 Sony hopes to cast a spell on gamers' wallets witha $430 PS3 "Move" pack. The motion control is available separately for $70 (plus $35 for the Eye camera). (Source: Giant Bomb)
 Sony will also be offering premium content to gamers for $49.99 a year via its new Playstation Plus service. (Source: Giant Bomb)
 Valve's Portal 2 also made a star appearance. (Source: Giant Bomb)
Will gamers chomp on Sony's high prices?
Microsoft
is offering Kinect
for the Xbox 360 in November. It is expected to be
priced under $150, which means that with an Xbox 360 Arcade Edition
(which dropped in price to $150) you will be likely to get a holiday
motion bundle for under $300. The Nintendo
Wii is, of course, currently available for $199, with
Wiimote and Wii Motion Plus.
Sony is making a
dangerous bet with its own
motion gaming system that gamers are willing to pay more
than Microsoft or Nintendo's prices to get what it feels is a
superior experience. At its E3 2010 keynote today, the company
upset some in the audience by announcing that its Playstation 3
Motion Bundle would retail for $400. Except, that's not all --
the bundle only includes the PS3 Eye Camera ($34.99, currently
available) and Move Controller ($49.99) (it also comes with a sports
game). It does not include
the PS3 Navigation controller, a necessary part of the "Move"
experience. Gamers will have to pick that up separately for
$29.99.
Reaction to the high price point was instant.
Some in the crowd began booing and at least one person screamed "Too
much!!" at the presenter.
Still Sony seems confident that
customers will bite on the high-end offer. Among the exclusive
titles it showed off was Tiger Woods PGA Tour, which featured
ultra-realistic golf motions. If you're eager to become Tiger
Woods and attempt some slick moves, Sony reminds us that it's all in
the "flick of your wrists" and that power is very important
as well.
Other "Move" titles include Time Crisis,
Echochrome 2, Heavy Rain updates, Resident Evil 5, and Tron:
Evolution. Another key title is "Heros on the Move"
which features familiar Sony-exclusive characters, including Ratchet,
Jak, Bently, Clank, Sly Cooper.
Coke is teaming up with Sony
to promote Move.
Besides Move, the other key announcement by
Sony was a firmware update that allows 3D gaming with compatible TVs
like its Bravia
3D TV lineup. The update will be rolled to individual PS3's
and from there it will be up to game vendors to update their titles
to feature 3D.
Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Shaun White
Skateboarding, Ghost Recon, Tron:Evolution, and NBA 2k11 all will get
3D-ified, as will Motorstorm, Wipeout HD. Leading the charge
will be Killzone 3, which will release in February 2011 and bring
with it oodles of extra-dimension gore and carnage.
Sony says
that by March 2011, twenty 3D-enable titles will be available for the
35 million PlayStation 3 consoles world.
Other huge titles
announced include Twisted Metal, Portal 2, Final Fantasy XIV,
Call of Duty:BO, DC Universe, SOCOM4: US Navy Team, Mafiaa II,
The Fight: Lights Out, and Dead Space 2.
Also announced
were LittleBigPlanet 2 and an upgraded Playstation Network service
called Playstation "Plus" which delivers exclusive
content. Sony will be offering 3 months for free and then will
charge $17.99 for 3 months, or $49.99 for a year. Content
through the service will not be downloadable, so if you quit, you'll
lose access to it.
At the keynote, Sony also announced a
number of PSP titles, many of them family friendly. Announced
titles included Tetris, Fat Princess, EyePetTron, Kingdom
Hearts, Ace Combat, Toy Story, Ghosts of Sparta, Invzibles, 3rd
birthday, P3P, Ys: The Oath, Valkyria II, and Piyotama. Eyepet
and Invzibles both make use of the PSP's camera. It definitely
seems that Sony is targeting more young gamers with the PSP.
"Young lady, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" -- Homer Simpson
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