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PlayStation Move Developer Diary #2

Posted by in Developer Corner, PlayStation Games, PlayStation Hardware, playstation move, PS3 on March 11th, 2010

If you saw our live broadcast on Ustream yesterday, then you’ve been properly introduced to PlayStation Move. We’re incredibly excited to start bringing you lots of PlayStation Move content in the coming months, starting right here. Head on over to PlayStation.com to find out what PlayStation Move is bringing to the PS3.

PlayStation Move

On Tuesday, GameSpot premiered the very first PlayStation Move developer diary, which you can see in its entirely here. And today, we’re premiering PlayStation Move Developer Diary #2, featuring Zindagi Games. In the video, you’ll get special behind-the-scenes insight into PlayStation Move, as well as game footage in action. Enjoy it!

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Reminder: God of War III GDC San Francisco Meetup is Tomorrow!

Posted by in Events, gdc10, god of war III, meetup, PlayStation Community, PlayStation Games, PS3, santa monica studios on March 9th, 2010

Not like we thought it slipped your mind, but if you’re in the San Francisco Bay area tomorrow, you’re invited to come celebrate the launch of God of War III!

And if you have the means to get here, do it – we have a history of treating our fans to extremely good times. And tomorrow is no exception as you’ll have many chances to win great PlayStation games and prizes, get autographs from members of the development team, create your own God of War III box, and much more. So whatever the means – train, plane, car, bike, rollerblades, horse, camel – get here tomorrow! There’s only one God of War III event and we don’t want you to miss it (In all seriousness, if you arrive on a camel, you’re getting something incredibly cool).

God of War meetup event

Check out our initial post for all the fine details, but here’s a quick recap. We’ve got a couple HUNDRED tickets for our very special community (that’s you!) to get you in to the amazing and mega-exclusive God of War III event, where you’ll get to go hands-on with the final version of God of War III, enjoy some epic food and hospitality, and watch a still-secret-but-guaranteed-to-be-super-awesome band perform.

And all you need to do is show up. But we HIGHLY recommend arriving early. The hands-on event doesn’t start until 7pm – so we’re setting up a community-only pre-event party that goes on all day. What does that entail? Free food from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m, awesome schwag giveaways and raffles, free wi-fi (In the words of Triumph, “For you to Tweet on!”), the chance to put yourself on the God of War III box, autographs and more! So if you haven’t already signed up, RSVP on our Facebook Page!

Important Details:

  • The hands-on event goes from 7-10pm on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at the SF Concourse Exhibition Center. The pre-party meet-up begins at noon (you’ll see our tent in venue’s parking lot). Directions here. Don’t even think of strolling up at 6.30pm – you ain’t getting in!
  • Keep in mind that you must be 21 or older to get into evening hands-on event, but anyone 18+ (or with their parent/guardian) can come to the all-day meetup. ID *will* be checked!
  • Parking is rough in the area, so try to take BART or Caltrain – both very close to venue.
  • Once you’re in, you’re in — no ins and outs (don’t worry, we will have bathrooms). Unless of course you don’t want to stick around for the amazingly awesome hands-on event at 7pm. Then you’re free to leave at will…but you’re making a HUGE mistake!
  • You must RSVP via this Facebook event invite
  • Be sure to leave your replica Blades of Chaos at home
  • You might wanna think about bringing your PSP ;-)

The End Begins at GDC…

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The PlayStation Recap

Posted by in MAG, PlayStation Games, recap, uncharted 2 on March 6th, 2010

MAG Logo

Courtesy of Jeremy Dunham

UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves banner

Courtesy of Arne Meyer

  • UNCHARTED 2 Title Update 1.06 and Multiplayer Updates – We released an update to the multiplayer modes of UNCHARTED 2 earlier this week. The Title Update and live updates we pushed performed some additional balancing to player hitboxes, some weapons and one Booster that we felt was warranted after Title Update 1.05 was released. As part of these updates, we also pushed some geometry updates to prevent intentional glitching.
  • “Unleashed: The Art of Naughty Dog” art show opens this weekend – Twenty Naughty Dog (and UNCHARTED 2) artists are doing a group show of their art work at the Gnomon Gallery in Hollywood, California. The opening reception for the show is on the evening of Saturday, March 6, and will run for at least a month.

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God of War III Interview with Design Director Todd Papy

Posted by in Developer Corner, god of war III, PlayStation Games, PS3, santa monica studios on March 3rd, 2010

Last week, I was lucky enough to attend our God of War III event in Hollywood, where we revealed the opening portion of the game to press. Yes, as you could imagine, jaws dropped.

I’m not going to spoil anything here, and frankly, I made sure to keep my head turned for the majority of hands-on time because I’m all about going in fresh when I finally have retail copy in hand. But, in addition to hosting the event, key members of the Santa Monica Studio development team were on hand to chat. Last week you sent me questions for Stig, but unfortunately, he was sick and very limited during the event. So we’re saving most of those up for when we talk to Stig during GDC next week. But Design Director Todd Papy was nice enough to fill in (and he’s an insanely cool guy), so we sat down to talk God of War III, and I couldn’t help but throw a few of your questions his way. Hope you like it.

And make sure that if you do have more questions for Stig, drop them in this post via comments, as we’re definitely getting some time with him next week during GDC.

God of War III Event 3

Was there a lot of stress when it came to living up to the previous God of War games, not only in the fans eyes, but with the developers too?” – Vaughn Johnson via Twitter

Well I think we put more pressure on ourselves. There’s always that stress, and you don’t wanna be known as the guys who F up God of War [laughs]. You really don’t want to be known as that! You know, it’s one of those things where I think we were able to pull it off and hopefully exceed expectations even though the bar is set so high.

And you’re setting your own bar.

Yeah, and that’s the thing that’s always scary…how are we going to outdo ourselves. So when we started talking about God of War III, it was like, “What are we going to do with the Titans and how are we going to change the weapons to make things new and interesting?”

At what point do you reach a level that you’re happy with in development? When do you know when to stop?

Obviously time. I think all of us are artisan in a way and being able to noodle the game to death…there’s got to be a point in time where we say, “This is enough, let’s get it out the door.” But with that, we want to push the envelope, so we do a lot of play tests to see if we’re getting the reaction we want out of players. Are they getting it, and are are they enjoying the experience. But also, we have cameras on their faces when they are playing so when they get to that kill — what’s the reaction? Some people are stone cold and we can’t read them, but when they’re filling out the paper, they’d say they loved it. Others are like, “Ohhh! Oh my god, I can’t believe I just saw that!” Then we know, alright, we’ve got something special

What has been most challenging about the game, handling the tech or the story/gameplay?

I think the Titans, just because the way that we design the levels is under designer control. So we can do iterations really quick, say adjust the jump if it doesn’t feel right, change it and get it into the game quickly. Versus the Titans, when we’re designing in T-pose. We have to figure out what the arms is going to look like, or how the shoulder is going to look when its climbing. And basically, it’s the designer working with the animator to say, “Hey bring that down a bit.” There’s a lot of working back and forth, and it’s just very time consuming.

Well, it’s paid off because you’ve really done some amazing work. Are you happy to be done with the game?

I love it. I am very happy to be done, but at the same time I’m like, “Oh sh*t, what are we going to do next!”


It’s something that you’ve lived with for song long, just the process of creating a game, right?

Yeah, we’ve been doing it for 3-plus years and 10-plus months of crunch. We actually had a couple of designers come in today and we said, “No, no, you’re supposed to be on vacation, go home!” Really, we all love it, and even when we finished this one somebody was noodling around creating new ideas and new designs. It’s something that we live for.

God of War III Event 2

What is the most difficult thing about adapting mythology to a video game? – Brandon Gedrich via Twitter

Well, it’s our take. We don’t follow mythology to a T. It’s us taking what we want and what we think is interesting, and basically weaving a story around Kratos. And with Greek mythology there’s a lot of inspiration to draw from, but it’s, “What do we think is cool? What wrapper can we put around that?” And if it happens to be something in Greek mythology, we’ll say, “OK, that’s cool. Let’s use that.”

Was there anything you were influenced by with UNCHARTED 2 during your development process?

Well, we didn’t really see the game [during development]. But we did have design meetings with them like Richard and Neil, and we’d basically talk and say, “Hey, how do you guys do things?” Their system versus our system is completely different, even in the way they handle their big wow moment which was probably the train sequence. And now this [the opening] is one of our big wow moments. They saw one of the titans early on and saw what we were doing, and hopefully our communications with them and they way we talk about our enemies…hopefully that will influence them. And the way they tell stories, I would hope that we would do some of that stuff in the next game.

Knowing God of War, though, God of War III will probably bring a lot of those “wow” moments, right?

Right, and that’s the thing. In the beginning of the game, Stig and I went through and listed our all our wow moments once we knew the locations and set pieces. And we listed out how many of those moments were wanted to hit, and said, “We’ve got to be in this range.” And I think we hit it.

Well, congrats on being done! Without revealing any spoilers, is there anything you want to say to the PlayStation fans? These are some of your biggest fans who will be reading this.

I hope you love it. If there are things that you like about it, or anything that you dislike about it, trust me – all of us read the boards and we watch out for that stuff. So if there’s something that irks you, write about it. And we’ll find it, look at it and review it.

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Score Tickets to the Final Fantasy XIII Launch Event in San Francisco!

Posted by in contests, Events, final fantasy, meetup, PlayStation Games, PS3 on March 2nd, 2010

UPDATE: The quiz is officially closed, and winners will be notified via email. Thanks to everyone who submitted!

There’s this PS3 game. It’s called Final Fantasy XIII. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Yeah, well if so, you’ll definitely be interested to know that we’ve worked with Square Enix to secure 100 very exclusive invites to the Final Fantasy XIII Launch Event in San Francisco. That’s right, 50 of you (plus a guest) will have the chance to mingle it up and play Final Fantasy XIII the day before it hits stores on March 9. It’ll be an afternoon of Final Fantasy where you’ll also get special fan treatment, browse a gallery of stunning artwork, check out some cool videos and meet the development staff. There are also some fantastic raffle prizes up for grabs.

WHEN: This coming Monday, March 8, 2010 (one of two afternoon sessions)
WHERE: San Francisco

Of course, we want genuine FF fans to attend, so we’re not going to simply give these tix away. But if you’re free and can be in the city of San Francisco this coming Monday afternoon and you are 18 years of age or older, take our quiz! If you’re one of the first to answer the questions correctly, we’ll send you your will-call tickets and all the info you’ll need to get to the complete Final Fantasy XIII Experience. And if you’re really quick and over 21 years old, then 5 of you (plus one guest) will be granted access to a super exclusive Final Fantasy XIII VIP event that night! Ready?

TAKE THE QUIZ NOW!

Final Fantasy XIII Box

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The PlayStation Recap

Posted by in MAG, PlayStation Games, recap on February 27th, 2010

So if you follow the SonyPlayStation Twitter feed, you might have noticed this and this yesterday. For those who missed it, the first person to catch the correct BioShock 2 character reference (just for clarification, only I know the correct answer and it’s fairly straightforward) in this post – and submit it via comment IN THIS POST – will get this insanely cool Splicer mask and Box, courtesy of 2K (US only). Have at it! We’ll DM the winner via PSN, and will update here when we have one.

UPDATE: And we have a winner! Thanks to everyone who followed along.

MAG Logo

Courtesy of Jeremy Dunham

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PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

Posted by in PlayStation Community, recap, What We Read on February 21st, 2010

Man, what a crazy week. In addition to a serious amount of Blog posts, the internets are talkative as usual about PlayStation news this week. Prime example — details on the next Prince of Persia game were revealed, along with shots and more. Man, where have I been? It seem like only yesterday that the last Prince of Persia (which I loved) dropped, and the next one’s already this far along. Time really does fly.

Also, believe it or not, it’s Killzone 2’s first birthday, so be sure to click through to Killzone.com and who knows…we might even have a few things Killzone to give out next week. Stick to the Twitter feed, will ya?

There’s obviously lots more abuzz from the week, so hit the links, share yours, and we’ll see you in 24.

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of February 15, 2010)

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The PlayStation Recap

Posted by in MAG, PlayStation Games, recap, uncharted 2 on February 20th, 2010

MAG Logo

Courtesy of Jeremy Dunham

UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves banner

Courtesy of Arne Meyer

  • UNCHARTED 2 Title Update 1.05 – Earlier this week we released one of our biggest Title Updates to the online modes of UNCHARTED 2. New medals, changes to the quit penalty system, a method to remove AFK players, a stats info crawling ticker and the highly debated adjustments to weapon damage and associated attributes.
  • Naughty Dog and UNCHARTED 2 at D.I.C.E. Summit and the Interactive Achievement Awards – We went over to Las Vegas this week to attend the highly inspiring D.I.C.E. Summit with many other developers, publishers and other industry people – many of whom were and still are our childhood heroes. Read our daily updates for a peek of what it was like to attend D.I.C.E., including video from Co-Lead Game Designer Richard Lemarchand’s session and a recap of the TEN awards we received at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony.

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Heavy Rain Paris Launch Party Recap

Posted by in Events, heavy rain, PlayStation Games, PS3, quantic dream on February 19th, 2010

As you already know, Heavy Rain drops this Tuesday, and that means this weekend’s wait will most likely seem undoubtedly long. To help ease the pain, PlayStation.Blog.Europe’s Jem Alexander comes bearing gifts: videos, pictures and a first-hand account of this week’s Parisian activities. Take it away, Jem!

I hope you’re ready for lots of Heavy Rain content, because while we were at the big Launch Party in Paris this week we managed to secure a nice amount of interview and video content which should tide you over until well after the game comes out next week. To kick things off we’ve got a short teaser video and some photos which should give you an idea of what the launch event was like. I would’ve loved for you all to have been there with us, but hopefully this is the next best thing.

The event took place at the Gaumont Cinema on the Champs Elysees in Paris, where David Cage (Writer/Director), Guillaume de Fondaumiere (Executive Producer), Pascal Langdale (Actor – Ethan Mars), Sam Douglas (Actor – Scott Shelby), Leon Ockenden (Actor – Norman Jayden) and Jacqui Ainsley (Actor – Madison Paige) met members of the film and game media and members of the public. After having played through the game last week, it was very surreal to see them walking around in the real world. The event involved much red carpet walking, hors d’oeuvre nibbling and industry mingling. Plus an ice sculpture in the shape of an origami. No, really.

Heavy Rain Launch Event

A cut down video edit of the first section of the game was shown to media on one of the Gaumont’s many cinema screens. There aren’t many games which can be confidently displayed on the silver screen in front of dozens of members of the press but, if the applause was anything to go by, they seemed to love it. After this, director Neil LaBute stepped in to present a short film, which he had directed specially for the event, based on Heavy Rain’s central premise: how far would you go to save someone you love? It’s a short seven minute talking heads piece involving a wide range of film industry members, such as Samuel L. Jackson, Hanif Kureishi, Nicolas Roeg, Stephen Frears, Ben Chaplin, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Bogdanovich and Jean Marc Barr. Check it out for yourself below.

This was followed by a Q&A panel involving Mr. LaBute alongside David Cage, Terry Gilliam, Martha Fiennes and Mathieu Kassovitz, during which they discussed how the film and game industries were merging. It was a pretty lively debate and we’re hoping to get you a video of that in the next week or so. It was great to see the enthusiastic responses from these respected industry veterans towards Heavy Rain.

The second day of the event was only slightly less glamorous, but no less interesting. Media had interviews with the actors, David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumiere and you can see our interviews with them begin to appear next week. Thanks again for answering my request for interview questions. I’ll leave you with the teaser video taken at the red carpet event and you can look forward to plenty more Heavy Rain content on PlayStation.Blog in the coming weeks. Plus, you’ll be able to pick up the game and play it for yourself on Wednesday in mainland Europe and Friday in the UK (and Tuesday in North America).

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Heavy Rain Paris Launch Party Recap

Posted by in Events, heavy rain, PlayStation Games, PS3, quantic dream on February 19th, 2010

As you already know, Heavy Rain drops this Tuesday, and that means this weekend’s wait will most likely seem undoubtedly long. To help ease the pain, PlayStation.Blog.Europe’s Jem Alexander comes bearing gifts: videos, pictures and a first-hand account of this week’s Parisian activities. Take it away, Jem!

I hope you’re ready for lots of Heavy Rain content, because while we were at the big Launch Party in Paris this week we managed to secure a nice amount of interview and video content which should tide you over until well after the game comes out next week. To kick things off we’ve got a short teaser video and some photos which should give you an idea of what the launch event was like. I would’ve loved for you all to have been there with us, but hopefully this is the next best thing.

The event took place at the Gaumont Cinema on the Champs Elysees in Paris, where David Cage (Writer/Director), Guillaume de Fondaumiere (Executive Producer), Pascal Langdale (Actor – Ethan Mars), Sam Douglas (Actor – Scott Shelby), Leon Ockenden (Actor – Norman Jayden) and Jacqui Ainsley (Actor – Madison Paige) met members of the film and game media and members of the public. After having played through the game last week, it was very surreal to see them walking around in the real world. The event involved much red carpet walking, hors d’oeuvre nibbling and industry mingling. Plus an ice sculpture in the shape of an origami. No, really.

Heavy Rain Launch Event

A cut down video edit of the first section of the game was shown to media on one of the Gaumont’s many cinema screens. There aren’t many games which can be confidently displayed on the silver screen in front of dozens of members of the press but, if the applause was anything to go by, they seemed to love it. After this, director Neil LaBute stepped in to present a short film, which he had directed specially for the event, based on Heavy Rain’s central premise: how far would you go to save someone you love? It’s a short seven minute talking heads piece involving a wide range of film industry members, such as Samuel L. Jackson, Hanif Kureishi, Nicolas Roeg, Stephen Frears, Ben Chaplin, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Bogdanovich and Jean Marc Barr. Check it out for yourself below.

This was followed by a Q&A panel involving Mr. LaBute alongside David Cage, Terry Gilliam, Martha Fiennes and Mathieu Kassovitz, during which they discussed how the film and game industries were merging. It was a pretty lively debate and we’re hoping to get you a video of that in the next week or so. It was great to see the enthusiastic responses from these respected industry veterans towards Heavy Rain.

The second day of the event was only slightly less glamorous, but no less interesting. Media had interviews with the actors, David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumiere and you can see our interviews with them begin to appear next week. Thanks again for answering my request for interview questions. I’ll leave you with the teaser video taken at the red carpet event and you can look forward to plenty more Heavy Rain content on PlayStation.Blog in the coming weeks. Plus, you’ll be able to pick up the game and play it for yourself on Wednesday in mainland Europe and Friday in the UK (and Tuesday in North America).

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