E3 2012: PlayStation Keynote Roundup

We tuned in to Sony’s PlayStation E3 Press Conference this morning at 9am to see what they had to offer for the future of PlayStation gaming.

PlayStation CEO Jack Tretton took the E3 stage and gave it to Quantic Dream after an opening address. Quantic Dream, known for their PlayStation 3 exclusive, Heavy Rain, unveiled their next little experiment: Beyond: Two Souls.

Beyond: Two Souls
The trailer for Quantic Dream’s new game introduces Jodie Holmes, a quiet little girl being asked questions by a cop. Quantic Dream recruited the talent of Ellen Page for the role of Jodie. Not getting answers, the cop leaves the room and we hear Jodie muttering “they’re coming” in a chilly haunting voice. Then we see a SWAT team barge in. So yes, Jodie is important. Somehow. The game will incorporate a similar fate-controlled-by-actions deal like Heavy Rain as we find Jodie coping with having an invisible psychic being wrapped around her. One thing is for sure, though. Those are some killer graphics.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
A team of six, four players two presenter came in next, offering a gameplay peek at Sony Smash Bros. Brawl, otherwise known as PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The key thing about that was the two players holding PS Vitas. PSASBR will indeed be playable on the PS Vita simultaneously with players on the PS3, in a new feature known as Cross-Play. Before the dust settled, though, the Uncharted theme played. Oh, yes. PSASBR will have Nathan Drake AND Bioshock’s Big Daddy as playable characters, possibly what Solid Snake was to SSMB.

Cross-Play and Cross-Controller
The new PS Vita Cross-play feature was then extended to LittleBigPlanet 2, which will over a host of new levels playable on the PS Vita and the PS3, and allowing the PS Vita to be used as a control pad for the game, adding gyroscopic features from the handheld to LBP2.

PlayStation Plus
Sony will be throwing 12 downloads to PS Plus subscribers for free, these include InFAMOUS 2, LittleBigPlanet 2 and Saints Row 2. Think of it as a Welcome Back package without the nasty hacking. More games will be released free each month thereafter. Did I mention everyone at the E3 presser got a year’s worth of PS Plus for free? The nerve of Sony!

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation and Assassin’s Creed III 
The rumoured female protagonist was proven true when Ubisoft showed off their upcoming title for the PS Vita, praising exclusive unlocks when you combine its powers with Assassin’s Creed III, and if the Ubisoft ACIII demo at 6.45am didn’t thrill you, the guys came down to the Sony presser offering a major revelation we could not reveal in our preview back in April. Naval battles. Yeah. The assassin’s take to the seas in an epic sea battle amongst enemy ships.

Sony PlayStation and Ubisoft are BFFs. So that’s why the US are getting their Crystal White PS Vita bundled with ACL and another PS3 bundled with ACIII.

Wonderbook on PS Move
Moving on with the future of the PS Move, Sony unveiled its new toy. Well, a book. A book with AR markers on it. IT hopes to being a new world of interactive book-reading to folks of all ages, though mainly kids and kids at heart. My immediate guess was right. Sony had to ring in authors, and who else better than J.K. Rowling? J.K. Rowling’s upcoming “Book of Spells” for the Wonderbook brings the world of Harry Potter spell castings to life, teaching users to learn and cast spells through the use of the PS Move controller.

Though J.K. Rowling was involved with Sony through Pottermore, it didn’t appear that “Book of Spells” is related to that collaboration.

PlayStation Mobile
A chirp was heard for PlayStation Suite, now PlayStation Mobile with Sony revealing that HTC will be the first third-party handset developer to carry the PlayStation license on non-Sony mobiles.

Only Nintendo’s presser remains. Stay tuned to RGB tonight as we kick off another liveblog.