The Sony press conference took place at the Shrine Auditorium.  And I was there!  So please continue on, will you?

3D gaming is all the rage in Sony’s world, and so all distinguished guests of their press conference received 3D glasses.  After humorously jabbing Microsoft and their poncho-required Cirque event from the other day, President & CEO of PlayStation Jack Tretton invited Kazuo Hirai to start things off with a gorgeous demo of Killzone 3 in 3D.  Though 3D gaming might sound like a gimmick to many of you, listen here: 3D adds a great sense of depth to the game and likely become an integral part of video games.  Parts of the gameplay featured the use of jetpacks; during these scenes I felt like I was at a Universal Studios theme park ride, fully immersed in an exciting, different world.  In another scene we were taken to the skies via a helicopter and watched a gunman fire at enemies down below.  At one point I asked myself if I was witnessing a video game demo or a scene from Avatar.  Yeah, it was that good.  The 2-part demonstration elicited many oos and ahhs from the crowd.  I might have been the loudest.  In short, 3D added a tremendous amount of excitement to Killzone; after a few seconds of adjusting to the depth perception any distractions that might have existed disappeared.  Killzone 3 from Guerrilla Games drops February 2011 and will be compatible with Sony’s motion controller called Move.  20 games will be made available in 3D for the PS3 by the end of this year.  Sony promises 20 additional titles will be created natively in 3D by March 2011, some of which include Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Shaun White Skatebording, Ghost Recon Future Soldier, EyePet, Tron: Evolution, MLB 2K11, NBA 2K11, Motorstorm Apocalypse, Gran Turismo 5, and a Sly Cooper collection.  A short montage of 3D video and gameplay rounded out the first section of the conference; let’s just say fatalities look fantastic and baseball players throwing balls at you is a bit scary in three dimensions.

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A big chunk of the conference revolved around PlayStation Move, Sony’s answer to the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Kinect.  Sony’s Peter Dille takes over hosting rights from Tretton for a bit, and after showing a brief video of developer testimonials concerning Move, he introduces a developer from The Workshop to show off a Move game titled Sorcery.  1:1 motion control allows you to wield a sword and perform magic spells against an onslaught of mystical creatures.  Various gestures give you a chance to pull off some cool moves.  At one point the dev turned his character into a rat which allowed him to enter small crevices he wouldn’t have been able to as a man.  This was a crowd pleaser.  You can also use magic to restore the environment around you; gameplay featured the creation of a bridge with a flick of the wrist.  After the reveal of a huge boss the demo ends and we learn the game releases this spring.

A couple more Move games were announced.  A demo of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 utilized a Move controller to precisely hold and swing a golf club.  The EA dev missed one too many shots, embarrassing really.  But impressive nonetheless.  The game will receive a software update via PlayStation Network to grant it Move-compatibility this fall.  Apparently a Move demo disc is in the works, and a demo of Tiger will come preloaded on that.  Next up is a game that brings together a bunch of our favorite PlayStation characters Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, Clank, Sly Cooper, and Bentley.  Heroes on the Move looks like fun, kid-friendly action adventure game that’s set to hit the PS3 soon.  (A bunch of titles including Ruse: The Art of Deception, SingStar, echochrome ii, EyePet, Toy Story 3, Heavy Rain, and Resident Evil will get updates a la PSN to gain Move functionality, too.)

Oh, and get this–games with Move-support will ship on a single BD disc alongside a non-Move version of the game.  Tretton describes this as “sort of like two games in one” and it’s definitely a boon for developers.  Want to play a Move game but don’t have Move controllers?  Sony’s got you covered.

And look who it is!  It’s Kevin Butler, the guy from all the recent PlayStation commercials who’s constantly hating on Xbox and Wii.  The crowd goes nuts over this guy.  Well, he is kinda funny.  Anyway, he’s there for two reasons.  Number one, Sony announces a new partnership with Coca Cola for an advertising campaign.  Number two, a “patriotic speech” that rallies the crowd behind the commercial star.  He says that all gamers are awesome (attempting to bridge the gap between casual and hardcore types, likely) and as if on cue he hates on Microsoft and their Cirque event.

Butler exists and we get a release date and pricing details for Move.  Move will hit store shelves in Europe first on September 15 and then in North America on September 19.  The Move controller is priced at $49.99 (not bad); the Move Navigation (sub)controller is $19.99; a PS Move+PS Eye+Sports Champion game is $99.99; and then there’s the ultimate PS3 bundle that includes the console, Move controller, and Sports Champion game for $399.99.  A short montage breezes through a bunch of Move launch titles and one of them is Time Crisis (ca-ching!).

PSP gets its time to shine, too.  First Dille unveils a new ad campaign featuring Butler and his new sidekick Marcus played by Bobb’e J. Thompson (Role Models).  The tagline?  “Step up your game.”  The spots are pretty darn entertaining.  Then the games start piling on.  inviZimals features augmented reality gameplay with game cards and the PSP camera add-on.  Next is God of War: Ghost of Sparta; it’s a CGI trailer that looks positively stupendous.  Between now and December the PSP library gain 70 new games, one of which is Patapon 3.  Tretton made sure he took over hosting duties again to announce the second season of The Tester.  Yeah, I never heard of it either.  And you know what’s neat?  If you’re part of the PS Home community you can walk around a virtual replica of the Sony booth at E3.

Now Media Molecule’s Alex Evans enters the stage to talk LittleBigPlanet 2.  Of all the new features mentioned, the most exciting is that LBP will become a platform to create and play various genres of gameplay (for example, real time strategy games and shooters even!).  I’m really looking forward to the return of Sackboy.

So you know how Xbox Live gold members are required to pay $50/year to play online and PSN users can do that for free?  Well things are about to change ever so slightly.  With PlayStation Plus, Sony is offering its PS3 users the opportunity to download a whole bunch of exclusive content (“hundreds of dollars of products” to be precise), early access to betas, PSN minis, and a covered subscription to Qore if you pay $49.99/month for the upgraded service (or $18 for three months).  Of course all current PSN activities (namely online gameplay) will remain free.  PS Plus is more of a bonus in actuality.

EA’s John Schappert comes on next to introduce some PS3 exclusive material.  Medal of Honor, though not a PS3 exclusive title, will come packaged with a remastered in HD version of the classic Medal of Honor: Frontline if you purchase the new game for PS3.  (The MoH dev had an crazy thick beard!)  Dead Space 2 for the PS3 will include a PS Move compatible “limited edition” version Dead Space Extraction.  This alien shooter looks great.  Next Schappert peaces out, Tretton comes back and introduces Gabe Newell of Valve.  After thanking Sony for not punching him in the face for his recent negative comments about the PS3 platform, he announced that–wait for it–Portal 2 will be coming to the PS3 and it’ll be the best console version (likely by means of timely auto-updates, DLC releases, and game support).  Then came the premiere trailer for Portal 2.  And I jizzed in my pants.  Portal‘s coming in 2011.  Mafia II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will get PS3 exclusives as well.  The Assassin’s Creed trailer was pretty rad; it featured a bunch of assassins, well, assassinating each other in gruesome ways.  The PS3 will get an exclusive single player level & access to multiplayer beta.  Then a trailer for Final Fantasy XIV took over.  Yawn.  Gran Turismo FINALLY gets a release date, November 2, 2010.  Again, FINALLY.  The trailer is simply stunning, per usual.  It will run in 3D, and the disc will also include a standard non-3D version as well.  inFamous 2 trailer reveals that protagonist Cole will be fitted with control over ice.  It releases sometime in 2011.

The final reveal of the night was a brand new Twisted Metal!  A short clip involving two taxi drivers is cut off when a large Twisted Metal ice cream truck rolls onto stage with a scary clown at the wheel.  It’s Sweet Tooth IRL!  Game creator David Jaffe hits the stage with a couple other devs to demo the game.  Online team deathmatch, helicopters, missile launchers, same dark humor.  Coming in 2011.  Available to play at the Sony booth; I’m so there.  And with that, Tretton ended the press conference with “We look forward to writing a whole new chapter together.  Thank you very much.”  No, thank you very much sir.

Many, many pictures from the Sony press conference in the gallery.  Go have a look-see.