Stay tuned, as we've taken our seats. The conference will take a few minutes to begin as the massive auditorium is currently being filled.
- LittleBigPlanet is being shown: cute furry animals playing with soccer balls!
- Time Magazine on display: the person of the year is YOU. That's what Game 3.0 is all about.
- Home appears as an additional XMB icon.
- Download new items from the Playstation Store to customize your in-Home avatar.
- The avatar customization tool is quite complex: much more so than anything on Nintendo Wii.
- The virtual keyboard still sucks: Phil Harrison types "ho" instead of "hi." Headset use is probably better.
- Various arcade games: they're still part of the 3D environment of Home: you can tilt your view, and feel like you've never left Home.
- Pop in a memory stick to use photos of your own in Home.
- Let's get meta: watch a video on a virtual TV from Home, on your TV. Casino Royale is shown. Official movies and user generated content can all be seen in this "unbreakable" virtual television.
- Remember the Grouper purchase Sony made a while back? This YouTube-like site will integrate into Home, allowing people to share videos through this virtual community.
- Home will allow you to display your gaming
achievementsaccomplishments through a virtual trophy room. Unlike the 360, each trophy will be embodied in this virtual world: eventually, you'll amass hundreds, if not thousands, of trophies to proudly showcase in Home. - You'll be able to get pets soon. Will they be sentient, independent pets that act as a "HUD" of some sort?
- Private beta is happening now. Public beta of Home will begin April.
- SingStar is being shown: 144 songs available to purchase, with more obviously coming down the line. Very sleek presentation, incorporates video previews.
- Purchase begins PS3 background downloading. Yay!
- Playstation Edge development tools are being discussed. They will be free--immediately. (They used to cost thousands of dollars before. This will definitely get more developers interested.)
- LitttleBigPlanet is back. It is absolutely beautiful, with great animation and wonderful motion blur. The sense of physics is fantastic. The game allows you to easily create your own levels and share them online. People can play through user-generated content, rate it, and vote for their favorites.
- The game comes from the creators of Ragdoll Kung-Fu. I guess their talks with Nintendo didn't work out, huh?
- EyeToy will allow you to create your own images for use in-game.
- Four player game of LittleBigPlanet is being demonstrated. Because the entire game is driven by physics, players must move objects and cooperate with each other to overcome obstacles. For example, the tiny characters push a giant orange in order to get to higher ground. In last night's demo, they were able to work together to launch a character with incredible velocity.
- Jetpacks? YES! Can this game get any cuter/awesomer? LittleBigPlanet is going to be an incredible hit with the girls, the kids, and the kids at heart. It's like a Nintendo Wii game ... but with actual next-gen graphics.
- Demo of the game will be available via Playstation Network and BD-ROM later this year.
