Sony made their presence felt at Gamescom 2011 with a media event held in Cologne. Andrew House, current president and CEO of Sony computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), soon to be heading over to Japan to assume the role of president of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., kicked off the proceedings.
He reaffirmed SCEE’s commitment to the EMEA region, which includes South Africa, and described their vision to push all of their PlayStation brands, which include the PlayStation console, the PlayStation Move peripheral, the PS Vita, the PSP, and PlayStation Network and its attached PlayStation Store.
Jim Ryan, current COO for SCEE, soon to be taking on the role of CEO and president of SCEE, was welcomed to the stage where he talked up the PS Vita, Sony’s new portable gaming device.
A presentation was given detailing the various social and interactivity features the device will support via wi-Fi and 3G. This includes Party, which will connect with PS Vita users in the vicinity; LiveArea, which will broadcast gaming news and stay in touch with other PSN friends’ activities; and Social Essentials, which includes Facebook and other social media options. A peek at the full set of interactivity features was given (below).
Jim Ryan
Michael Denny, Senior VP of Worldwide Studios, Europe said that he is confident that the PS Vita will have one the strongest launch line-ups of any PlayStation product. The launch line-up showcased titles taking advantage of the PS Vita’s features, such as the front touch-screen and rear touch-pad inputs, and the six-axis and gyroscopic tilt sensors.
The titles included Resistance: Burning Skies which was announced during the press conference. The game will feature a new protagonist, Tom Riley with his own new story arc.
PS Vita specific features were prevalent, such as touch-screen grenade targeting and grenade cooking, automatic cover mechanics that use the six-axis tilt mechanism to break from cover to fire. The PS Vita put on a sterling first look at Burning Skies, with some pretty flashy visual effects coming from the hand-held device.
Little Big Planet was also among the launch line-up, boasting some Vita specific augmented reality features such as the ability to take pictures of objects, easily crop them, and then insert them into the game world as a functional component. This can also be done for object textures. Then of course there’s Uncharted: Golden Abyss which looks awesome.
Reality Fighters looks to be a fun (but gimmicky) fighter that transposes photographs of your family and friends on to in-game combatants. The mechanics appear to be straightforward enough for a fighting title, with quirky fighter personality and combat styles. Some lengthy hands-on time will be required to learn if this title has sufficient depth.
Ubisoft was confirmed to be on-board with six titles for the PS vita, which includes an Assassin’s Creed title for some time in 2012. A FIFA title is also on the cards for 2012.
Other stand out titles included Ruin and Dungeon Hunter, both 3D isometric hack n’ slash titles; Gravity Rush, a 3rd-person action adventure; and Escape Plan, a darkly humourous room escape puzzler in development by Fun Bits.
Jim Ryan
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