Phil Harrison's GDC keynote - Home, LittleBigPlanet & more

[Titanio]

Didn't expect we'd need this thread quite so soon, but a media briefing last night has leaked a few concrete details on Harrison's GDC keynote, so here we go I guess. The other GDC thread was aimed at 'smaller news', and this ain't that. We can keep all further news/details/impressions from the conference in here I guess.

The keynote itself is taking place at 10.30am-11.30am PST, hosted of course by Phil Harrison.

What we know so far

The short version

- Sony to unveil Home, a 3D online community taking cues from Second Life and The Sims, with hooks for games to export trophies and game-specific objects - to be released in the Fall.
- Sony will unveil LittleBigPlanet. Not much is known on this yet, except that it will allow players to make the game themselves (?!)
- Sony privately showed off Killzone Tuesday night. It will not be shown publically today, we will have to wait until E3.

The long version

The NYTimes reports from a media briefing on Tuesday night that Sony will unveil Home, a Second Life/The Sims style online community.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/arts/design/07game.html?ref=technology

Moving to enhance its PlayStation 3 game console, Sony today plans to announce new online capabilities for it, meant to draw gamers into Sony’s cyberspace community and allow them to share entertainment content they have created, à la YouTube.

The centerpiece, a new service called PlayStation Home, is to become available to consumers in the fall, said senior game industry executives, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans. PlayStation Home is meant to build on and surpass somewhat similar offerings from Sony’s competitors Microsoft and Nintendo by allowing users to create persisting online identities that record players’ achievements in different games. As players progress through a game, they will unlock various virtual prizes that they can then show off to friends and rivals, the executives said.

It is a deficiency that Sony seems well aware of and that today’s announcements are meant to address. Kotaku (kotaku.com), a popular gaming blog, reported preliminary details about PlayStation Home last week. Mr. Harrison would not discuss specifics of today’s planned announcements but he laid out a clear road map of how Sony intends to improve and augment its online service.

“Last year was a year of hardware,” he said. “It was all about the hardware launch, specifications, hardware technology. This is the year of software, about developing new services and, crucially, the migration from pure packaged goods, which has been the traditional delivery mechanism in our industry over the last 25 years, to something that blends the network and online services into the game experience.”

MarketWatch has more:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/sto...x?guid={8A4F8917-3627-4F40-90C7-D1AC5E68B4AE}

Sony sees social gaming as next evolution
Electronics giant launches 'Home' network for PlayStation3

...

The main component of the company's new push is a service called Home. Accessed through the PlayStation3 console, Home allows users to build identities known in the online world as avatars. Users can move through the 3D online Home world to interact with other users. As in "Second Life," users can also purchase items such as apartments, clothing and decorations.
One feature of home will tie into other PS3 games. Players will be able to collect trophies and other objects from their various console games and add them to the Home world.

Also shown at the briefing, to be demonstrated at the keynote, is LittleBigPlanet. Not much is known except this:

In a demonstration to media outlets on Tuesday night, Harrison also unveiled a new title, "LittleBigPlanet," which allows users to create their own games using materials found in the virtual world.

Also worth noting that Sony showed off Killzone a the same briefing - however, it will not be shown publically today at GDC. It won't be shown to us until E3.

That's everything for now!

 

[Arwin]

Home and LittleBigPlanet should be the same I think. Home being your own space in LittleBigPlanet where your 'trophies' are stored and so on.

 

[Titanio]

LittleBigPlanet doesn't really sound like just a place to store trophies though It sounds like a seperate game that stands on its own, not related to Home directly.

There's a brief comment from a journalist on GAF hyping it as something special. I'm at least as intrigued to see this as much as I am to see Home now.

 

[inefficient]

Twinsen FTW

A Little Big Adventure sequel announcement would have got me even more aroused!

Since the news is so close, I don't even want to bother talking about the Sony stuff till tomorrow. But I am excited.

 

[slider]

LittleBigPlanet doesn't really sound like just a place to store trophies though

It sounds like a very free-form concept.

Hmm, the mind boggles. I won't make a fool of myself and speculate. Better to wait a few hours I think!

 

[Rangers]

We'll get killzone video impressions and I would bet, leaked cellphone video at some point though.

 

[Titanio]

We'll get killzone video impressions and I would bet, leaked cellphone video at some point though.

The former seems probable for later today, as for the latter I guess that would depend on security at that briefing

There's a thread here in anticipation of that information (and the little that is there already).

 

[Titanio]

Some GameDaily "broad strokes" reaction to the media event on Tuesday night. Of course, they can't talk specifically about anything they saw, but just their reactions, they seem to be buzzing from it.

http://www.gamedailyxl.com/2007/03/07/gdc-sony-pre-keynote-reaction/

I was really impressed with what I saw. I think they're finally getting the idea that social connectivity is important. You know, what they showed us tonight could potentially be even more popular than Nintendo's Mii and all that sort of avatar based cartoony stuff. This is really something that could push Playstation3 adoption forward.

Finally Playstation is here. Like, finally I really want to pick up a Playstation3. Lots of user created content. Great stuff from the Playstation store. The exclusive game they will unveil tomorrow is amazing. Just a lot of fun stuff. They've finally got it in terms of making the user experience very friendly and fun. A lot of people are going to get on this thing and just have a ball. Wait for more when the embargo is up, that's all I gotta say.

I guess the game he's referring to is LittleBigPlanet

 

[Bad_Boy]

GameDaily's take on what sony showed last night, without breaking embargo (that ends 10:30am pst)
http://www.gamedailyxl.com/2007/03/07/gdc-sony-pre-keynote-reaction/

edit: beaten, by mere seconds.

 

[Titanio]

There's a little more here:

http://www.gamedailyxl.com/2007/03/07/gdc-gdc-07-impressions/

Although GDC hasn't officially started, there have been plenty of fireworks, from Sony dropping bombs to Microsoft rolling out some of its big guns. Here are some early observations.

People will respect Sony: The time has come for video game journalists to stop earning a living bashing Sony and give the publisher its due. Tomorrow morning, the company will roll out its latest PlayStation 3 initiative as well as a very innovative video game, and anyone that criticizes them for that should be beaten. This is really cool stuff.

They also say Warhawk rocks You can see people playing it in the background of that video also.

 

[DieH@rd]

I hope that Phill will demonstrate new features od ps3 OS [background dl, ingame chat], and definteley software ps2 emulation.

 

[Geo]

Ah, so there's hope after all for something like the linkable gamercard of MS? These PS network id thingies aren't nearly as satisfying, imho. . . .

 

[Corwin_B]

There's a little more here:

The time has come for video game journalists to stop earning a living bashing Sony and give the publisher its due. Tomorrow morning, the company will roll out its latest PlayStation 3 initiative as well as a very innovative video game, and anyone that criticizes them for that should be beaten.

Stupid strawman argument. I don't think anybody (besides a couple of trolls that exist for/against all systems) bashes Sony for "rolling out its latest PS3 initiative" or "unveiling a very innovative video game". Most reasonable folks, including most video game journalists, know to give credit where credit's due, and also blame where blame is due. Unless that GDC presentation magically undoes the PS3 pricing, the screwing up of European consumers, and a tradition of corporate exec arrogance and deceit that goes back to the infamous E32K5, I don't see how GameDailyXL's point is valid.

Edit : the post came out harsher than I wanted, as far as Sony is concerned. While I frankly dislike Sony's recent PR "efforts" (or lack thereof), and some of the choices that were made as far as PS3 is concerned, I still think they are a great force for the industry, and I really want to see what's coming from them and their 3rd party devs in the next months/years.

 

[Geo]

Someone should remind them that "the beatings will continue until morale improves" is a joke, not an actual viable strategy. Sony didn't dig themselves a PR hole overnight, and they won't climb out overnight.

 

[Nesh]

Ok thats it. PS3 is beginning to raise my expectations and its value in my mind again

Great and intersting news.

LittleBigPlanet and home are very promising features and the first sounds very original

I al also expecting for impressions on Killzone

 

[patsu]

Most reasonable folks, including most video game journalists, know to give credit where credit's due, and also blame where blame is due.

Based on past few months of "game journalists'" performances ? I beg to differ. They have misreported so many times (like once a week ?) that I don't know where to start. Unfortunately it doesn't help when Sony decided to jump in and dish out its own from time to time.

Unless that GDC presentation magically undoes the PS3 pricing, the screwing up of European consumers, and a tradition of corporate exec arrogance and deceit that goes back to the infamous E32K5, I don't see how GameDailyXL's point is valid.

It does address pricing issue -- by differentiating and adding more value. It also means that Sony has been trying to realize Kutaragi's Matrix/4D vision despite all the accusation and jokes going all the way back to pre-E3 2K5. I wonder what their reaction to KZ is assuming they have seen it.

 

[NERO]

Maybe the place where 4D(Matrix), LittleBigPlanet and Killzone meet is what this GDC will unleash. Killzone another name for the 4D planet where Sony customer interact in 1st Person FPS view and kill other avatars. Yes! It's a free-for-all. Wow should I lay off the cocaine

 

[expletive]

I think you're positively delusional. Sites like joystiq.com, kotaku.com, arstechnica.com, etc., seem to bash the PS3 every chance they get, yet ignore the exact same problems if they show up on the Wii or Xbox 360. Not to mention half the stuff is totally made up. The whole thing was a giant bitchfest with no reason behind it.

Try and google the terms "xbox red ring of death" and see what comes up...

 

[patsu]

I think the key is "made up stuff" (FUD). Red ring of death is very real. Come to think of it, if "game journalists" are exagerating death ring occurences, then all the more, they suck at "giving credits where credits are due".

What made the matter worse was Sony's silence and lack of preparation. Hopefully this year is different.

 

[DJ12]

The home thing sounds great and the LittleBigPlanet is very intriguing.

Hopefully they will live up to my expectations.