Tokyo Games Show 2013 - Sony Conference

Everything you missed in last night's conference.

By Suburban, Posted 30 Sep 2013

Tokyo Games Show is this week, and Sony has kicked it off with some major news on the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.  I wasn't able to live-blog this, but here are my notes from the conference.

Hiroshi Kawano, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia hosted the 2-hour conference, starting with the Vita, which came with a bit of a surprise.

Sony is releasing a new model of PlayStation Vita, which is 20% thinner and 15% lighter.  The only noticeable difference aside from that is the select and start buttons are circular in shape instead of ovals.  The 5-inch screen is now going to be LCD instead of OLED, with a built in 1GB of memory for games, and an improved battery life.  The connector has also changed to micro-USB Type B.

It will come in 6 colors; it is unknown at this time if these will be released outside of Japan.  They also mentioned several limited edition Vitas for upcoming games, which they mentioned next, and they went pretty heavy on the games for the Vita, finally, but still there doesn't seem to be enough support.  Sony brought up several guests such as Keiji Inafune who showcased Soul Sacrifice Delta and Satoshi Sakai who spoke about Phantasy Star Nova.

The first few games mentioned were for "collaboration battle games", which I believe were all competitive co-op games, with Gundam Breaker, God Eater 2, Soul Sacrifice Delta, and Phantasy Star Nova leading the way.

After that they also showed off other games like Sengoku Musuo, Danganronpa, and the Final Fantasy X & X-2 HD remakes.  PlayStation Plus was mentioned, with them stating that the Instant Game Collection would include 5 new titles:  Gravity Daze, Guilty Gear XX, Steins Gate, Ragnarok Odyssey, and Disgaea 3.

More upcoming vita titles were mentioned:  Legend of Heroes, Orochi 2 Ultimate, Akiba Strip 2, Atelier Rorona, Dynasty Warriors 7, Dragons Dogma Quest, Tearaway, Hatsune Miku Project Diva F2nd, Freedom Wars, and 575.  It's hard to twell which ones will be released outside of Japan, but I'd guess at least Dynasty Warriors, Dragons Dogma Quest, and Tearaway.

Kawano came back out to discuss the PS3 and we had a giant montage of games that are still coming out for the current-gen device:  Armored Core Verdict Day, Rain, Grand Theft Auto V, Tales of Symphonia, Beyond: Two Souls, Blaz Blue Chronophantasma, Rocksmith 2014 Edition, Monster Hunter Frontier G, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Super Robot Taisen OG Infinite Battle, Batman Arkham Origins, Dragon Dragoon 3, Ace Combat Infinity, Sengou Basara 4, Shonen Jump Stars Vs, Dark Souls II and more. 

Then Polyphony Digital came out to talk Gran Turismo 6. As this is the 15th anniversary of Gran Turismo.  They highlighted another gorgeous looking game (seriously, the picture above does the game no justice), and this time you can take part in the GT Community via tablet, PC, smartphone, and the PS3.  There will be 2 versions of the game when it comes out, the regular box and a 15th Anniversary Special Edition which will contain an art book and some exclusive cars for that version.

Kawano shifted gears to talk about the PlayStation 4, starting off with the Japanese release date of 22-February-2014.  He cited the reason why the PS4 was not being released in Japan at the same time as the rest of the world due to games unique to Japan not being ready for the November 15th launch.  It will come in 2 packages, one with and one without the PlayStation camera.  There is also a special bundle which will contain a digital download code for Knack.

Shuhei Yoshida was brought out next to talk about the PS4 lineup.  At the launch of the PS4 in Japan there will be 8 first party titles ready to go, 4 on disc and 4 digitally:  Knack, Killzone Shadowfall, Infamous Second Son, and Drive Club by disc, and Resogun, Hohokum, Doki Doki Universe, and Flowery via digital download.

Yoshida then went into the giant lineup of PS4 games that are in development, most of which we already knew, but it was interesting to note that Witcher 3, Kingdom Hearts III, The Crew, Order: 1886, Final Fantasy XV, Phantom Breaker Overdrive, and Metal Gear Solid V all did not have any kind of release date on them, where as some others had 2014 or the 22-Feb-2014 date, making me wonder if these games will even be released in 2014.  I suppose we'll know more on those at E3.

Akihiro Suzuki was brought out to discuss Dynasty Warriors 7, which looks like every other Dynasty Warriors game except now the lighting and shadowing are far more realistic than in previous titles, and of course, you can see a LOT more enemies on screen.  After that, we were treated to a presentation by Sega on Yakuza Ishin, mentioning the game is a "human drama depicted in a game", and that it will have cross play functionality with the Vita.

Up next was Gung Ho Entertainment and Grasshopper Manufacturer's collaboration, a title with an anime style known as Lily Bergamo.  Unfortunately I have no idea what this game will be like as the two developers who were brought up to discuss it mentioned it was like "a wrestling finisher hold", "ramen noodles", an "extreme action game" and there was something you could do with your smartphone.  More on this as TGS progresses, with hopefully some actual details on what this could be.

Arc System Works is working on a new Guilty Gear, Guilty Gear X RD Sign.  Kadakowa Games is working on a strategy-RPG, Natural Doctrine.  There's a new Earth Defence Forces game, and Namco Bandai is working on Mobile Suit Gundam and Idolmaster games.  Most importantly, however, is Level 5 is working on another RPG, "Wonder Flick".

If this is as good as Ni No Kuni was, I can't wait to play.  Up next Capcom showed off their title Deep Down some more, I'm still not quite sold on it yet, but it's nice to know that wasn't just a fancy tech demo we saw back in February.

Sony shifted their focus back to indy developers again, listing out several titles (seen above) that are coming to the PS4.

PlayStation Plus was heralded again, and those in Japan will be getting Drive Club and Resogun free as part of their Instant Game Collection when the PS4 launches.  I can only hope that means Resogun will be coming to the rest of us with PlayStation Plus for free, too.

A break from the games to discuss the music unlimited and video unlimited platforms, and then we got our final big surprise of the night as Andy House was brought out to show off PlayStation Vita TV.

At first, I was a bit perplexed about this, but now I want one more than anything.  The PSVita TV will allow you to stream video network services to your TV such as Hulu, and contain apps like twitter.  It will also be able to play PSP and PSVita games on the TV via a DualShock 3 controller (finally alleviating the hand-cramping the Vita does after a while), and can be used as a companion device for the PlayStation 4, so if someone is using the living room TV, the PS4 can be played on another TV in the house through PSVita TV.  It is coming out on November 14, 2013 in Japan in two packages, one with a dual shock and an 8gb memory card, hopefully we'll get details on a North American and European release soon.

All in all, I'd say this was a very successful showing by Sony for their audience at Tokyo Games Show, we got the PS4 release date in Japan, saw several new titles on all 3 platforms, a new version of the Vita, and most importantly, the debut of PS Vita TV.  I want to know what you think, however, let me know in the comments section if you were impressed by what you saw, and what you're looking forward to most out of this.

Mike Patuleia, NoobFeed (@Suburban_Hell)

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