SONY Playstation Day – May 6, 2008
My day started at about 5 am at my place in Vienna. As I packed my bag and gathered my equipment together I couldn’t help but think about what was in store for me in London, at one of SONY’s largest events of the year, PLAYSTATION DAY.
We were all instructed to meet our host, Marlies at the airport café at 7am where we would soon after embark on our trip to London. There were 10 journalist representing Austria, as well as our respective employers, ready and eager to report on our findings and experience at PLAYSTATION DAY. As we await boarding, some of begin to talk in anticipation about what we would see on this big day. The big buzz was that there would be a playable version of Killzone 2, of course everyone, including myself, wanted to get the chance to play, as
well as playable versions of Motor Storm Pacific Rift, Socom Confrontation and Resistance 2 which also held a lot of the pre-flight conversation amongst journalist/ game-lovers “talking shop”.
By 10:30 we touch down in London City Airport and were whisked away in a typical London-style black cab (…with the suicide-doors…cool stuff!!) to check into the hotel and prepare for registration at later that afternoon at the massively larger than life O² Arena, in the INDIGO² Area. After checking-in we decided to meet with our 10 person entourage at a local British pub by the name of the Gipsy Moth for a “Glass of lunch” and maybe a bite to eat. We discovered that the chef, which should have been on duty that day, was sick due to food poisoning (ah, the irony of life), thus the “glass of lunch” in the form of a nice, smooth, not to mention, extra-cold Guiness stout. Finally, we were off to the O² Arena to experience PLAYSTATION DAY!
This venue is the largest that I had ever been to for a gaming event, ever. We entered, through a tight security check, and about 400 other journalist from around Europe, into a large hall (about 350 square-meters) of an amazing display of SONY’s best, nice-looking hosts, nice finger-food, free drink (you know…all the good perks.), and an eye-popping display of screens hooked-up to PS3s, PSPs, with a whole slew of games. All were there for hands-on exhibition, but that was all to come after the press conference. A large seating arrangement was ready-to-go for the start of the big press conference. It was then that we would finally hear some of the rumors that float around the industry confirmed or denied about what PLAYSTATION has in store for the near future.
Hosted by David Reeves, President, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, the press conference had an interesting (YAAAAAAAAWN…) panel of guest speakers, executives from SCEE as well as their respective partners, there to talk about some of the new games, accessories and special features that were soon to be available on your PS3 and PSP (I will give you a more detailed break-down of some of these features and games in the series of short stories to follow…). There was an introduction of a world of new items made available in the very near future such as, PLAYSTATION EYE TOY’S newest products, PLAY HERO and POM-POM Party (for the cheerleader in you…) plus games to look forward to such as KILLZONE 2, SOCOM CONFRONTATION, LITTLE BIG PLANET, a mind-blowing puzzle game by the name of ECHOCHROME. There were a load of new games and features available for the PSP which really grabbed my interest, for instance, GO! MESSENGER, GO! TRAVEL, and SKYPE were some of the first to catch my attention. Also functions like GO! VIEW, which allows you to download movies, music and shows to your PSP as well as transfer or stream them to your PS3, also points of big interest. There were also third-party contributors to the big event such as Polyphony with more of GT5 PROLOGUE, Warner Brothers with LEGO BATMAN, Vivendi with GHOSTBUSTERS (“…who ya’ gonna call?!” Sorry I had to say that.) also appearing at the big SONY event was THQ with their new title WALL-E as well as UBI-SOFT with their sci-fi shooter HAZE.
After 2 hours of business update it was time for the hands-on experience of the world of PLAYSTATION (my favourite part!!) and pretty much for the party to begin. I’ll tell you more in the stories to come, but for now, here’s a look at some of the pictures that I took at PLAYSTATION DAY!