TGS Sony: Updates

[_skitzo_]

First a price cut, now in game footage of GT HD, DMC4, MGS and more, AMAZING!!!

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/6190

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/6198

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/6178

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/6211

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/6195

[_skitzo_]

"Gee, if this keynote was as boring being there as it was to read about, then Sony's in for a world of hurt.

We're here to tell you that it was worse. Way worse. You, dear reader, can dismiss the browser window containing that text with a click of your mouse, confident that nothing important was said."

Opening statements from Joystiq's own. The room quickly turned there heads down and lost themselfs in a world of NintendoDS while this went on....After the keynote, we head the words "meltdown," "total disaster," and "trainwreck" bandied about the press room. This keynote was worse -- way worse -- than Sony's E3 showing.
To be fair, part of the issue is that the translators Sony hired for this event were simply unable to keep up with the technical nature of the talk. They stumbled on common terms like VoIP. They used a limited vocabulary that made Kutaragi sound like a repetitive rambler who hit the sauce something fierce prior to the speech.


Here's what went wrong:

* Computer this, computer that. Unless the translators really messed up, Kutaragi never said the word console. He said the word "computer" many times, however. We're not sure why it's important to impress upon the audience the possibilities of computer technology, but we're pretty sure that the crowd assembled at TGS this morning wanted to learn something about the PS3's capabilities for games. Very little game content made its way into the speech.
* What's the point? Ken told us that the internet is cool, and it that opens all sorts of possibilities, and that the next 10 years will be more exciting than the last 10, but that's all he said. Why he felt the need to pound the audience with statements of the obvious really wasn't clear. The whole keynote felt like an elaborate joke setup for a punchline that was never delivered. We thought he might have been building to an announcement about the PlayStation 3's online capabilities, or about the PlayStation 3's multiplayer opportunities, or about downloadable content, microtransactions, what have you. Though these things were mentioned, nothing specific was said.
* Lack of visual aids. The gamer is a visual animal, requiring flashy, fast-moving stimuli to hold his interest. Sony failed to cater to the gamer. Besides a few short videos and a couple of ho-hum slides, the keynote was bereft of interesting imagery. For approximately 80% of the hour, the entire visual scene consisted of a Japanese man in a suit reading at a lectern. As one PictoChatter described it, "Zzzzzz."
* Afrika. When the lights dimmed at the end of the keynote for one final video, the audience leaned forward, hoping that we might finally be treated to some video footage for a hot game we'd never seen before. Instead, Sony played a trailer for their puzzling Afrika game. The game's pretty, but like the keynote it fails to make a point. Afrika is like a plasticine rendition of a nature show, without a gravel-voiced narrator to build drama and suspense ("The cheetah, who hasn't eaten in days, creeps up on a herd of gazelle. If he doesn't kill this time, he may be too weak to hunt again and may himself become prey for a nearby pack of hyenas.") The Afrika video, like the keynote itself, was anticlimactic and disappointing.

Real shame, atlest they had over 200 ps3's on the floor, thats gotta account for something right?

[_skitzo_]

Before you start dancing in the middle of the streets here, we posted this rumor last night here.

Shortly after, this event took place.

"HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Sony plans to reduce the price of its soon-to-be-released PlayStation 3 game console, the head of its game division reportedly said Friday. Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said at the Tokyo Game Show that the console's less expensive version would now sell for 49,980 yen ($429), according to media reports. Kutaragi attributed the price cut to customer complaints that the console was too expensive. The PS3 is scheduled to be released on Nov. 11"

Pre-launch price cut? Could Sony finally be waking up from there dreamland they have been in? Finally realizing the console if over-priced? Who knows, but price cuts are always good right?