Sony held its CES press conference at its massive booth on the showroom floor tonight. The presentation unfolded at four separate locations throughout the booth area, tied together with video feeds. Tucked away in the corner of the PlayStation 3 section we discovered the same old "conceptual design" display featuring black & silver PS3s in a rotating cylinder-later, the MGS4 demo popped-up on a large flat screen, front and center, followed by a series of teasers, featuring Unreal Tournament 2007, Tekken, GT, The Getaway: Future Vision, Lair, Fight Night Round 3, MotorStorm, Warhawk, and others.The keynote kicked off with the unveiling of Sony's "HighER" Definition concept (translation: 1080p resolution), segueing into the announcement that Blu-ray players are on target for a summer launch, with Sony & MGM releasing at least 20 Blu-ray (film) titles this spring. Could the PlayStation 3 be far behind?
Following a brief digital camcorder spiel, Sony launched into its PlayStation segment. There were a few minutes of gloating, culminating in a claim that the PS2 is on track for a 10-year life cycle, and then Sony got into the heart of its gaming presentation... the PSP. The focus tonight was on the PSP's remote-viewer feature for LocationFree TV (released in v2.50 firmware), as a Sony rep proudly showed off a live television feed from his New York home here in Las Vegas-elsewhere, another rep logged-in to his Tokyo base station. In addition, Sony announced that the Connect Video download service will launch in March, allowing users to download feature length videos onto the PSP's memory stick. Overall, the lack of news was a disappointment.
Also on display at the booth are three new PSP titles: Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Daxter, and MLB, along with the new (and improved) version of Pursuit Force. We'll bring you more coverage in the following days.
Alas, as expected, not a word about the PlayStation 3... (just those darn teasers)
