GDC 2007 Post-Show Roundup: Sony

This year's Game Developers Conference marked a sort of industry transition. With the longtime front running industry event once known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo (a.k.a. E3) downsizing this year, the focus now begins to shift to GDC and other remaining large-scale videogame-related events for major announcements and other new developments in the industry. Therefore, for my first-ever post-show roundup, it is my aim to focus on the biggest highlights for each major videogame platform in three separate parts. For my third and final part of this series, I shall aim my focus on events related to Sony.

Why GTA IV is not PS3-exclusive to start

First off, I am sure that some of you are wondering why Rockstar Games (the more controversial part of developer/publisher Take-Two interactive) did not give Sony first-run exclusivity to Grand Theft Auto IV. According to Sony's Phil Harrison, a likely reason for this development is that the PlayStation 3 is just not suitable enough for this to have happened as with past GTA games. "I don't think PS3 has the install base [right now] to support Rockstar's investment in GTA IV on its own," Sony explained to a panel of bloggers of the loss of the title as an exclusive first-run on the PS3 platform. IGN's Hilary Goldstein agrees, saying that because the game "likely cost Rockstar considerable money and development time" considering that it is the first next-gen title in the series, that there was no way for the game to have "sold enough copies on PS3 alone to make exclusivity worthwhile."

Sony Gives Developers an Edge

That said, Harrison still believes that third-party exclusives are still possible - and could perhaps come even sooner. To back up his point, Harrison announced a new development toolset called PlayStation Edge, which he expects will help make PS3 software development much easier, particularly for cross-platform titles. Even better, Harrison says that titles using PS Edge could come as early as this fall, owing that the toolset is "simple to implement."

PS3 gets a Home

Also en route to PS3 is a new, console based virtual community. Rumored for a full week and confirmed at GDC, PlayStation Home new virtual world for PS3 owners. This new 3D community for gamers, first reported on by videogame blog community Kotaku (and subsequently responsible for backlash against both the blog and its owner), combines the social networking of MySpace, the virtual world existence of Second Life and the user-created personal avatars of Nintendo's Wii console into a complete online experience for gamers.

"This is a significant step forward in the area of user community services and emergent entertainment experiences," says Izumi Kawanishi, Corporate Executive and CTO of Software, SCEI, in describing PS Home. "While the 3d graphics demonstrate the power of the PS3 and the PlayStation Network, the most impressive feature in home is the variety of ways in which multiple consumers, as well as our third-party partners, can experience the next generation of communication by interacting and sharing amongst each other. I feel strongly that this unique blend of community, user-generated content, collaboration and commerce will expand the future of computer entertainment." PS Home launches this fall.

LittleBigPlanet announced, detailed

Finally, we end this series with news of a different kind of virtual world. Last September, UK-based developer Media Molecule announced it was working on an exclusive next-gen title for the PS3 on behalf of Sony. As of Wednesday, however, the project finally has a name: Sony has announced during Phil Harrison's keynote address, that the project now has a name, and that name is LittleBigPlanet.

The game, at its very core, is sort of an action game meets SimCity kind of title. Indeed, LittleBigPlanet literally projects the idea that the user generates the gameworld itself. To do this, players manipulate all kinds of material types, stickers, and other items that allow them to shape and reshape the playfield by their own doing.

"We're confident that PS3 would be the platform to the lead the way in creative gaming, and LittleBigPlanet brings this concept to life spectacularly," says Phil Harrison, President of SCE Worldwide Studios. "By giving players the power to shape and share an entire virtual world via PlayStation Network, we've created the space for PS3 owners to realize their creativity and craft their own unique gameplay experience."