GDC 07: Sony fights back; unveils Home, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone, more

by Andrew Yoon { Mar 7th 2007 at 1:31PM }

At last night's Sony press event, Sony unveiled a plethora of new products and services that show that the PS3 is far from dead. Phil Harrison will undoubtedly be discussing more about their Web 2.0-inspired effort that he calls "Game 3.0" at his conference (happening right now). The revamped PlayStation effort to be shown today includes a performance-sharing version of Singstar, a beautiful cooperative platformer called LittleBigPlanet and a new service called PlayStation Home. Joystiq has all the pictures, videos and details you want right now:

Playstation Home, the free virtual world of Playstation 3
"Comparable to Second Life, PlayStation Home is a virtual community of PS3 owners living together in both public and private environments. Users will be able to login, chat with both text and speech and play casual games together such as pool, bowling and even embedded arcade machines. And when the old stand-bys grow stale, users can invite one another into other PlayStation Network titles outside of PlayStation Home."
Gallery: Playstation Home

Continued, after the jump.

Singstar PS3 details unleashed, YouTube of karaoke confirmed
"Singstar allows users to not only download new content, but to upload their own as well. Folks from around the world will be plugging in their EyeToys or USB cameras' and shaking their money makers with their own video uploads that can be rated and commented upon from the community."
Gallery: SingStar (PS3)

Sony unveils cooperative platformer, LittleBigPlanet
"Four-player pushing and pulling aside, LittleBigPlanet also highlights user-created content, allowing players to design characters, object and levels to share online. Given the grab-happy, emergent gameplay, downloadable custom levels should enable players to constantly discover new ways to aid or injure their pudgy little avatars. An earlier Sony presentation demonstrated some intuitive controls, with the manipulation of analog sticks and motion controls resulting in all manner of jumping, wiggling and waving."
Gallery: LittleBigPlanet

Warhawk exclusively embraces online multiplayer
"Sony's Warhawk has ejected single-player features in favor of a multiplayer-only battle arena. Sony today announced the game's shift into the PlayStation Network realm, along with several new features designed to highlight the game's new focus. In addition to frenetic air combat, players will find themselves controlling jeeps, tanks, and woefully unprotected infantry units."
Gallery: Warhawk

Sony unveils new tools to live on the Edge
"Empowering the development community, Sony has unveiled the PlayStation Edge: advanced graphics tools and technologies for PlayStation 3 development. A meeting on the tools is taking place later today."

Also: Killzone 2 was demoed (will not be shown at Keynote), taking advantage of Edge. Does it live up to the original E3 trailer? No. It's clear that the original video is not representative of final gameplay. The tools, however, seem very exciting.

Tags: gdc, gdc 07, Gdc07, keynote, playstation 3, Playstation3, ps3, sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Arno @ Mar 7th 2007 1:42PM

No, it doesn't? Care to elaborate on Killzone? Us 360 fanboys are dying to sling more shit in your face.

Rainblood @ Mar 7th 2007 1:49PM

Arno thanks for proving that 360 fanboys are immature, I have a 360 btw and it's collecting dust.

TheSh0wstopper @ Mar 7th 2007 2:04PM

Sling this shit... XBOX LIVE IS ABOUT TO BE TRUMPED!!!
Playstation HOME BABY!!! No company has ever dominated for 3 generations, but thats about to be broken.

milkGONEbad @ Mar 7th 2007 1:57PM

@Rainblood: Really? Funny, I own both systems too, and my 360 is doing the same. It's pretty good at it though.

stockstar1138 @ Mar 7th 2007 1:59PM

a ton of good news comes out for sony and 360 fanboys dwell on the one thing that isn't great. btw, even if it doesnt live up to the e3 trailer, it'll still probably look damn good.

Michael @ Mar 7th 2007 2:08PM

Strangely I did laugh out loud for real at that comment. I guess the good thing about reading other peoples comments is you get to do it with your own joke delivery.
It isn't just Xbox 360 owners that are immature by the way, I am so sick of people talking about how the only people who use their 360 are young punks. Once the PS3 is out into more homes there will be just as many annoying punks that own one of those too. I just want to see Killzone, they really should have shown something so even if it doesn't hit the trailer mark, it could still be pretty good.

RonWald @ Mar 7th 2007 2:18PM

@#5

was thinking exactly the same thing. i wanna see some Killzone!
P.S: Home looks awesome..

Arno @ Mar 7th 2007 2:34PM

Yea if anyone didn't see the sarcasm just oozing from my post, I apologize for your lack of humor. Yes, I'm kind of a fanboy but I also try and poke fun at the fact.

DarkTravesty @ Mar 7th 2007 2:36PM

pretty damn trivial and useless if you ask me

seedaripper @ Mar 7th 2007 2:40PM

why mention the killzone 2 footage and not...
bastards ;)

seedaripper @ Mar 7th 2007 2:53PM

by the way (excuse my fanboy wailings here) but DAMN! 'playstaion home' ala second life...(but better AND faster!) sounds cool as fay! ken?
and DAMN! just been watching 'littlebigplanet' too...looks great fun! espesh online with your mates!
ahem...rant over...
p.s in you face M$ ;)

Alice Unchaind @ Mar 7th 2007 2:57PM

All this stuff is 6-9 months away. what the HELL are you Sony fanboys going to do in the meantime?

And i'm calling bullshit on those of you who say your 360's are collecting dust. Go ahead, be honest. You know you're playin the shit out of them. It's the only system (maybe Wii) with games worth playing right now.

kman79 @ Mar 7th 2007 5:11PM

My 360 has not been turned on in over a month, it definately is collecting dust. I traded in Gears of War for F1 just last week, and I don't miss it.

I like the whole Idea of Home.

First off, you don't have to use it, if you don't want to. For those wanting something similar to gamertag, well this is it. Just like someone else mentioned, it's very much like live without exactly cloning it. It's also very much like Mii, without exactly being just like it. There are people who are just always going to complain. Sony said they would do something like this, and they delivered. There were those who talked mess about sony not delivering in this realm, and they are, and yet people still complained. Sony is working on the PS3, and the game library will be there also just like it was with the PS2. It takes a while to build up to be great, give it time.

With that said, I never put in too much effort to Live's Achievement points BS, and I most likely will be the same with my PS3. I'm a casual gamer, and I'm much to busy with real life to be into this as much as I would want to be. But it is good that sony is doing something like this.

Vader582 @ Mar 7th 2007 3:29PM

10. All this stuff is 6-9 months away. what the HELL are you Sony fanboys going to do in the meantime?

And i'm calling bullshit on those of you who say your 360's are collecting dust. Go ahead, be honest. You know you're playin the shit out of them. It's the only system (maybe Wii) with games worth playing right now.

Posted at 2:57PM on Mar 7th 2007 by Alice Unchaind
Personally I'm gonna play the hell out of Motorstorm. :D

I love my 360. My PS3 and 360 get equal amounts of love. I'm a gamer, not a fanboi. I think that goes for the majority of people...at least I hope it does. Gamers not Fanbois in 2008! :D

Killer @ Mar 7th 2007 4:09PM

All I can say is Gears of War lived up to what was shown (even better actually). Poor poor killzone. CG is no good if it isn't the real look of the game. It's still a nice trailer though, with all the explosions. :) Well I guess it's a dream for another Generation.

Also I'm glad I have a 360. The last thing I need is some stupid Myspace type crap on my online gaming. I have online for one thing, playing online and playing with freinds not make more that I have no real clue who they are. Can you say Predators? It kinda reminds me of what's with Phantasy Star and it's online. What's next? Virtual Reality inside virtual reality? Like you have your real life, then you have the life in the game, and you create another life with you online life. Someone please just go play a sport outside or something.

Good news for sony though, I must say. Still disappointed about killzone. I thought they might set the bar for more games later for the 360 and ps3. Guess not.

Tony @ Mar 7th 2007 4:21PM

Home is a neat idea.

However, I question how many of you understand what makes Live useful and popular to begin with. It's not that players get to check out each other's profiles and chat outside of games. It's that it provides a near instant way of finding people to play games with and talking within those games.

Home doesn't really address any of this. It's a more simplified version of Second Life. I think it's a really cool idea and will be fun to mess with, but it seems even Sony doesn't understand what people are using Live for. It'd be one thing if they address the basic network flaws they continue to have in ADDITION to Home, but Home is almost like a completely different response. It's on a different plane from Live, not another "level". These are very different things. I don't even feel they're directly going after the same types of users.

Tony @ Mar 7th 2007 4:24PM

Beyond this, I have a hard time believing that the same people who claim their "360 is collecting dust" see something like Home as some sort of final blow. It's not even a game. I'm wondering how many of you even really own one.

LittleBigPlanet is an awesome idea. For me it almost has the potential to be the real killer app for the system. At the same time, what makes it comparable to Super Paper Mario? The 2D-esque viewpoint? Clearly you can move in and out of the world in LittleBigPlanet, so it's not simply a sidescroller. What makes it interesting is making your own worlds, I think.

As for Killzone, I still think it will look good. The problem is that there's never been an amazing Killzone game at all. How excited can I get in terms of its actual gameplay?

Vince UK @ Mar 7th 2007 4:44PM

"Does it live up to the original E3 trailer? No. It's clear that the original video is not representative of final gameplay...."

Hold your horses, it's not out yet!

milkGONEbad @ Mar 7th 2007 5:15PM

@Alice Unchaind:

Uhm.... No. It really is actually collecting dust. I'm considering selling it to buy some Wii/PS3 games. Right after I wipe it clean, of course.

Mike @ Mar 7th 2007 5:24PM

I have both a 360 and a PS3 and I play my 360 a whole lot more, but this is only because there are a lot more games. I'm not going to bash an entire group of people because one person is a jerk. Anyway, Home looks pretty neat, but what I'm fearing is how much money they are going to charge us for all of these extras. I can see it now, $10 for leather furniture pack for you Home.

Killer @ Mar 7th 2007 5:42PM

@ Mike

You never know they could charge you something like letting your character breath or talk. "Oh your character just breathed in 50 cents of virtual oxygen." Reaction of gamer....."fuck."

JJ @ Mar 7th 2007 7:19PM

You mean like how MS charges us for themes for our backgrounds for games we already bought and own?

I much rather drop money on somethingin a virtual world to show off to people rather than the same ons omething that really doesnt do anything other than change the background on my 360 blades.

Its a neat little attempt at a virtual community though and i dont see how anyone can complain about this...and then make out Live to be some great awesome community.

Sometimes i get on live just to chat with friends, if we could do it in a game like setting while playing mini games and what not too...well why not?

Seems pointless to complain about something like this when its actually a neat little feature

iDeLine @ Mar 7th 2007 6:26PM

God Xbox fanboys are so pathetic, I guess they have nothing else to do while they wait for their 360 to come back from the repair shop.

Well, good news coming from Sony. Let's see if Nintendo can top that tomorrow.

Joey_Numbers @ Mar 7th 2007 7:49PM

my 360 has been collecting dust since november. thats when it died. MS never fixed it. so i moved on to PS3. and boy I've been a happy gamer ever since!!

PS3>all

Killer @ Mar 7th 2007 8:42PM

@ iDeLine

Well seeing that My 360 is still kicking perfectly and it was made in 2005. It has yet to freeze, overheat or make weird sounds. Also I'm not playing my 360, becuase I have a life and I don't play 24/7. Logic here people, just because I type this comment in 1 minute doesn't mean I'm tired of a console. It's called a break.

(I see it now: "You just wait it will happen to you.")
Stats wise, doubtful. Not saying that the people that have the console crash aren't really careful with their console, but I take care of my 360 like I do all my products I buy. (Car, Ps3 in the futrue maybe, you name it) If its over 30 dollars, I'm keeping it in the same condition when I bought it.

Besides: I can tell you this much those 100 million ps2s that were sold. A good portion were replacements. I have 5 freinds that have 3 or 4 p2s because the others broke on them. So as I see it, it's just bad luck.

Also... "God Xbox fanboys are so pathetic..."

Sorry to say this, but every fanboy, let it be sony, nintendo or microsoft, are pathetic, because we don't give anything credit for someone else's good idea. I say, "Good job, Sony. Keep it up." I also say, "Good job, Nintendo for the brillent idea of the Wii."

You just saw it, a 360 fanboy actually complimenting other consoles, becuase stupid flaming fanboy bashing wars are retarded.

aragorn @ Mar 7th 2007 9:18PM

oh kay... allow me to take this out of the 'console war' realm, but be objective at the same time?

Anyone here ever play PS online/universe? Second Life?

Now tell me with a straight face that Playstation Home isn't the dumbest idea you've ever heard of.

bootsielon @ Mar 7th 2007 10:38PM

aragorn, I can tell you with a straight face that you're the dumbest guy on the internet.

Anyway, this idea one-ups everything Xbox 360 and Nintendo have to offer. It further enhances upon everything offered before, and then a lot more. It offers more than 360 and Wii combined, even when the price of getting everything on 360 and Wii is a hell of a lot more. Naturally, for those who didn't want blu-ray, now the price is justified.

Great games, original games, the best interface, the best backwards compatibility, technology, the best value overall. There is no question now that PS3 is the ultimate gaming machine. Either my 360 or my Nintendo will probably be the most dusty consoles five years from now.

Robert Daily @ Mar 7th 2007 10:43PM

this all feels like really good when they announce it.. i want to see all your dissapointed faces once they don't puul through with thier promises..

promises.. promises..

vickers @ Mar 7th 2007 10:43PM

@killer ya know you dont have to use it right?

KingEmperor24 @ Mar 8th 2007 1:22AM

The killzone comment is probably wrong. Gamespot saw it quite differently (in a good way):

http://www.gamespot.com/events/gdc07/story.html?sid=6166930&pid=928377&tag=topslot;title;5&om_act=convert&om_clk=topslot

ill trooper @ Mar 8th 2007 2:25AM

"(I see it now: "You just wait it will happen to you.")
Stats wise, doubtful. Not saying that the people that have the console crash aren't really careful with their console, but I take care of my 360 like I do all my products I buy. (Car, Ps3 in the futrue maybe, you name it) If its over 30 dollars, I'm keeping it in the same condition when I bought it.

Besides: I can tell you this much those 100 million ps2s that were sold. A good portion were replacements. I have 5 freinds that have 3 or 4 p2s because the others broke on them. So as I see it, it's just bad luck. - Killer"

Well, if something in your immaculately-kept car, like say, a faulty part, fails EVEN THOUGH you take great care of it, would you not consider that annoying? Would you not consider it annoying if someone implied you should have taken care of it better? Because that's how I feel when cornballs come online and acts like they took better care of their 360s than I took with mine - a launch-day 360 that died after 5 months, which was stored in one place, horizontal, plugged directly into the wall, and played for 5-6 hours on Tuesdays and Saturdays (when I played online with my friends in Cali.) I have all of my launch consoles (Saturn, Genesis, 3DO, N64, Gamecube, VirtualBoy, PS1...) going back to the SNES, almost all in their original boxes, and all of them still work, except my Dreamcast and my first Xbox, which was replaced by another Xbox that cost only a bit more than the quoted repair cost for the first. I love them all. The 360 is the best one yet, but the PS3 is shaping up.

And that includes my launch "firewire" PS2, still kickin' after all these years, FIFAs and GTAs.

So the reality is you've dodged a bullet - your 360 has not died. Microsoft acknowledged a batch of 360s escaped with less-than-acceptable quality. It's not a weird internet rumor that 360s die. If that was the case, there would be weird internet rumors that the PS3 and Wiis die too. Do we see that? No.

"I have 5 freinds that have 3 or 4 p2s," well, Killer, that almost balances mathematically with the 15 out of 27 friends on my LIVE 'friends' list that have had to get their 360s replaced. All of these people adults, with their own cars, houses or apartments, all with little time to play videogames, so they aren't the 'play Dead Rising for 20 hours straight' type. But still, 360 failure for many of my friends.

To Microsoft's credit, all were fixed on Microsoft's dime, and refunds all 'round for those of us that paid for the repair before they extended the warranty. But it sucked not having it for several weeks, and having to pay out $129 for the repair at the time.

I'm more of a fan of GAMES than I am of companies, so I'm not that attached to the console wars, but I hate it when people come online and act like 360 failures are something the owner caused. While it's a powerful machine, It's also a high-strung machine. Just listen to the fan-noise on it, and note the heat it generates. It's running at full-speed and there's simply little margin to avoid failure.

Killer @ Mar 8th 2007 6:25AM

@ ill trooper

"...but I hate it when people come online and act like 360 failures are something the owner caused."

Did you even read my comment correctly?

And I qoute, "NOT saying that the people that have the console crash aren't really careful with their console..."

I should have been more clear for you, I'm sorry. As I said in the comment It's just really bad luck.

Also, I NEVER said once in my comment, that the whole 360 dieing stuff is a rumor, so don't be puting words in my mouth.

"Just listen to the fan-noise on it, and note the heat it generates. It's running at full-speed and there's simply little margin to avoid failure."

^^ You do know that the sounds are almost all created by the 12X DVD player it has, so it can get the data off the disc at fast speeds to limit loading times right? Problem is they have yet to release the update to make sure it's not always doing it. The Heat part I agree, I mean I thawd a pie with it one time.

@ vickers

Yes, I know. Just expressing an opinion that's all.

@ bootsielon

"Great games, original games, the best interface, the best backwards compatibility, technology, the best value overall."

I respect you opinion. Even though alot of those can be biase statements. Great games, until I see all the games out for the ps3, then I can tell you, but most of the great games aren't out yet. The best interface, that's just your opinion. BC, probally but I'm not that into BC though. technology, the processors yes, it's a little limited by the lack of RAM. Best Value? "Naturally, for those who didn't want blu-ray, now the price is justified." HOME is worth the extra 150 to 200 dollars? I don't see what you mean, please rephrase.

Alecks @ Mar 8th 2007 1:18PM

I also have a 360 collecting dust. I don't own any other next gen consel and have been playing my ps2, and my friends Wii. I've had my 360 for two months, I played it for 3 weeks the first month, then never again. I got Lost Planet and Forza one. I played lost planet online for 1 week, and Forza for the next 2. I was having a good fun time, then Rogue galaxy came out and I was like " meh!"

I'm thinking of turning it back on to play Rainbow six with ONE friend, dunno what I wanna do yet.

what PS:Home has over Live is the fact that you can play games online with stranger(s) at a choice of meeting said stranger(s) and socializing, unlike the un-fun times I had at a friends house trying to play crackdown online with someone online since no one else I knew was able to play. I had to play solo :( So I'm glad for one thing Home will provide an enviorment for meeting and not just a menu and text, and DENIES from other people ( damn them!)

Over-all Good news for sony, now lets see them bring out some games! Mistwalker should bring out blue-dragon for ps3 as a surprise move. cause I'd be like " wha damn!"

One thing that I'm confused.. that Game center for Home where they said " you use the system development tools (SDK) To make your own games and people can come and play them ( they used a god of war example) am I getting this wrong? Cause I'd love to make the most impossible game ever!! first level, on a train tracks and a train is a nano second from hitting you "level 1....START"

aragorn @ Mar 8th 2007 3:59PM

bootsielon: wow... who knew pointing out a potentially(sic) dumb interface could get one person named the dumbest person on the internet... that's pretty special...

LOLHAXORMEHLMFAOROFLA/S/L!!!!111ONEONEONEONE

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