Hilmar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games (creators of the MMO Eve Online) announced a new persistent shooter DUST 514, exclusive to PS3 which will integrate with Eve Online servers somehow, although he did not go into much detail about this. The game will include Move support, most likely with the Sharpshooter.
Ken Levine from Irrational Games came out on stage following a gameplay footage trailer for Bioshock: Infinite to announce that it will have Move support, and that they are working on a game for the PSVita which will be set in the Bioshock universe.
A Star Trek game will be coming out 2012 to coincide with the new J.J. Abrams movie which will be compatible with Move. A peripheral for Move shaped like a phaser will also be released, as well as another Star Trek game which will be available exclusively on the PSN via digital download.
More PS3 exclusives followed this time from EA. SSX on PS3 will include an exclusive level involving snowboarding down Mt Fuji; Need For Speed: The Run will come with a separate disc including 7 exclusive cars including the Bugati Veyron; and Battlefield 3 will be bundled with Battlefield 1943 for free.
Kaz Hirai then came on stage to talk about the PlayStation Suite system to put the PS experience on PlayStation Certified Android smart phones and tablets. He followed that with the moment that we had all been waiting for, the announcement of the official name for the NGP, the PSVita (pronounced vee-tah). The PSVita will have a cross-game voice chat system, which hopefully means something like that will be rolled out for the PS3 in the future.
Sony Worldwide Studios VP Scott Rohde then came out on stage to discuss some of the upcoming titles for the Vita. John Garcon and Chris Reese from Naughty Dog showed off a gameplay demo of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which will give the user the option of classic controls or a new control scheme utilising the touch screen and tilt controls.
Pain creators Idol Minds announced a new dungeon crawler hack n slash RPG Ruin (working title) which will integrate social media, although no details were given. The game will include cross platform play between the Vita and the PS3 using cloud saving.
The next game on display was an all-new Modnation Racers game which fully utilises the Vita’s front and rear touch screens for map creation. It looked very easy and intuitive to use, and will be available on the same day as the Vita. LittleBigPlanet will also be remade for the Vita with enhanced gameplay and level creation controls using all the functions of the unit including the front and rear cameras, touch screens and sixaxis motion sensing.
Yoshinori Ono from Capcom Japan finished the Vita procession by coming on stage with a gameplay demo of Street Fighter X Tekken, including the announcement that Cole Phelps from inFamous will be a playable character.
Scott Rohde then returned to the stage to announce that there are over 80 Vita games in development already. Kaz Hirai finished the Vita showcase by announcing the price points for the US, Europe and Japan. The WiFi only unit will retail at US$249, €249 and ¥24,980 respectively, while the 3G unit will be US$299, €299 and ¥29,980. While no price has been announced for Australia, it will most likely follow suit in being comparable with the 3DS launch price and cost $349.95 for the WiFi only unit.
Let us know what you think about all the announcements, and stay tuned to Drop Bear Gaming for more E3 news as the week continues.
