E3 2010 Coverage
Interview With Sony Canada: The Sequel
By Jorge Figueiredo - June 23rd, 2010
Last week I spoke with Matt Levitan from Sony Canada about E3, but sadly the wireless service he was receiving down in the US was horrible, and the interview was cut short. Matt was gracious enough to continue the interview, in which we also talked about other E3 goodness. If you recall, we were discussing Tiger Woods and the Move…
JF: It’s pretty awesome how accurate your controller is; using both the Move controller’s internal sensors and the camera in concert is going to make golf on the PS3 as frustrating as it is in real life for me, due to the fact that I suck.
ML: [Laughs] Well, yeah. It’s definitely a lot more precise than any other golf simulator that I have tried on other systems. It just goes to show that the user is going to be able to interact so much more with the games they play because the Move controller is so much more technically savvy.
We spoke about golf in one of our podcasts before; would playing golf on a motion platform that is accurate actually help your golf game in real life? As I mentioned, I’m horrible, so it would be cool to practice using the Move controller and Tiger Woods and then hit the driving range shortly after to see if there is any improvement.
One of the more interesting stories from E3 this year was that they are actually going to be putting real instruments into music games. You can actually learn how to play the guitar and piano using the games. In some respects you didn’t have the same feeling for playing them – except maybe drums – well, you had the act of drumming but it wasn’t the same; and the guitar playing is just five buttons and nothing like the real thing.
This is why I ended up spending so much time at the DJ Hero booth during the Sony Holiday Event last year; while not 100% accurate, it still felt more like being a real DJ to me.
Yeah, that was cool. But can you imagine? If they could actually bridge the gap by letting people learn how to play the guitar for real as a direct result of playing a video game, that would be great. Can you imagine how many more musicians there would be?
So. Patapon 3.
Yeah.
Because you know I kinda like Patapon.
I thought this might come up in a question.
I wasn’t actually thinking about Patapon sequels when I was browsing through E3 footage on the PSN. My wife and I were sitting on the couch and I was showing her some of the trailers – like inFAMOUS 2 and Gran Turismo 5 – when I scrolled down and saw Patapon 3 on the list. Is that coming out soon?
It’s scheduled to come out later this year. It has actually won quite a number of awards in terms of handheld games at the show. It’s such a loveable franchise. It’s one of those unique games that’s easy to play, certainly addictive, and perfect for the PSP.
That’s awesome. I just finished Patapon 2 a few weeks ago, and I’ll go back once in a while to level up my army. It’s so much fun. It’s one of the best rhythm games ever made, in my opinion.
Yeah, I have always liked it to. Another personal favourite of mine is LocoRoco. I’m hoping that something new comes out for that franchise too. Ingenious gameplay and so much character. That’s what I like about Patapon, too.
Anything that you’re really looking forward to?
Final Fantasy XIV has got me really excited.
The last Final Fantasy game that I played all the way through was Final Fantasy VII on the PC.
I’m actually playing through Final Fantasy VII on my PSP; I downloaded it from the PSN Store and I take it with me wherever I go. I haven’t started Final Fantasy XIII on my PS3 yet because I’m in the middle of a lot of things and I want to be able to play that without interruptions.
I felt the same way about Little Big Planet. When I got my PS3 I spent most of my time trying to clear Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (because I am a freak) and then things picked up for us and we were reviewing a lot and writing a lot. I didn’t want to pick up LBP for fear that I wouldn’t be able to dedicate a good amount of time to it.
I totally understand what you mean.
I was wrong, though. Shaun got me the Game of the Year edition for my birthday and I love how you can play it in short stints. And now Little Big Planet 2 has been announced. Looking at some of the user content from LBP leaves me stunned. And now the amount of freedom you have in LBP2? Amazing.
You can pretty much make anything now. They showed all kinds of stuff like top-down shooters, fighting games, RPGs – you can pretty much make whatever you want. Then you can string together your levels and make an entire game. It’s pretty spectacular.
So what about you? What are some of your favourite things from the show?
Good question. Killzone 3 certainly. I was impressed by the 3-D presentation. I loved Killzone 2. I don’t play a lot of competitive online multiplayer games. I really enjoy co-op multiplayer, so I’m hoping that they do something like that for Killzone 3. There were a couple of really great third party titles; I liked Castlevania, Mafia 2 looks good. As I mentioned I’m a Final Fantasy nerd, so I’m obviously looking forward to XIV when it comes out. I wanted to wander the floor and take a look at everything, including the competitor’s platforms, but I just get so busy that I don’t ever really get a chance to walk through too many booths.
I have a question about Playstation Plus. PSN is already amazing as a free product. What is Playstation Plus possibly going to bring to the table other than possible early demo releases for subscribers and stuff like that?
It’s really a way to provide a subscription service for content you were probably considering purchasing anyway; it’s kind of actually giving you a bit of a deal in terms of quantity based on the money you’re currently spending. The average person spends between $8 and $10 on the PSN per month; I know that seems kind of high, but the average might actually be higher. The service will cost $49.99 per year so it works out to about $4 or $5 bucks a month. With that money you would get one PS1 classic game a month; you’re going to get some other DLC; access to betas that non-paying folks won’t have access to; you’ll have a try-before-you-buy program where you can try a game for a few hours and if you like it you can buy it and you get to keep all of your trophies and progress. It gives you more access to more content. It’s also just an option. If you like the PSN the way you have it today, then that’s fantastic. We’re more than happy having you playing against other players using the PSN and enjoying everything you do today. However, if you are already buying lots of content from the PSN Store now, you might find that over the course of a year you can probably get a lot more stuff being a PS Plus subscriber, rather than buying things peacemeal.
I know I have spent a bit of money on PSN downloadable games and DLC. Probably in the neighbourhood of the cost of PS Plus.
Oh, I know that I spend more than that. I probably spend twice that much on Rockband tracks alone! [Both laugh]
Well Matt, thanks again for the opportunity to follow up.
No problem. Sorry that we got cut off last week. Take care!
