LOS ANGELES – Sony showed Beyond: Two Worlds, the latest game from Heavy Rain maker Quantic Dream, and announced a collaborative game with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling at its E3 press event Monday evening.
Beyond, a supernatural story-based game that deals with the mysteries of death and the afterlife, will star Ellen Page (Juno) as its main character.
Book of Spells is a game for a new Sony accessory called "Wonderbook," which is an augmented-reality book that works with the PlayStation Move controller to show animated sequences that appear to be in the room with you. The game is one of a very few properties to feature new writing in the Harry Potter universe by Rowling.
Sony also announced that its PlayStation Suite platform for mobile games will now be renamed PlayStation Mobile. Also, Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified will be coming to PlayStation Vita this year (though no footage was shown).
Otherwise, the conference was light on news. Sony's long-delayed The Last Guardian did not make an appearance at all.
Wired's live blog coverage is below.
5:54 – We are here. Conference slated to begin in six minutes, or 16 minutes in Sony Time.
5:56 – After a mostly information-free Xbox conference I am hoping that Sony really blows it out of the water. PlayStation 3's strength is its library of triple-A exclusive games, something that Microsoft didn't exactly prioritize in its presentation. Between a new Quantic Dream game and whatever other secrets it's sitting on, Sony should be able to put on what used to be a typical E3 press conference. And it's starting...
5:58 – Lots more cheering in this conference (because Sony bused in hundreds of fans to cheer). They're doing a sizzle reel of lots of different PlayStation games and products. "PlayStation Plus" logo got cheered. That is how deep down the rabbit hole we are.
5:59 – Um, am I tripping or did they just show a Portal game for a split second?
6:02 – Jack Tretton, SCEA president, takes the stage. "This is the Super Bowl for those of us who live and die in the game industry." Every word that is said will be scrutinized years down the road, Tretton says. He also name-checks the 17th year of E3, as Don Mattrick did during the Xbox conference.
6:04 – There's someone in the audience tonight who has been crucial to the success of PlayStation. Please welcome Kaz Hirai, president of Sony corporation. Big pop. This is Hirai's first conference as lord and master of all of Sony. "I love you, man," says Tretton.
6:06 – Oh damn here we go. Quantic Dream's game. David Cage takes the stage.
6:08 – New game is called Beyond: Two Souls. "Death is the biggest mystery of mankind," Cage says. His main character in this game has always felt some link with a mysterious entity, something between our world and the other side, he says. Beyond tells her story over 15 years of her life. "We will go with her through happy and difficult times and help her become who she is."
6:09 – Jodie Holmes will be played by Ellen Page. We see pics of her covered in tiny balls for facial capturing. Now he's going to show us one of the first scenes of the game.
6:10 – In the game's first scene, Page's character is talking to a police officer who looks like but is probably not played by Darrell Sheets.
6:11 – Is she telekinetic? Who knows? But a SWAT team just busted in the place. This is either very bad for Ellen Page or very, very bad for the SWAT team.
6:14 – It was very, very bad for the SWAT team.
6:15 – "If you make the right decisions, maybe you will discover what lies beyond." Oh god damn you, David Cage. I want this now.
6:16 – Tretton back out on stage to talk about PlayStation's characters. He's talking about the "Michael" ad campaign now. Okay...
6:17 – Oh. He's using it as a lead-in to Sony's shameless Smash Bros. ripoff, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
6:18 – Lots of people from Superbot Entertainment just came out on stage to demo the game. They are thrilled to announce that All-Stars will be on Vita and cross-compatible with PS3.
6:19 – Demo of All-Stars. Basically the way it differs from Smash Bros. is that you have to build up super meters to execute super moves to knock people out of the arena. You can't kill anyone without building up a super. Otherwise it is Smash Bros.
6:23 – The match is over and Corpulent Peach won.
6:24 – Nathan Drake and the Big Daddy from BioShock are also playable. Available this holiday season.
6:25 – A new cross-controller DLC for Little Big Planet 2 that makes the Vita an "enhanced controller for PS3."
6:26 – Tretton just accidentally said "crass" instead of "cross"; no comment.
6:27 – Crowd just popped for Journey's Metacritic score (92).
6:28 – 200 digital download games for PlayStation Network in the next 12 months.
6:29 – New PlayStation Plus free games for members beginning tomorrow. Everybody gets a one year PlayStation Plus membership for being here today. ATTENTION INTERNET: The journalists are not the ones applauding. We are typing.
6:30 – Tretton just "announced" that PS1 classic games are coming to Vita. Uh, that was announced a long time ago, you just delayed it forever.
6:31 – Hulu Plus and Crackle coming to Vita soon.
6:32 – Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified coming this holiday season to Vita. Looks like it's just a logo for now. Not a Black Ops II port, I guess?
6:33 – Video of Assassins' Creed III: Liberation, the Vita spinoff of ACIII. Indeed it is releasing October 30, 2012, same day as the main game. Built from the ground up for Vita, Tretton says.
6:34 – Liberation bundle this holiday will include a Wi-Fi only Vita and a 4 GB memory stick.
6:37 – A new demo of Assassin's Creed III, the real one. You'll be able to control a big-ass sailing ship, firing cannons at enemies in the Carribean sea. This is certainly different.
6:40 – AMERICA F*** YEAH
6:41 – Assassin's Creed III PS3 hardware bundle, with exclusive DLC in the box. Now for some exclusive news about Ubisoft's Far Cry 3. Looks like another playable demo. The team says they've kept a secret: 4-player co-op. We're going to see this running on PS3 now.
6:45 – Free exclusive DLC for Far Cry 3, Tretton says.
6:47 – PlayStation Move "doesn't require you to be a dedicated motion gaming enthusiast," Tretton says. Thank goodness, because those people do not actually exist.
6:48 – SCE head Andrew House is out now to show us a "completely new experience." It involves "one of the oldest interfaces we know – a book." Game is called Wonderbook. Looks like the new EyePet, but it's an augmented reality book that uses the Eye camera.
6:50 – Working with many different developers to create a library of content. Moonbot Studios is working on something; they do short films and interactive books for tablets. Their Wonderbook game is "Diggs Nightcrawler," a game based on film noir with animal characters. Looks intriguing. They worked with one of the most popular authors in the world – JK Rowling. Okay, I am officially interested now.
6:52 – "We actually kept it secret. That was a bit of surprise for us," laughs the developer on stage. Yes. So you can play Book of Spells to read new writing from JK Rowling from the wizarding world of Harry Potter. So basically you read about spells in the book, which appears on screen through augmented reality, and it turns your PlayStation Move controller into a wand when you look at it on screen.
6:55 – The book has pop-up puppet shows that talk about the history of the discovery of the spells of the universe. There's one about "Wingardium Leviosa," the levitation spell.
6:58 – Now it's getting into mini-games where you use the fire spell to kill enemies in Hogwarts. This is not nearly as interesting as "new writing from JK Rowling." But this looks like a good use of the franchise for sure.
7:00 – I think they've spent more time on Wonderbook than they did on Beyond. It will be out this holiday, House says.
7:01 – Talking about PlayStation Suite, coming "very soon" to Android tablets. "We now have the industry's next great developers creating PlayStation Certified games," House says. Many more PS Certified phones coming this year. Bringing PS experience to more hardware manufacturers. House saying that HTC will be the first non-Sony partner with which SCE will offer PlayStation experiences.
7:03 – PlayStation Suite now being renamed PlayStation Mobile.
7:05 – Time for God of War: Ascension. Hands on gameplay at the PlayStation booth. But now, here's Todd Papy from Santa Monica with more information.
7:07 – Single player demo. It's... another God of War. Oh, here's something new. Kratos has the maical power to reconstruct things that were destroyed, and then climb up them. That's new.
7:10 – Pretty sure Kratos is now fighting the guy from the UE4 demo? Probably not. He looks like him though. Basically he is just tearing through enemies and climbing a structure. Now he is fighting a giant MAN-ELEPHANT.
7:13 – March 12, 2013.
7:14 – Next clip gets no introduction. What is it? Oh, it's The Last of Us, Naughty Dog's new game. This is a fascinating take on the action game genre. Really want to play this.
7:18 – Interesting to see a game with shooting where people actually react when they get shot. "You okay?" says the young girl to the guy. (I will learn their names eventually.)
7:19 – This is a fun game to watch. People in audience are whooping like they are at a hoedown. Big, big applause for the demo's crazy ending. Now Jack Tretton, back on stage, is being applauded for this demo.
7:21 – Is this the end? Will there be a "one more thing?"
7:22 – No. Goodbye!
