E3 2013: Sony Press Conference

The future of the PlayStation

Sony didn't exactly do very well at the beginning of the current console generation. They had grand ideas that ended up falling quite short. They put a lot of stock into the cell processor, but it ended up making the console harder to develop for and much more expensive to produce. The $599 price reveal is quite an infamous moment in terms of E3 press conferences. That's all in the past though. A few months ago Sony announced the PS4 at a special event and talked about it's tech specs and showed a whole lot of video games. They started quite a buzz in the gaming community. People have been backing them recently. Especially after the announcement that the Xbox one would not support used games and would require an almost constant internet connection.

Sony stayed silent about their policies for used games and online connectivity until last night at their press conference. Sony pinpointed the weakness in Microsoft and struck with everything they had. In an honestly surprising move the PS4 will fully support used games. There is also no required online connection, so you can play your games offline all you want. When these two features of the console  were announced there was quite a bit of cheering from the crowd. During those cheers Jack Tretton started talking about PlayStation Plus and slipped in that you'll need it to play online multiplayer with the PS4. I'm actually glad that plus is required, because it means that maybe the online play won't totally suck on the PS4.

In another blow to Microsoft's body Sony announced that the PS4 will launch this holiday season for $399. The price seems crazy cheap compared to the Xbox One, but the One comes with Kinect while the PS4 does not come with the fancy new PlayStation Eye. The price point, being able to play used games, the fact that indie developers can self publish, and no necessary online connection are leading people to crown Sony the victor of this upcoming console generation already. I don't necessarily agree with that, but things do look very good for Sony right now.

Sony showed quite a few games at their conference as well. They live demoed Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (Which froze), Watch Dogs, and Destiny. All three look very good. I wasn't convinced on Assassin's Creed 4, but before the demo froze it looked awesome. I was surprised by how good Destiny looked as well. It may be a first person shooter, but it has RPG elements and I love me some RPG elements.

Sony also showed off quite a few trailers. These are just a few of them.

• Transistor
• Infamous: Second Son
• Drive Club
• Batman Arkham Origins
• The Last of Us
• Beyond Two Souls

They showed off tons of indie games that will be coming to PS4, which all seemed pretty cool. The trailers and gameplay demos got me really excited for what's coming during the next gen. None of it really surprised me though, except for two games I have yet to mention. There are few video games that will make me jump up out of my seat and yell with excitement. Sony showed two of those last night.

I have been waiting since 2006 for Final Fantasy Versus XIII to be released. At this point I was just looking for any new about it's existence. There were a few CG trailers and one gameplay trailer floating around. The last real news about the project was from 2010. That all changed last night. Sony showed a video of the game's producer Tetsuya Nomura telling fans he was busy, but they should enjoy the trailer for Versus XIII.

I lost my composure during the trailer. It was amazing. The CG scenes were beautiful, but the gameplay looked even cooler to me. The main character Noctis was jumping around cutting fools with his sword. His movement was super fast, which was aided by his teleportation. When the trailer ended it was revealed that the game had been changed to Final Fantasy XV and it would appear on the PS4. I thought that by now the prospect of this game wouldn't excite me anymore, but as a die hard Final Fantasy fan I was proven wrong.

On top of that ridiculous reveal they also decided to show a brief teaser for Kingdom Hearts 3. I guess Square Enix just wanted to let fans know that it's finally in development. While it may be Kingdom Hearts 3, it's actually the tenth game in the series. This will be the end of the trilogy and it should be a great game. 

Even though it was reveled today that both of these titles will also be released on the Xbox One as well, Sony still got the initial reveals. It takes a lot to make me freak out with excitement these days, but Final Fantasy XV did just that. Sony had a lot of great news at their conference and it makes me very excited to purchase the PS4. In fact I pre-ordered it from Amazon moments after the price was announced. Sony is certainly off to a better start this gen than they were last time around. Let's hope they can make good on what they've promised.

     -Manny