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Sony must support indie developers, says Yoshida
Speaking to Develop Online, Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studio President Shuhei Yoshida said that the gaming megalith sees value in the continuously expanding world of indie development, and that supporting those developers is the key to industry growth. "We have to support those smaller teams," he said. "Without doing so, the whole industry will stall, in terms of innovation." Yoshida thinks Sony's forthcoming PS Vita will serve as a good platform for indie developers currently subsisting in the mobile-phone universe, citing the handheld's capacitive touch-screen and AR capabilities as an entry-level gateway for development on the platform. He also added that the Vita's development kit has been specifically engineered with affordability in mind, and that the system is "small and light and easy for developers to handle." With smartphones gobbling up increasingly larger slices of the mobile gaming pie, Sony seems to be positioning itself as the indie-friendly option for mobile developers looking to enter the world of dedicated gaming devices.
Activision head Bobby Kotick positive but unsure on Vita; sees Wii U as 'really necessary' for Nintendo
When Bobby Kotick's not busy making appearances in major motion pictures alongside Brad Pitt, he heads up Call of Duty publisher Activision. And as head of one of the largest (if not the largest) third-party game publisher, what he says about the future of various consoles can have some major implications. It seems that, like Activision has done in the past with new platforms, Kotick's stance on both Nintendo's Wii U and Sony's PlayStation Vita is "very interested" with a heavy side of apprehension. In an interview with The Guardian, Kotick spoke to his feelings on the PS Vita. "Technically, we're super excited about what we can do on it, it's really something incredible. The question is, where is the market?" While he's excited by the capability of the PS Vita, and his company has already pledged support, Kotick acknowledged the burgeoning smart phone market for games as well. "It's a really nice product and its very well differentiated from what you can get in even the most capable smartphone or tablet today," he professed. As for Nintendo's Wii successor, the Wii U, Kotick said that Activision has had dev kits "for awhile now" and that, while Nintendo has yet to fully clarify its online system even to him, the console apparently makes "rich multiplayer games" a possibility -- a first for Nintendo, if true. As far as timing goes, Kotick stated that Nintendo's hardware reveal was a necessity. "For the kinds of games we create, it was becoming very difficult for us to support the Wii with the expectations that our gamers have ... from a development perspective, having a Nintendo device that is on parity with the other hardware from a graphics perspective was really necessary." As you might expect, Activision is apparently "very enthusiastic about it," though he wouldn't detail any specific titles in development at the publisher. When pressed on new intellectual properties, Kotick deferred to Bungie's unannounced project, as well as "the new MMO from Blizzard" (the rarely spoken of "Titan" project). And as expected, he spoke ambiguously regarding this year's Guitar Hero franchise gutting. "Until we can deliver a really high level of innovation and tap into the high level of creativity and inspiration of the people we have making games, we won't put the products out," he admitted. "That goes for everything -- we've always subscribed to that philosophy." We're not sure that the last few Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk titles would back up Mr. Kotick's claim, but then we're not the corporate figurehead of an enormous public company.
Sony demos PS Vita 'Face Control,' we get super creeped out forever
During the aptly named Game Tools and Middleware event held yesterday in Tokyo, Sony showed off an intriguing, terror-inspiring feature of the PlayStation Vita: "Face Control." That capability isn't inherently horrifying, but the tech demo Sony used to illustrate its uses certainly was. While video chatting with a remote friend using the handheld, players used their facial movements to control the eerie, lifeless faces of 3D avatars. You can check out a video of the tech demo posted above. Just be forewarned: If we're ever chatting with any of you on our PS Vita, your human face is suddenly replaced by that of a virtual tiger, we're going to hang up immediately and then burn your very memory from our consciousness, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-style.
LittleBigPlanet Vita being developed by Double11
In case you didn't know, we quite liked LittleBigPlanet's PlayStation Vita outing when we played it during E3. Heck, it was even Griffin's game of the show. And as of today, we know who to thank for brightening our annual week of overwork -- Double11. The ex-Rockstar helmed studio has been recruiting for LBP Vita and grown to over 30 staff members since being formed in 2010. "We've spent the best part of a year recruiting a crack squad of games development professionals and we're delighted that we can finally announce it," CEO Lee Hutchinson notes in the announcement. Also in the release: news that the game is being co-developed by Sweden-based Tarsier Studios, who contributed to previous LBP games on PS3. Reps from Tarsier didn't get to say anything in the release.
Xbox COO sees dedicated handheld market as a 'red ocean,' will let Sony and Nintendo swim in it
Dennis Durkin is COO and CFO for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business. He's also a dude thoroughly disillusioned with the future of portable consoles. Speaking to IndustryGamers, Durkin explains that the "crowded" nature of the mobile gaming market right now makes it extremely difficult to launch a dedicated handheld gaming device successfully -- in his colorful words, it's "a very, very red ocean." Whose blood is soiling those waters? The Nintendo 3DS, says Durkin, which has sold reasonably well, but has clearly failed to reach the lofty expectations set for it by fans and previous handhelds from the company. Likewise, the PS Vita invites a lot of skepticism from the Xbox chief, who says his excitement is reserved for what Microsoft can do with Kinect, Xbox Live and unique content. You might say it's to be expected that an Xbox exec would be casting doubt over Sony's great new hope, but what we learn in the process is that Microsoft has no intentions of squaring up to its home console nemesis on the mobile front. Not with dedicated hardware, anyway.
PlayStation Vita's rear touch panel almost got bumped
It seems as if Sony wasn't quite feeling the PlayStation Vita's rear touch panel at first. Speaking to Famitsu (as translated by Andriasang), Sony's president of worldwide studios, Shuhei Yoshida, revealed that the portable's most groundbreaking feature was nearly stricken from the final design due to cost concerns. Specifically, Sony wasn't sure that the effect it would have on gameplay was worth its part of the sticker price. That changed, though, after people actually got their hands on it; it went from questionable to being a must-have feature. Yoshida said in the same interview that while the touch panel is definitely a keeper, some small elements of the Vita's design are still subject to change. We're guessing he means minor cosmetic tweaks, since the hardware we saw at E3 seemed pretty much final. Whatever gets altered, it'd better not involve removing the ultra-spiffy PlayStation icon pattern on the touch panel.
Kojima using 'Transfarring' cloud data for all future games
Hideo Kojima said during a recent Kojima Productions podcast that the cloud data sharing system he created from dragonscales, Old Snake's mustache trimmings and cardboard boxes -- "Transfarring" -- will be available for every title his studio releases in the future. That means all of its games going forward, including the Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders re-releases, Metal Gear Solid Rising and the new Fox Engine game, will all presumably provide some connection between the PS3 and PS Vita. Does this mean a version of Metal Gear Solid Rising for the PS Vita? We'll have to wait and see. More importantly, perhaps, we're wondering how long it will take for someone to tell Kojima that cloud saving has been around for a while -- just so he can stop using that very silly name.
Joystiq's favorite games of E3 2011
Normally, after E3, some clear "best games" emerge -- either the ones that everyone knew would be amazing going in, and did not disappoint on the floor, or the Scribblenauts-style surprises that dominated conversations online and in the press room. There's usually a general consensus among the Joystiq staff about a few standout games. This year, however, when we compared notes and discussed our favorite games of the show over chicken and waffles, we found that every Joystiqer picked something different (there was more agreement when we asked the Massively staff to join in, but it makes sense for MMO fans to be in accord). We can't really say what that means, but it seems significant. And so, rather than debate our way down to a few choices, we're just presenting each of our favorite games, individually. You want Joystiq's "Game of the Show"? It's ... all of these. We'd also like to call out Bloodrayne: Betrayal and Mass Effect 3, which came so close.
'Water, meet fish': Epic Games' Mark Rein on Wii U, PS Vita, and E3 2011
Despite our wishy washy feelings about this year's big show, the E Triple, Epic Games VP and co-founder Mark Rein was quite positive on last week's proceedings. In an interview yesterday with Joystiq, Rein beamed about this year's show, saying, "I thought E3 was really good -- I thought the industry looked good. The quality of games on display was extremely high." He even had positive things to say about the growing divide between "triple-A" and "indie" development, explaining that, even though "it's definitely a boom or bust mentality now" with regards to the big publishing houses, "there was definitely more boom than bust" in his eyes. But for him, the big news of the show was the same as everyone else: Nintendo's new console, the Wii U, and Sony's PlayStation Vita reveal. "The Vita blew me away," Rein told us. "I was shocked at how badly I wanted to take one of those home with me." He was similarly thrilled by Nintendo's Wii successor, though he wouldn't speak to any specifics regarding Unreal Engine 3 on the new console. "I can tell you that I got to see it at E3 and it was what I expected of course. We were very excited to play some of their demos, see how good the feel of the hardware was -- it's a very impressive system and I think it's gonna do quite well," he told us. When asked about the possibility of UE3 on Wii U, as indicated by two UE3-based games in Nintendo's own sizzle reel, Rein referred us to our conversation at GDC. He summarized it by saying, "'If Nintendo made a system that could run our engine, we'd be on it like water on fish.' And so when someone asked me what I thought about the Wii U, I said, 'Water, meet fish.'" Seems pretty direct if you ask us!
Sony PlayStation Vita's removable memory looks like it's an SD card, but it isn't
Sony's seen fit to tell us many of the PlayStation Vita's specs, how much it'll cost ($249 for WiFi, $299 for 3G), and who gets it (everyone). Amidst all the hullabaloo at E3 2011, however, we missed seeing that Sony was showing off the new handheld's internal memory cards. Good thing an eagle-eyed member of the public snapped a pic of the 4, 8, 16, and 32GB cards on the show floor. They look awfully similar to garden variety SD cards, only there's a little notch in the side confirming they hew to Sony's unfortunate habit of using proprietary storage formats. The cost of the cards remains shrouded in secrecy, but life's more fun when a little mystery's involved, right?
CCP shares big plans for Dust 514 and EVE Online at E3
The MMO market may be dominated by World of Warcraft, but while other games have come and gone, there's always been one other constant in massively multiplayer games: Icelandic company CCP's EVE Online. Since 2003, CCP has kept EVE's gigantic galactic server Tranquility going, allowing the game's over 350,000 users to fly around, blow up ships, trade and earn ISK, and make this virtual world that has held over 60,000 players together at one time surprisingly real. But that's not enough for CCP. EVE has always been singled out for its precipitous difficulty curve -- because the game faithfully models everything from power management and targeting systems to realtime stocks and industrial economics, it's a tough climb for new players not necessarily interested in the ins and outs of advanced capacitor control schemes. Enter Dust 514, then, a brand new game being developed by CCP that's designed to scoop up all of those players who've been scared away by the learning curve in EVE Online. What's the opposite of a hardcore, complicated, PC MMO? Apparently it's a massively multiplayer first-person shooter, available only on Sony's PlayStation 3. (Extensions of the game are set to be released as well, including one on the new PS Vita.) %Gallery-126232%
Silent Hill: Book of Memories is multiplayer, not made by Vatra
Remember the abandoned multiplayer mode Konami was investigating for Silent Hill: Downpour? It looks like that investigation resulted in the creation of Silent Hill: Book of Memories, which was recently announced for Sony's upcoming PS Vita handheld. Konami announced today that the title would focus on multiplayer, and we decided to ask series producer Tom Hulett how it came about. Hulett reiterated that developer Vatra Games had looked into a multiplayer mode for Downpour , but was wary of adding it simply for the sake of having it. "We decided if we don't have something that is uniquely Silent Hill and feels good in multiplayer, we don't want to just tack it on," said Hulett, adding, "We don't just want to throw something in to say, 'hey, there's a bullet point.'" Multiplayer was scrapped for Downpour, but Konami "kept exploring" the idea and eventually came up with Book of Memories. Hulett didn't offer many details -- like how exactly Silent Hill multiplayer is supposed to work -- though he did confirm that Vatra is not developing the title. Furthermore, the game will not be running on the Unreal Engine, which is being used to power Downpour.
Let's take a tour of Sony's E3 2011 area
As it's the last official day of E3 2011, we took to the rapidly thinning show floor to snap some pics of Sony's enormous setup this year. Of course the company's forthcoming handheld, the PlayStation Vita, was on full display, but games like Uncharted 3 and Ninja Gaiden ... 3 seemed most adept at drawing the attention of attendees. And hey, did you know Sony games are all about 3D? 'Cause they totally are.
Sony answers more PlayStation Vita questions: no to video output, yes to region-free
We heard earlier at E3 that the PlayStation Vita might be able to do video output via the multiport on the bottom of the handheld, but it's now looking like that won't be the case -- at least according to the official FAQ that Sony has made available. In slightly better news, however, Sony exec Michael Denny said today that, to the best of his knowledge, the PS Vita will indeed be region-free just like the PS3. Otherwise, Sony hasn't provided much more in the way of surprises, but it looks like it is at least leaving the door open to helping folks bring their UMD-bound games with them to the new handheld. While it's ruled out a UMD reader of any sort, Sony says that it will "consider every possibility for support on bought UMD games," although it has nothing to announce at this time. Check out the complete FAQ at the source link below.
ModNation Racers (PS Vita) preview: Micro machines
When the PS Vita finally makes its way into the public's hands later on this year, Sony will have at least one big ace up its sleeve right away on release day. A version of ModNation Racers will be out and ready to buy with the console, and all of the tracks and vehicles (that's all of them) currently available on the PS3 and PSP will be available to download and play right away. That's a ton of content, and just picking up ModNation Racers gets you access to all of it, a pretty clever way to fill out what might be a pretty sparse launch library for the PS Vita. That in itself might be enough to sell the game -- a racing title is hard to mess up even on a brand new handheld, and of course this one plays just as well as all of the other versions. But no, Sony's taken the ambitious step of including the ModNation Racers editor in the mix, allowing you to make use of all of the PS Vita's various bells and whistles while building up tracks. And for the most part, it works, both as an actual track editor, and as a showcase for interacting with the Vita's touchscreens. There are a few hiccups (pressing on the rear touchscreen to make mountains is weird), but it all works out quite well. %Gallery-125158%
PlayStation Vita title 'Ruin' connects to PS3 for continuous client gameplay, we give it a swing (video)
Cross-platform gaming is a wonderful idea, but Sony's showing off something even more impressive at E3 this year -- a game that you can starting playing on either PS3 or the PlayStation Vita handheld and immediately transfer to another console. Ruin leverages cloud storage to save your entire hack-and-slash RPG game, right down to the positions and actions of every nearby enemy and the structures you've destroyed. Then, a second or eight after you hit load on another machine, you're right back in the very same fight. Resuming on console or handheld and picking up exactly where you left off -- yep, it's a bona fide continuous client, and we had to give it a try. So, off to Sony's E3 2011 booth we went, to seek out developer Idol Minds.With both Vita and PS3 connected to a local router, it was both as simple and as mind-blowing as you'd expect -- simply save on one (no matter what you're doing), load on the other, and everything (save certain scripted animations) loads exceptionally quickly. In fact, Idol Minds VP Jeff Litchford said that while show floor conditions necessitated the local router, Ruin's cloud resume functionality would even work over 3G, as the save files are actually fairly small, on the order of 250KB. He couldn't tell us whether you'll have to purchase two copies of the game to make the magic happen (we're hoping not), but he did have some good news on the cloud storage front: it won't cost a thing to save your game data, not even a subscription to PlayStation Plus.Sean Buckley contributed to this report.
Gravity preview: Falling in slow motion
Gravity was one of the few fully original titles we saw running on the new PS Vita console at Sony's event last evening. Most of the games on the new system are updates of Sony's big properties, but Gravity is different -- a brand new IP by Sony Japan centered around what's probably the least sexy of the Vita's new control schemes: The internal gyroscope. The idea is that you play as Kat, a girl wandering around a dreamlike, stylistic city called Hexaville (complete with a pink sky and a comic panel look) who finds herself with the ability to control her own personal gravity, floating up in the air with a flick of the R trigger. Once floating, you can use the right analog stick (or, more likely, the PS Vita's gyroscope) to aim her towards a wall or building, and then the R trigger sends her flying across the world that way, changing up gravity until you hit the R button again and bring her back down to the ground.
The mother of all PlayStation Vita trailer posts
If you're looking for footage of PlayStation Vita games, we can't think of anything more handy than the post you're reading right now. That's because it contains absolutely every scrap of video we've managed to assemble related to Sony's fantastically impressive new handheld. It's the kind of thing you'll want to bookmark and come back to whenever you need a little encouragement to wait out the months until the system's release. It's not going to be easy. Click past the break to commence the trailer-a-thon.
Sony's PlayStation Vita: a closer look (update: burning questions answered)
We told you what Sony's PlayStation Vita felt like, but here it is in the glossy plastic flesh -- all five-inches of vibrant OLED display, two cameras, dual analog sticks, twelve buttons, two capacitive digitizers and a D-pad. Check out the gallery below for some close-up shots, and hop on past the break for some video footage of the quad-core handheld in action.Update: Sony just answered a few burning questions for us -- mainly about those mysterious ports we spotted on the bottom and top. Apparently those top port covers will hold one slot for the official PSVita game cards, and another slot for regular removable media for downloadable content and saves, and the port that's occupying one of those places will be removed. Meanwhile, the large socket at the bottom is a "multiport" that provides power, connectivity and might do video-out. We couldn't get any firm details about the AT&T 3G partnership, by the way, but we're told that there will be a special cellular plan of some sort. As you'd expect, Sony's also not talking battery life, but a developer told us that -- with the exception of graphically intensive titles like Uncharted -- the company's shooting for parity with the original PlayStation Portable.%Gallery-125671%
LittleBigPlanet (PS Vita) preview: Touched by a Sackboy
First, the bad news: Unlike ModNation Racers, the PS Vita version of LittleBigPlanet won't be able to make use of all the user content already created for its two big brother sequels on the PS3. There are two Blu-Ray discs of content to use in the LittleBigPlanet games on the PS3, and there was no way for Sony to carry all of that content over to the PS Vita. The good news, however, is that allowed the developers to really take advantage of all the Vita has to offer. "We wanted to make the game very original," the Sony representative told us while showing off the title after the E3 press event. And it certainly is -- while Sackboy moves and plays exactly like his PS3 counterpart (and in fact, all of the costumes did make the jump), the Vita's touchscreen is a literal game-changer here. In most of the other Vita games, the touchscreens are just a substitute for the traditional button controls. But in LittleBigPlanet, they give the game even more depth, tactility, and immersion.%Gallery-125609%
