Tag Archives: scee playstation day

Ron Festejo, Home’s creative director, has confirmed that Home will enter its open beta phase in November this year.

“Home is currently in a closed beta phase,” he said, speaking at last week’s SCEE PlayStation Day in London. “We have between 8,000 and 10,000 users in this closed beta phase. Around July we’re going to be expanding on the closed beta phase and allowing more people to gradually come in, and then in November this year we’ll be going to the open beta.”

He added: “The extension to the closed beta allows us to have more conversations with our community. We’re very much in close conversations with them. A lot of the changes we’ve done have been the result of feedback. We’ve asked the community a lot of questions, they’ve given us a lot of feedback as to what they think needs improving, and we’re doing that, so it’s managing expectations.”

There’s more in this Eurogamer TV report, mainly about game-launching in Home, how to set up sessions, and so on. Take a look.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this week, SCEE president David Reeves has admitted that the firm would like the PSP games roster to be larger.

“Hand on heart, would we like more PSP games? Yes, we would. We really would,” he said.

Reeves did add, however, that more games were on the way to Europe from Japan.

“We’ve seen in the last six months that because of the success of the PSP in Japan many Japanese developers have got some absolutely phenomenal games,” he said. @They’re not Monster Hunter 2G or things like that, but they are in development and we’ll see them over here.”

The SCEE PlayStation Day earlier this week carried a grand total of no PSP games.

Speaking to CVG, SCEE president David Reeves has admitted that Home’s been delayed because the initial vision was too ambitious.

“We’ve realised that maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that,” he said, speaking at this week’s SCEE PlayStation Day.

“In that sense we were deserting gamers. So, we’re concentrating on the gaming by launching games in Home, and attracting people who are into gaming in first – instead of the Nike people, or Adidas people who are into fashion and not necessarily into gaming.”

Never fear, though. No more slips, Reeves promised.

“It is definitely coming out in autumn,” he added. “Whether that’s October or November, I don’t precisely know, but it is an open beta.”

Our laptop’s battery ran out half way through this, but don’t despair: you can now download a heap of video of this week’s SCEE PlayStation Day from the European PSN. See Kaz and David speak. How can you not?

Playable content

• Race Driver GRID demo (free)

Add-on content

• Guitar Hero III “Def Leppard” track pack (£3.99/€4.99)
• Guitar Hero III “Muse” track pack (£3.99/€4.99)
• Army of Two “SSC Challenge” game pack (£3.99/€4.99)

Trailers

• Mirror’s Edge Gameplay trailer (free)
• PlayStation Day “Introduction: Kaz Hirai” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play has no limitations” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is hiding and waiting” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is full throttle” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is a thousand stories” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play brings us together” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is moving hips, lips” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is unexplored” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Summary: Play” video (free)
• PlayStation Day Compilation Trailer (free)

Kaz Hirai’s told the BBC that he’s confident that PS3 will be the eventual winner of the current generation of hardware.

“I am very confident that after the 10-year lifecycle we will have the install base that we are looking for and that is obviously to be in the leadership position,” he said.

The SCE president added: “”We’ve only really begun to scratch the surface with PlayStation 3 but I am confident that given the long life-cycle we have planned for the machine we are going to have a very good install base in all of the major territories.”

There’s a video of the man himself speaking through the link.

Hirai was in London this week for the SCEE PlayStation Day. Read our interview with the Sony boss here.

On IGN. This one was shot from a tripod from the look of it. It’s a bit… dull. Watch it anyway. It’s taken from the SCEE PlayStation Day ealier this week.

Gamercyde’s posted four Killzone 2 videos from the SCEE PlayStation Day earlier this week, showing vehicles, rocket launchers, shooting and more. Take a look.

According to PS3F, SingStar producer Paulina Bozek confirmed at the SCEE PlayStation Day last night that a web version of My SingStar Online will launch this year.

The site will allow internet users to see uploaded videos from the game. Apparently SingStar players will be able to say whether or not they want their videos to be viewed by the general public or held within the current, PS3-only system.

More through the link.

Speaking to GamesIndustry, SCEE president David Reeves said at the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday that he hoped LittleBigPlanet sales would be higher than those for GT5: Prologue last month.

“We’re hoping sales will be higher than GT5: Prologue,” he said.

SCE boss Kaz Hirai added: “These are genre-defining titles, something we’re very proud of, and just one facet of the rapidly growing world of PlayStation.

“[LittleBigPlanet] will completely revolutionize the way gamers interact with their games, especially through the community functions and the ability to interact with LittleBigPlanet lovers around the globe.”

Speaking to Videogamer.com at the SCEE PlayStation Day in London yesterday, SCEE president David Reeves said that there’s a good chance of the PS3 version of GTA IV getting downloadable content at some point in the future.

“Well I think you probably will see it, it’s just that a deal obviously was struck between Microsoft and Take-Two to do that, and if that’s what they want to do, I think that’s the last shot they have,” he said.

Obviously, this is going set the cat among the pigeons somewhat, given that Microsoft’s spent a reported $50 million on exclusive DLC for the game later this year.

Speaking to videogaming247 at the SCEE PlayStation Day in London yesterday, SCEE president David Reeves said that PS3′s hard drive is staying at 40Gb in Europe for the foreseeable future.

“I don’t know that any other hard drive configuration is even planned,” he said when asked when an 80Gb SKU – so popular in the US – would release in Europe.

Continuing on the topic of PS3 hard drives, Reeves went on to indicate that those looking to get involved with PlayTV in September are likely going to have to buy a new one.

“I think eventually, yes, it will be,” Reeves said when asked if hard drive size was significant to the consumer SCEE’s trying to reach in Europe.

“I think the person that wants to be multimedia – and when we bring out PlayTV, they’re going to find that 40Gb is too small. But it’s not proprietary. You can go out and you can just buy another hard drive and just plug it in.

“You know, hard drives are a commodity. Sony says, ‘OK, we’ll go with 40, we’ll go with 60, we’ll go with 80,’ but Seagate, who produces hard drives, they might find that next year, for example, the cheapest hard drive is 120Gb. I’m not saying we’re launching it, but they might say, ‘We’re putting a zillion 120Gb hard drives into Vaio and Toshiba laptops,’ right? And they say, ‘That’s the cheapest one. But if you want a 40, that’s prehistoric and you’ll pay twice as much.’

“That’s honestly how it is. It’s a commodity.”

SCEE announced a new MGS4 bundle last night, which includes the 40Gb machines. Now you know why.

Read our full coverage of the SCEE PlayStation Day, including all the announcements, media and impressions so far from around the web, here.

Speaking to videogaming247 at the SCEE PlayStation Day in London yesterday, SCEE president David Reeves confirmed that DualShock 3 will be launching in Europe very soon.

“The DualShock 3 launch is imminent,” he told us in answer to a remark we made on the fact a Sixaxis is included in the newly-announced European MGS4 bundle.

The Euro boss gave no other hint as to when we’re specifically going to see the controller over here, or whether or not we’ve going to see it release before Metal Gear’s launch on June 12.

DualShock 3 has already launched in both America and Japan.

Speaking to videogaming247 at the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday, SCEE president David Reeves said that the company decided to make an announcement about passing Xbox 360 sales in Europe in the event’s press conference because of previous ill treatment, both from consumers and Microsoft.

“I think the fact that [Microsoft] launched 18 months before… It is significant for us because we get so many things thrown at us, because we were too expensive, we came too late, we didn’t launch early enough in Europe, and Xbox have been saying, ‘Well, we’re doing well and we’re the best the console,’ so we thought, for once we will say, actually, very quietly, ‘We’ve passed them,’” he said.

Reeves announced in the press conference that PS3 sales in Europe are now higher than Xbox 360′s will 5 million units sold.

Read our full coverage of the SCEE PlayStation Day, including all the announcements, media and impressions so far from around the web, here.

Speaking to videogaming247 at the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday, SCEE president David Reeves said it’s “little things like PlayTV” that will swing consumers towards PS3 as the differences between the three major consoles on the market are so slight.

“Just as when you see two top football teams playing, the margin of error [is so small], the difference between Xbox and ourselves and Wii is so little, that you’ve got to have these little things like PlayTV on PS3 or GoExplore on PSP to make the difference, so the consumer says, ‘I’ll have that one, please,’” he said.

Software’s still the focus, though, as SCE boss Kaz Hirai labored in our chat last night.

“The number one priority is still having the great games every month,” said Reeves. “We know that that’s what fundamentally drives the business. Some consumers, though, look a little bit to the right, a little bit to the left, and say, ‘Well, interesting: it’s got a hard drive, and there’s PlayTV as well. That means I can get digital terrestrial TV.’

“It’s still 90 percent games, though.”

Read our full coverage of the SCEE PlayStation Day, including all the announcements, media and impressions so far from around the web, here.

Just to add to this lot of screens and movies, here are the last shots we missed from the asset disc handed out at the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday.

• MotorStorm Pacific Rift shots
• Siren: Blood Curse shots
• SingStar Vol. 2 shots
• SingStar PS3 shots
• PlayTV shots
• Elefunk shots
• PixelJunk Eden shots

Gamespot’s posted a hands-on with Home from the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday. From the piece:

As long as you have a game installed on the hard drive or in the disc tray, you can jump straight into an online lobby from within Home. This means that you skip any of the game’s introductions, and in the case of MotorStorm, you even get a custom loading screen that features the Home logo in the corner. Using the PSP interface, you can customise all of the game rules that you’d expect from an online game, including the number of players, private slots, and laps and tracks. Once you’re ready to go, a small PlayStation control pad icon appears above your head. This indicates to other Home users that you’re ready to play, and they can come over, chat to you, or just join you if they’re interested. The demo that we played was running over the Internet, and even in its beta form, moving between Home and a game of MotorStorm was a completely seamless experience.

So there we are. No date was given for Home yesterday.

IGN’s posted what appears to be the first hands-on with Killzone 2 from the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday. From the piece:

Some of the game’s appropriations were sadly wide of the mark – when one of the grunts exclaims he feels ‘like a spare prick at a gang bang’ we couldn’t help but squirm at the forced machismo of it all. None of this is to say that the game doesn’t hold together – but when other offerings at Sony’s PlayStation Day, such as LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, look to create more boxes to tick, it’s a shame to see such a highly anticipated title do little more than is expected of it.

More through the link.

According to this PS3F story, Siren Blood Curse will release in Europe this summer is 12 downloadable parts.

The news came from an asset disc from the SCEE PlayStation Day in London yesterday.

There was no mention of Siren at all in the keynote at the event, but the game was playable on the showfloor. Very grainy it looked too.

Apparently Siren sets you “in the Japanese village of Hanuda, where a TV crew from America arrive to research the legend of the ‘Vanished Village’ where human sacrifice is said to have taken place thirty years ago.”

No word on a US release as yet.

Here’s all the shots and video we can see from this afternoon’s SCEE PlayStation Day so far. You can find all the rest of our coverage here.

• Stardust HD Team mode screens
• WipEout HD screens
• Killzone 2 shots
• LittleBigPlanet screens
• Resistance 2 screens
• Mirror’s Edge movie
• Resistance 2 movie

Kaz is a nice chap. He only flew in to the UK this morning for the SCEE PlayStation Day in London, but he was still the consummate, media-trained super-exec we know and love when we tracked him down on the O2 showfloor. Hit the link for the SCE president’s thoughts on Europe, “changes” to E3, Grand Theft Auto and selling PS3 as a games machine.

We also asked him what keeps him awake at night. See if you can guess the answer.

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