When it comes to E3, we’re not going to limit ourselves to JUST Nintendo! Come on! So, I’m going to be viewing the Sony conference live and noting interesting points that come about.

The Big Breaker Recap!

You wouldn’t believe it, but Harrison and Ken worked together to build the suspense near the final 10 or 20 minutes of the show. They revealed the controller, which looked exactly like the PS2’s Dual Shock 2, but with a twist - you guessed it, gyroscopic control, just like our very own Wiimote. This reporter’s not saying a word about Sony’s technology habits, but make your own decision: did Sony swipe the tech after Nintendo showed it off, or are we all overreacting?

A controller 3D render, perhaps?
Final PS3 Renders and the Like, Courtesy of Joystiq

News below the break.

7:23 PM - GAF Liveblog - “Still queuing. At least the weather is nice! We’ll let you know if we spot anyone else really interesting looking really bored.”

7:33 PM - Audio tests start on live feeds. Starting soon.
* <.Kuma> sony raided the cutout bin at the local FYE

4:31 PM - gaminghorizon - People are starting to take their seats, beginning with the ever-privileged video crews.

7:45 PM - Stereo audio coming through GameSpot’s feed. Still no start.

7:52 PM - Kaz Hirai comes on stage through the GameSpot feed.

7:54 PM - “PS3 is NOT a successor, but rather an upgrade to their market.” Is a powerful machine, but “technology is an enabler”. Real content lays with the consumers.
Meant to be the companion device in your living room. Seamless interaction with all Playstations.

7:56 PM - GAF - November launch. Now Kaz is talking about PS2. 100 million units shipped (Sony loves shipped numbers instead of sold). 42M of that is North America. Go us! Sony plans on shipping another 10 million units of PS2 this fiscal year. 1 billion PS2 software units have been shipped. Again, no sell through numbers.

7:59 - PSP is a CULMINATION of handhelds, says Kaz. 12 million PSPs shipped. “No sign of slowing down.” 47.3M games shipped.

8:01 - New games shipping through the year for the PSP - Sports games, Ape Escape Minigames, Gangs of London, PlanetPSP (? Working Title?) Killzone Liberation, B-Boy (fighting game? breakdancing??) Loco Roco, Syphon Filter Dark Mirror, TalkMan translation game — mostly ports and PS2 caliber games.

8:03 - Discusses new Greatest Hits for PSP: ATV Offroad, Ape Escape, Hot Shots Golf, Twisted Metal and Wipeout Pure. “Sold 250 thousand or more units.”

8:05 - Lots of new stuff. RSS Video, GPS, lots of ritzy add-ons. brand new download stations, which have never been done before ever. ever. never before. “PSP’s Graphics be craaazy!”

8:08 - Stupid video playing of paid-off actors talking about how much they love the PS2/PSP

8:09 - PS3 will support removable HDD, and all kinds of flash medias, apparently. Supports true 1080p HD. I’ve heard it all before, Kaz. Hey, there’s that Spiderman font again.

8:13 - Some bogus report reports that 25% of US households will own an HD display. Who made those reports? HDD will ship with the PS3, for downloading & game preformance. Shiny little PS3 beast pokin’ around the stage behind Kaz. Looks exactly the same as last year’s. PS3 launching as BLACK color.

8:15 - Kaz blabs, and Phil Harrison takes the stage amid applause.

8:17 - Harrison blabs about some business speak, and introduces the creator of Grand Turismo, Yamuchi & translator. Nobody likes Harrison.

8:18 - Grand Turismo prototype designed for E3, completely in High Def. He looks like he’s gripping a pretty standard PS2 controller. Everything’s “boosted in resolution & quality.” The video isn’t necessarily full HD, explains Yamuchi. “First time a home console shows an uncompressed digital signal.

8:20 - The game looks exactly like the one I played on my 1990 Magnavox. Maybe it’s just that I’m not there.

8:22 - The game’s roughly 3 times the information you’d see on a regular HD TV signal.
Based on the PS2, the difference is 12 times. Strange numbers.

8:24 - Able to navigate from the selection to racing in about 2 or 3 seconds, claims Yamuchi, due to Harddrive’s cache ability.

8:28 - Grand Turismo HD video still. He’s driving a neat little car through the grand canyon. Nobody seems to care.

8:28 - Wide shot of the Grand Canyon. Amazing detail, with each person in the crowd rendered with their own movements. Excellent light refraction. Makes me suspicious.

8:31 - The world of GT, with broadband capibilities, will not ‘expand’, but ‘explode’. Yamuchi leaves the stage, and the bald guy strokes his ego as he leaves.

8:32 - Harrison introduces a card-based battle game, supposed to appear tomorrow at the show floor. Richard Marx, eyetoy creator takes the stage. “Eye of Judgement” developed in Japan, shown. You place cards in front of the camera, and you get to interact and move it around with your actual fingers. Imagine, Yu-Gi-Oh in real life, with monsters poppin’ out of them and everything.

8:34 - Harrison blabs about a special demonstration card, turns out to be a fire-breathing rubber ducky. Nobody really laughs because Harrison isn’t funny.

8:35 - Kaz comes on back, and the audience breathes a sigh of relief. Addresses online strategy. “Online and Network like A/C in a car!”, says Kaz. Believes it will become standard. Online is as essential as air, says Kaz’s rhetoric. Kaz pitching a communication network, cites MySpace. Player profiles, rankings, messaging, friends lists - ripping off Xbox Live.

8:37 - Completely free of charge. Everything.

8:38 - Kaz pulls out a PSP, and is showing off a new Ridge Racer game - seems to be a PSX port, or an emulation perhaps. The audio sounds insanely dated. Letterboxed, too, but screensize can be changed.. Kaz sucks at videogames, he says.

8:40 - Kaz falls to the beast of Microtransactions. Many payment methods, INCLUDING prepaid cards (Called the Playstation Card). Exclusive information will be given away.
Kaz leaves, and Phil Harrison comes back. One man cries outloud.

8:41 - Harrison shows off a gigantic iTunes-like microtransaction store. Stores are actually inside the games - specifically in Sing Star, which is being demo’d. You can apparently buy new songs. HD content available inside the BluRay disc. Sing Star (ps2 and ps3 versions) will be playable at E3.

8:43 - No pricing strategy announced yet for Sing Star songs. Survivor was priced $0.00, as appropriate.

8:45 - Game Republic developing a game, Bill Rich gives it a quick demo. Game is based on Japanese history: Genji. Based around ancient battles (I called it! Check the roundtables!). Many, many models on screen at once. Realtime weapon change, realtime character change. Combo system very open, with few defined combos to begin with. Bill Rich blows at playing video games.

8:48 - The game looks very slow, with plenty of particle effects. This is no Dynasty Warriors. Bill Rich is struggling to even demonstrate attacking a gigantic crab monster. Everything seems insanely familiar, almost like it’s been done in a Zelda game. Game’ll be playable at E3, in full.

8:50 - PS3 has a formula one game. Nobody in the audience looks suprised, and many look angry. PSP is being used as a real-time, synced wing mirror. Japanese people apparently have four hands.

8:51 - Chief design ninja introduced, showing off Heavenly Sword at a HD kiosk. Neta looking gladiator game, with jumping moves & slow motion like Prince of Persia or God of War. Enough bloom effect to power a small nation. Chick slams some dude’s nads. Harrison pipes up, and the world falls silent. Game will be playable at E3.

8:54 - Female ninja with red hair throws a hat like a frisbee and splays an enemy. Sweet. Game includes a reaction system like Resident Evil 4, Shenmue, or Prince Of Persia.

8:55 - More games shown on a video: A cool-looking war game with dragons and knights (titlted: LAIR); Gritty crime game with a prerendered video (titled: Getaway); African Safari shown off, animals grazing and walking around - no real gameplay (titled: Afrika, working title); Hot Shots Golf game - same models, but they’re shinier (titled: Everybody’s Golf); A dark fanatsy world action game (titled: Monster Kingdom).

9:00 - Harrison introduces two brand-new titles: An absolutely gorgeous prerendered shooty guns-a-lot crime game titled Eight Days, and a shooty-mc-guns-a-lot tomb raiding game by Naughty Dog.

9:05 - Ted Price of Insomniac takes the stage.

9:05 - Insomniac working on an alternative history game, named Resistance, based in England. “Intense, bleak and brutal,” claims Price. English army fighting against an unknown alient force. Takes place around before World War II. Seems interesting, sort of like Return to Castle Wolfenstein mixed with Doom.

9:07 - <.Kammo> STOP WITH THE DAMN GUNS DAMMIT

9:08 - Soft applause as Price stops playing Resistance. Apparently, supposed to have 32 player online play. Playable at E3.

9:10 - Harrison takes the stage, and the applauding dies immediately. Harrison ends playable games section of the show. Harrison leaves, Kaz taks the stage, heavy applause.

9:11 - Showing off third party games now. Assisin’s Creed video shown, Gundam: Mobile Suit makes its presence known with a quick video, Codeassault: Arms, Ridge Racer 7 teaser, the next Brothers in Arms (Hell’s Highway), Tekken 6, Sonic the Hedgehog , Virtual Tennis 3, Virtua Fighter 6, and John Woo’s game Stranglehold.

9:16 - Gamespot’s feed dies. Reggie thought responsible.

9:20 - The EA guy is showing live footage of a test area in NBA Live 07. Dual Shock 3. Where’s the boomerang? Controller and models are apparently more responsive?

9:21 - “Oooh! Nice dunk!” - EA guy is officially the whitest man in history.

9:22 - EA boasting its “super-sophisticated” ‘U-cap’ mo-cap system, which took quite a while to produce. First test of it is Tiger Woods, with a user-controlled model of smiling Tiger Woods. Very impressive. Shadowing is amazingly realistic. Tiger Woods will be manipulated live at E3 at the floor show.

9:25 - Fight Night, Need for Speed: Carbon, Metal of Honor: Airborn, Army of Two, Madden NFL 07 being slaved away on by EA employees all over the world. EA rep. mispronounces Kutaragi’s name. Nobody says anything.

9:27 - Final Fantasy 13 split into two: 13 and Vs. 13. Video shown, and is prerendered gorgeousness on a platter like always. Stars a girl toting guns! Totally futuristic, with a brand-new active battle system. Music is awesome, like Kingdom Hearts II. No sign of the final Final Fantasy.

9:28 - They’re proud to show off Metal Gear Solid 4, and apparently already running on a PS3 devkit. The crowd roars with excitement. Kojima’s storytelling is awesome as always. Many familiar characters: Snake, Otakon, Meril, the blond dude, Liquid Snake, Old Man Snake. Shoots himself in the head on screen.

9:33 - Ken takes the stage with his crazy English. He’s the most exciting person tonight, unfortunately. He has one more secret. “Back in 94, controller was quite unique., and everyone was amazed by its control in a 3D world. We are going to enhance its … ability. […] ” He’s planning on bringing it into the 4D world.

Final controller is just a wireless dual shock controller.

9:35 - After a small silence, he shows that they added a GYROSCOPIC CONTROL. The Internet’s nerds explode with anger.

9:36 - Harrison adds a duck to the techdemo, and claims that the controller is lighter, and apparently “intuitive.”

9:37 - Ken thanks the audience for supporting them and leaves the stage.

9:38 - Warhawk from Incognito modified to show off the controller. Didn’t Nintendo do this same thing with Metroid Prime 2?

9:40 - after Dylan Hawk continues playing Warhawk for a moment, the player seems to be seriously struggling with shooting objects and also flying straight.

9:41 - Harrison goes back to Kaz, and he explains how the PS3 ‘transcends imagination.’ Recaps everything that the PS3 can do: judge movement, play any media, steal ideas and cook meat.

9:42 - PS3 available in two plans - 20GB and 60GB drives. Nov 11., 2006 in Japan, 59,800 YEN retail. 60GB has an open-price for retailers. American launch on Nov 17, $500 for 20GB, and $600 for 60GB. Europe and Austroasia, Nov 17, 20GB 499 euros, 60GB 599 Euros.

Wrapping production soon. 2 million units shipped during launch. 4 million units by the end of the year, and 6 million during Q1.

9:44 - Lists the enormous list of big game studios. Nippon Ichi is on board! The usual PS2 games will be on the PS3, and new ID will show up. PS3 is a complete home entertainment system. Playable games at E3, for the first time.

9:45 - Kaz leaves the stage, and the crowd begins emptying out to some strange music. A woman’s voice comes overhead, telling people to enjoy playable PS3 games.

The feed ends, and that’s it. Bye guys, thanks for reading!

Comments have been unlocked, feel free to discuss!