Gaming 3.0

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By playing PS3 games, users will be able to gain 3D trophies and they'll also be able to see what trophies they can unlock for all games, which Harrison said he thinks will give gamers further incentive to purchase PS3 titles, and will "create loyalty and excitement around PS3."

Harrison also stressed that the tools used to create Home are the same tools based around Maya that are used to create PS3 titles, and it's a very low cost to build 3D spaces in Home. Again, GameDaily BIZ can only imagine the huge marketing potential this service will have once it's really up and running.

Following the unveiling of Home, Harrison briefly talked about Singstar as further example of Sony's commitment to the social/community aspect of PlayStation Network. Users will not only be able to download new music, but they'll also be able to see streaming music video previews straight off the server, and using an EyeToy or other USB camera they'll have the ability to upload their own singing performances for the rest of the PS community to evaluate.

Perhaps the real highlight of Harrison's presentation, however, came during the very first demonstration of LittleBigPlanet, a community-driven game from a new company called Media Molecule, which was recently formed by Mark Healey and Alex Evans who had previously created Rag Doll Kung Fu. LittleBigPlanet represents "the fun and embodiment of Game 3.0," said Harrison. The game is totally about user-created environments. Controlling a sort of stitched-doll character, you'll be able to explore, move, modify and create just about anything. Everything in the game is made out of real materials and it's all dynamic, running on the PS3's SPUs. These tactile, highly interactive environments feature plenty of physics driven gameplay, absolutely no scripting and seemingly endless possibilities.

And similar to the highly anticipated Spore from Will Wright, gamers will be able to create without being bogged down by a complex level editor. Once you've created a level, then just as a PC game modder might do, you'll be able to share your creation over the network for the entire community to try. You'll track how many people have downloaded your work, read user comments, see if your creation makes the top levels list and more. A demo of LittleBigPlanet will be released this fall on PS Network with a full version to follow in 2008.

Following the intriguing look at LittleBigPlanet, Icognito's Dylan Jobe took the stage to very briefly proclaim that his team was making a "strategic change" to turn the upcoming Warhawk exclusively into an online multiplayer title.

Last and certainly not least considering that this is the Game Developers Conference after all, Harrison went into some detail on a new initiative called PlayStation Edge, which is aimed at giving PS3 developers the tools they need to effectively create games for Sony's console. Sony is taking the same tech that is used within SCE Worldwide Studios and is giving that tech to PS3 developers. Part of this includes GCM Replay, a powerful RSX (nVidia's GPU) profiling tool, as well as highly optimized libraries to take advantage of all the PS3's SPUs.

Before we exited, we were teased with a brand new Killzone video, which looked nowhere near the level of the CG video shown at E32005, but it did look quite good, probably visually on par with some of what we've seen in the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailers. Harrison said that more will be shown at this year's E3.

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