NIDZUMI+

Hardware! Hardware! Hardware! Clearly it’s less about location and more about hardware for Sony at this years E3. Due to the all but confirmed rumours of a download only PSP and a Playstation 3 Slimline version in the works, Sony’s press conference is easily the favourite for event of the show. But will the games be there to back it up?

The PSP Go! is an obvious horse to back. It’s promise of a download only platform sounds intriguing but lets just hope that it doesn’t come with the also rumoured touch screen. The PSP’s more powerful hardware is it’s strong point and by implementing a touchscreen it will just become another iPhone or DS. Nevertheless it would make sense for them to change the strategy of the PSP and again like the 360’s motion controller, it will be more about what it looks like and how it works instead of whether they will announce it or not.

The one thing I’m sceptical about are the rumours of a Playstation 3 Slim. A price drop is one thing but a slim wouldn’t make sense as well. If they announced a price drop for the slim they would freeze up their own market until they can ship the newer models. So it doesn’t make business sense to do both at the same time. Either/or will be the case here and I’d lean more towards a price drop as we might be a little too early for massive hardware revisions.

Sticking with the Playstation 3, expect them to put Playstation Home into overdrive with a massive push and improvement of features. Possibly even a Home 2.0 re-brand. They might also announce a list of new features for the XMB, maybe with a greatly improved interface for the casual. I’m predicting that basic features like cross-game chat, better trophy support and a few more surprises along the way.

Hardware and firmware are one thing but after delays of God of War 3 and a few others until 2010 expect a few new announcements to keep you excited for this year. MediaMolecule should be on board to show of LittleBigPlanet 2 and this will be made an integral part of the conference, hopefully with fiscal information been shown on it again.

Meanwhile live demos of MAG, God of War 3 and Heavy Rain should be on show for the Playstation 3. Meanwhile expect a lot of PSP games like Motorstorm, Pixeljunk Monsters and LittleBigPlanet. It’s hard to pick out a few titles but Fat Princess will be joined by a few other Playstation Network games that could possibly include thatgamecompany’s (Flower) next outing, Pixeljunk Shooters and a few other pleasant surprises along the way.

In terms of hardware and major announcements we should know what is happening but on the software side Sony might have shown their hand to early. Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet and inFamous all came out in the last six months and now you’ve got to look to the future. Either Sony have nothing major coming up, not likely or they’ve clearly timed inFamous’ release just before E3. The future of releases for 2009 might look bleak now but with this conference we should expect a bunch new titles to get excited for that most importantly are due this year.