Sony press conference, gamescom 2012: liveblog
VG247's sitting in on Sony's gamescom press conference in Cologne this evening. Get full updates and streaming video details below.
The Sony gamescom press conference kicked off at 7.00pm CET with a video montage featuring Last of Us, Assassin's Creed 3, Black Ops 2, Dust 514, and more.
SCEE president and CEO Jim Ryan took the stage to start off the conference with titles coming to Vita, which he said will be "front and center" at the conference.
Ryan kicked things off with a LittleBigPlanet trailer for Vita, which will be available in a WiFi bundle near Christmas for 250 euros.
A video for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale showing Sackboy, Spike, Dante, and more was shown. When players purchase the PS3 version of the game, they will receive the Vita version at no extra cost via a new incentive called Cross Buy.
Cross Buy will be available with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank Q-Force.
Other Vita titles shown were Assassin's Creed: Liberation, which will contain a "touch to kill" feature and players can apparently wrestle crocodiles.
A Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified bundle was announced which will contains a Duty pouch and specially-designed console. The game will contain 4v4 multiplayer over WiFi, and the single-player mode takes place between Black Ops and Black Ops 2. It's out in November.
By the end of the year, 60 titles will have been released for Vita, and more PS One classics are coming August 28.
Media Molecule's Alex Evan's took the stage to show off the firm's next game: Tearaway. The Vita adventure title which was inspired by "paper". Players will control Iota, a envelope-looking messenger from another dimension, as the player tried to get him out of Vita and into the real-world.
Players will use the rear-touch controls to "push" their fingers through the screen, and they can blow at the screen to produce wind.
A video for Killzone: Mercenary - a Vita from Guerrilla Games - was shown, which Ryan said is a "first-person shooter which couldn't be created for any other platform." More on the game will be shown "in the coming months."
Ryan announced PlayStation Mobile during the conference, which he described as a "platform for bedroom developers." Creators will be able to bring their games to the public using the new incentive, and content is connected to a users PSN ID mobile. It's supported by the PS Store and available on Android PlayStation devices and will be available for Vita.
PlayStation Mobile promises a "packed schedule of original games" on PlayStation-certified devices and PS Vita, from larger publishers as well as indies.
Assassin's Creed 3 will have over an hour's worth of exclusive gameplay on PS3 with four extra missions. This was outed over the weekend by Amazon UK.
Later this year, a Cross-Controller Play DLC pack will be released for LittleBigPlanet 2, which will allow players to use Vita as a controller for PS3. Cross-Controller Play alos provides a second screen using PS Vita, which will gives players new ways to play the game.
PS3 Essentials are coming, offering the likes of Uncharted, inFAMOUS and LittleBigPlanet for around €19.99.
Over five new PS Plus games will be added over the months, and in September, members will get Red Dead Redemption free. Later this year, PS Plus will extend to Vita, and more on this will be announced at a later date.
From September, new subs can get 25% off on the PS Plus service and next month, PS Plus Cloud Storage will be bumped to 1GB.
SCEE worldwide studios SVP Michael Denny took the stage to show a trailer for JK Rowling's Wonderbook title Book of Spells. It showed pretty child actors having fun.
Moonbot Studio's Wonderbook private eye story, Diggs Nightcrawler, which is a film noir detective story featuring "a bookworm gumshoe."
Sony's also working with the BBC to bring Walking With Dinosaurs to Wonderbook, and the firm is working with Disney on Wonderbook titles as well.
EA Sports' David Rutter, producer on FIFA 13, came on stage to show Move integration with the football title.
Three new titles for PS3 were announced, the first is a first-person Move-enabled title Until Dawn. It looks to be a horror title where lovely young people go to a remote cabin to do what young couples do when alone in the wilderness. Seven character stories are included, and players must do their best to ensure the characters survive "until dawn."
The next new title shown, was a PSN title called Rain from Sony Japan. A rainy city was shown, while Claire de Lune played in the background. An invisible world unfolds for the player through the rain.
Another Sony Japan Studio title, a platformer called Puppeteer was announced. The game is set in a magical theater, where the player controls a young boy searching for a way home, armed only with a magical pair of scissors.
A new video for The Last of Us was shown, featuring Alone and Forsaken by Hank Williams, Sr. playing in the background, It was fitting.
Ryan took the stage to close things out with a trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified for Vita.
An analysis of the Sony announcements made during the conference will be posted later. Keep and eye out for it.
You can re-watch the live stream of the conference via Sony's official gamescom page, and look over Pat's liveblog below.