RUMOR: Phil Harrison's GDC Keynote speech in full detail

by Nick Doerr { Mar 5th 2007 at 12:30PM }

Phil hasn't given his speech fo' realz yet, but someone got a hold of a copy of it, or listened in on a rehearsal (do you think they have rehearsals or just wing it?) or something and have compiled a list of key... notes about the speech. Here's what's important:

March 8th is the big firmware update. It includes:

More refined PS Store frontend
PlayStation Network "integrity enhanced"
Wallpapers from pictures
Ability to change background colors
Sony Connect Store for music and movies added to the PS Store. Hundreds of trailers/full films/songs
Videos and mp3's available for download.
Playstation Card option in PS Store enabled.
Playstation Lifestyle- Similar to my space/youtube. User generated content and experiences are the key.
+ more.

Removal of Emotion Engine chips will come stateside and to Japan in April. Upscales certain PS-One and PS2 games to 720p/1080i.
Game announcements: Warhawk in June/July, Heavenly Sword delayed, Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 in late 2007.
New PS-Store stuff being added on the 8th include:

Tekken 6 trailer
Lair demo & (new?) trailer
Rainbow Six Vegas demo
EA: Skate trailer
Battlefield Bad Company trailer
Warhawk demo
Virtua Fighter 5 demo
Virtua Tennis 3 demo & trailer
GRAW 2: trailer
Mortal Kombat 2 game
Killzone 2 trailer... demo to come in May

May we just say one thing? "Superfantabulous!" Sounds like a kickin' keynote address, except for the Heavenly Sword being delayed thing. But that's so all the first-party and semi-first-party games get their own time to shine instead of competing with one another. What do you guys think? Badass or assbad?

Tags: GDC, GDC07, Phil Harrison, PhilHarrison, Playstation 3, Playstation3, PS-Store, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Stef Geiger @ Mar 5th 2007 12:40PM

Wow. This is exactly what Sony needs right now. I bet they chose to be tight-lipped about a lot of things for a long time so that they could all of a sudden come out with a HEAP of good news at once to really help their image.... I think it's going to work.

To bad there's no info on WHEN we'll get upscaling on old games. (hey, if they can upscale games from 480i to HD resolutions, how can they still not scale 720p to 1080i?)

Draco @ Mar 5th 2007 12:50PM

any word on if the old PS3's are just as compatibloe on the upscalling as the new ones? is it a one way street? older is better at everything?

JimeneX @ Mar 5th 2007 12:57PM

Still no mention of upscaling to 1080i on 720p games? C'mon sony I WANT a PS3 but you really gotta give me something.

Stef Geiger @ Mar 5th 2007 1:02PM

RE upscaling 720p to 1080i etc, I can't believe Sony really feels that there are so few televisions that can't only do 1080i that it's not a problem worth fixing. To this DAY, not a single Toshiba CRT (that's direct view) knows what to do with a 720p signal. There are tons of people who are begging for a feature that even the year-older 360 had right out of the box.

shase @ Mar 5th 2007 1:07PM

Not a whole lot of exciting items. most have been guessed and are bovious to show up. I really hope he has a few more suprises and this doesnt cover the entire speech. Cant wait to see the new Killzone trailer... it would be sweet if Harrison can have a dual display of the old trailer and the new one and point out how some parts have "imrpoved"

sty @ Mar 5th 2007 1:09PM

"Upscales certain PS-One and PS2 games to 720p/1080i."

Also curious about this and whether it will apply to the PS3's manufactured prior to April. I'm assuming (and hoping) it would.

navsimpson @ Mar 5th 2007 1:17PM

Sounds great, but... Sony Connect doesn't sell MP3s. I don't think anyone in the know would expect Sony to start selling DRM-free MP3s rather than their heavily DRMed ATRAC files on Connect. I (disappointedly) call BS.

GRT @ Mar 5th 2007 1:33PM

See, this is a perfect example of how much the internet is ruining the joy of gaming. So (first assuming the whole thing isn't bs) Sony announces all these improvements and stuff, and the trolls immediately start in with their "Sony iz teh suxx" crap.

Nothing Sony can do will be enough to convince the haters, ever. Which is fine...if you don't like Sony, that's your prerogative. But if that's the case, why are you hanging around a site called PS3Fanboy? I can't think of any reason other than that you like being a troll...

jay @ Mar 5th 2007 1:39PM

@ #8
"mp3" has become a word that basically includes all digital music formats. I know, technically ATRACs and WMAs aren't mp3s, but those two formats have come to be interchangable with mp3. Sorta like how any old DVR is referred to as a "TiVo" or any copy machine mean is referred to as a "Xerox" machine

JimeneX @ Mar 5th 2007 1:45PM

#5. It's not only a matter of TV's that don't support it. The main problem is that CRTs don't do 720 natively, but their native resolution is 1080i. So when displaying 720p content, it doesn't look as good since most CRTs (like mine) don't have a good internal scaler. I CAN display 720p content from an xbox 360, but it doesn't look nearly as good as when the xbox upscales it to 1080i.

mushiking @ Mar 5th 2007 2:01PM

@5

they're doing it with Singstar

Colin @ Mar 5th 2007 2:12PM

Man, that sounds like some amazing stuff. Let's hope some of its true!

-Colin

DanMacMan @ Mar 5th 2007 2:29PM

We need upscaling of all standard dvds and games (PS1, PS2 and PS3) to 1080p.

Sony must allow for users to change in game and XMB from RGB to YPbPr for the PS3. After all this was an option for the PS2!

R @ Mar 5th 2007 2:59PM

Upscaling I don't care about at all. I'm hoping for more info on expanded PSP-PS3 connectivity. Lair demo is interesting...this week's all about Motorstorm for me!

Michael Johnson @ Mar 5th 2007 3:00PM

Two words I'm still waiting to here, PRICE DROP!!!!!

Jebus Crust @ Mar 5th 2007 3:04PM

If this list is accurtate...and I think it is....WOW, just WOW.
One very happy PS3 owner.

NATO_Duke @ Mar 5th 2007 3:05PM

Nice to see some new demos worth trying. I am hoping for some more exciting announcements to come about though. Nothing here is making my ps3 feel worth the money as of yet.

Dan @ Mar 5th 2007 3:15PM

If you have a decent receiver, then it would upscale for you...
Anyways... the new update seems nice. Especially with all the new demos.

jay @ Mar 5th 2007 3:20PM

there's nothing up there about downloadably PS1 games being playable on PS3. So that could be another surprise. Also, I expect to hear a decent amount of new info on the PSP. That system needs a big year or it could start fading away slowly

Stef Geiger @ Mar 5th 2007 3:58PM

@7: Obviously consoles that have the PS2 chip built in wil ll be just as capable of carrying out software emulation as the newer version of the system. Once the firmware update that enables software emulation is released, the PS2 and PS1 hardware inside the PS3 just stops being used.
@20: I'm afraid I'm not RICH enough to afford a PS3, a decent TV and an HD receiver that can upscale for me. The only reason why I have an HDTV at all is because I knew someone selling a 1999 Toshiba CRT for dirt cheap, and the only reason why I have a PS3 is because I saved up for a year. I've yet to see an upscaler that's supposed to be remotely decent for less than $500 US, and even those units probably have such latency issues that gaming would be impossible.

SuicideNinja @ Mar 5th 2007 4:09PM

"Removal of Emotion Engine chips will come stateside and to Japan in April. Upscales certain PS-One and PS2 games to 720p/1080i."

Yay...get rid of those gross PS2 parts. Upscaling would be nice. God of War 2 better be on that list.

I can't recall if PS3 MK2 supported online play. If it does, then I'm going to be playing PS3...finally. MK3 is freakin' impossible to play on the 360 d-pad (without modification anyway).

I want to check out Lair, and see if it's tolerable for being based on medival times. The rest of the news is essentially meaningless to me.

GOS @ Mar 5th 2007 5:04PM

WTF... why isnt there any news that you can play music and games at the same time.

boodah @ Mar 5th 2007 5:15PM

That's all? That's pretty lame. Downloading mp3s would be cool, if you can put them on a flash card in the slot and transfer them. Who knows.

Custom wallpapers from photos is cool.

The rest is pretty weak sauce. Most of it is already standard on the 360.

What happened to PlayStation HOME????????????? Yeah, that was a rumor. That would have been cool. And from the reaction it got from Sony, you'd think it would be their big announcement. Not some lame firmware update.

What about downloading stuff in the background while using the PS3 for other things, like playing games? Guess that's not a priority for them, since there aren't that many games out anyway?

I hope to see a new Killzone trailer. Actual gameplay, not pre-rendered "target" CG.

san @ Mar 5th 2007 6:23PM

"7. 'Upscales certain PS-One and PS2 games to 720p/1080i.'

Also curious about this and whether it will apply to the PS3's manufactured prior to April. I'm assuming (and hoping) it would."

This is my guess: If Emotion Engine present, use hardware EE; if EE chip not present, then evaluate PS2 game for compatibility with software-emulated EE, emulate in software if we can with this title; then evaulate resulting video signal and see if we can realiably upscale it and generate a good-looking output, and if we can, then upscale it to the configured resolution of the PS3 if that resolution is higher than 480p, unless that resolution is 1080p, then upscale to highest supported resolution of display device. In other words, I think the executing of PS2 games via hardware EE or software-emulated EE will be a separate component from the upscaling of "some" PS1 and PS2 games -- remember, PS1 games don't require the EE at all, but they still plan on upscaling "some" of them.

Jason @ Mar 5th 2007 6:33PM

Okay. Id hate to burst all your bubbles about this news, but some of it has changed. Waehawk is not a game anymore, it will just be a downloadable game. I guess, but i dont see background downloading anywhere in that list, and youd think that would/should be important. Also, PlayStation Card enabling won't happen until the cards are released, which will be sometime this month I think?. So yea, not that much, i think the most is the Warhawk is not a game anymore and its just a stupid download game. I really wanted the full game, but w/e, Incognito sounded like a company who cant afford that kind of money to put out for a full game for the PS3.

Colin S @ Mar 5th 2007 7:20PM

Like it's been said before, what about the older ps3, will they better better off or worst?

Raycer @ Mar 5th 2007 7:58PM

Sweet. Nice to see some updates, new content and demos coming. The wallpaper ability is great as I like to personalize my stuff.

Things are beginning to get interesting again.

As for whatever they do to the PS1/PS2 game emulation, I really don't care. I don't play PS2 games on my PS3.

Jason @ Mar 5th 2007 8:37PM

Could be badass. Some of this stuff I kinda hoped for out of the box and was pretty disappointed about (customizeable backgrounds should be a gimme. I could care less about an MP3 store but how about importing custom soundtracks into games? I mean I should be able to rock out to whatever while I'm mashing you guys in Motorstorm. Dan that was a great suggestion, so is the upscaling of DVDs. I don't see what the big deal is, I mean the XBOX was running faux high def for a while and it was great. We'll see I guess...

Killer @ Mar 5th 2007 9:25PM

OMGZ! Killzone 2 Trailer....and a Demo...Wooohoo? Now for the test. Does it look exactly (or better) like the Trailer we saw before it got taken off the map? It better. I don't like to be lied to. If it is all give props to sony. If it isn't I will lose whatever common truth credit I give them. All is fair. Just deliver.

vickers @ Mar 5th 2007 9:39PM

"Removal of Emotion Engine chips will come stateside and to Japan in April. Upscales certain PS-One and PS2 games to 720p/1080i."------So does this mean ill have to buy a new ps3 to have my ps2 games upscaled to 720p and 1080i?

Stef Geiger @ Mar 5th 2007 9:39PM

To everyone who's asking whether or not people with the older PS3s will be worse off, it's simple. Even before the launch, Sony said that they would shift all the units over to software when they got it ready. There's no way that they're going have users split, some using hardware and some using software. That's ridiculous. It's a lot cheaper for Sony to support ONE way of playing old games, not having to support and patch two methods.

And I'm pretty sure no one's actually officially said that Warhawk is going to be a PSN title. Multiplayer only, yes.

And I know at one point some official was promising us a Motorstorm demo based on the final build...

san @ Mar 5th 2007 11:45PM

"There's no way that they're going have users split, some using hardware and some using software. That's ridiculous. It's a lot cheaper for Sony to support ONE way of playing old games, not having to support and patch two methods."

If the emulation or hardware determination is handled by the OS it won't matter. It'll just pass to EE hardware if it's there or EE software-emulation, if it's not. None of that should affect upscaling, which is a different software routine altogether. But that's a good point: they may, for whatever reasons of expediency, just use a firmware update in April to shut down the hardware EE in *all* existing PS3s and do software emulation only. That way they don't have to create different patch firmware code for PS3s that use hardware EE and ones that use software emulation.

I have a handful of PS2 games that I may care to play again on my PS3. Maybe. And I still have an almost unused PSTwo I bought when my original PlayStation 2 finally cashed in. So I'm not worried. But I do doubt early adopters with hardware EEs would end up with a poorer experience than later buyers with software emulation.

san @ Mar 5th 2007 11:46PM

Oh, and MS almost did the same thing with 360, putting the hardware equivalent of an original Xbox in the 360 to do backwards compatibility, but they decided to wait it out for software emulation, and their emulation requires "enablers" for each original Xbox game you want to play. They had very limited backwards support at launch, because not all that many enables had been released.