dude who did it probably has a 360, considering you wouldn't sabotage something you get enjoyment out of for absolutely no reason at all.

I agree that the people with a PS3 (myself included) are not too upset about this. The only thing that scares me is the personal info part. Thank God I never bought anything with my credit card there. I also agree that it could have happened to any of the other two consoles. I've learned no single system/platform/you-name-it is infallible. But the reasons you mention as to why it happened I don't agree with. The only reason it happened was because the people who attacked it had a vendetta against Sony for going after Geohotz. If Nintendo or MS give the hackers a reason to do it, they will. After all, there's always much to lose for a company when they have to admit that they lost people's personal information to some hacker attack. If MS goes after c4eva , they will be attacked too and are as probable to have a security breach. Every company has something to lose, they all sell software through their online systems.

[gekko]

It's truly pathetic how many people say this is Sony's fault for going after Hotz, as if the victim is somehow responsible for the attack.

[Typhoid]

But the reasons you mention as to why it happened I don't agree with. The only reason it happened was because the people who attacked it had a vendetta against Sony for going after Geohotz.

I didn't know that.
I had no idea why it happened, all I knew is that it happened, and that it was 'sabotage' and not Sony's fault.

That's such a ridiculous reason, though.
Some fucking people.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Blix

The only reason it happened was because the people who attacked it had a vendetta against Sony for going after Geohotz.

No offense, bull I call bullshit on that. If they were a group of "altruistic" hackers they wouldn't have gone after member data and credit card info.

[BreakABone]

Why this wasn't in the PSN down thread is beyond me, but Sony has handled this situation terribly, IMO. And that's the only thing I truly fault them for.

It took them about a week AFTER the attack to make some type of statement to the press/audience. And even then they didn't really offer up much follow-up so there has been a lot of confusion about the entire situation.

Then about a week ago they held the press conference in Japan to address the situation, what they were doing and how they were gonna compensate fans. But only gave vague details, like it will be up within the week (it wasn't), they don't know what was stolen but knew the CC security codes weren't and they were misquoted/translated into saying something like the information was encrypted. Stuff like that gets out and its hard to stay ahead of it.

And really since then, they've been relatively quiet again, just offering a vague it will be fully up by the end of the month statement this morning.

[Typhoid]

Originally Posted by Professor S

No offense, bull I call bullshit on that. If they were a group of "altruistic" hackers they wouldn't have gone after member data and credit card info.

They didn't...I thought.
I thought they didn't know why the hackers did it, and Sony said it's a 'possibility' that credit cards got taken, but nobody has reported any type of activity yet.

[Blix]

Originally Posted by gekko

It's truly pathetic how many people say this is Sony's fault for going after Hotz, as if the victim is somehow responsible for the attack.

Just to clarify, I never said it was Sony's fault, just the reason why it happened. And I agree with you. I mean, it's not like the dude found the cure for Cancer and Aids. He just put back a feature that Sony didn't want to take out but did because it could lead to piracy and they are the one company that cannot afford that. They give you a pricey system at a competitive price, free online gaming and only get money from the games and accessories. Plus they're at third place world wide. People have to realize that they only took the feature out to protect themselves. And yes, that's actually perfectly justified. 99% of the people who care about being able to boot up software from the HD only want to be able to pirate games. I'm a Linux enthusiast and linux on the PS3 wasn't really thrilling.

[BreakABone]

This game looks extremely interesting, on my radar big time.

[thatmariolover]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

This game looks extremely interesting, on my radar big time.

Looks like Firefly meets Oregon Trail meets Rift. Very cool.

[TheGame]

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/117/1170251p1.html

Just another reason I'm glad I chose Ps3 over 360. I have a feeling they're not going to go ALL out and give this MGS4 level visuals, but we'll see.. I never got to play peace walker, cause I could never afford to buy another PSP just for that game. I did buy a PSP once upon a time just for portable ops and didn't regret it.