Sony's TGS 2012 press conference
Live from Tokyo at 5am UK time.
Updated on
155 comments
Sony is set to hold its Tokyo Games Show 2012 press conference at 5am UK time - and we'll be there to live-blog the whole thing.
Eurogamer's delightfully bearded Martin Robinson and funny man Wesley Yin-Poole have travelled across time zones to report back from the future, as Sony lays out its latest round of hardware and software announcements.
We'll also be online here in the UK to help make sense of it all (provided our alarm clocks go off on time).
The PlayStation maker is the only one of the Big Three console companies with any kind of presence at TGS 2012. The stage is theirs for the taking - but what will Sony show?
Well, all signs point to a new super-slim PlayStation 3 being outed. There's been so many leaked photos of it we'd be shocked if it wasn't announced.
We're also hoping Sony still has more new software announcements up its sleeve, after its enjoyable Gamescom event revealed PS3 titles Rain and Puppeteer and gorgeous Vita game Tearaway (from LittleBigPlanet chaps Media Molecule). All three looked great.
Finally, it's been a while since we've heard about Beyond: Two Souls, the next project from Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream. It's about time we learned more - so that's another to watch out for.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
HELLO TOKYO!
We're in the Shinigawa Intercity Hall with THE WORST INTERNET CONNECTION IN THE WORLD. I thought everywhere in Tokyo was internet.
Nice bit of casual racism to kickstart this morning's liveblog. Congrats if you've got up at 5am for this - treat yourself to a cup of tea and a pop tart.
Looking forward to The Last Guardian? Brace yourself for disappointment.
More likely - in fact, pretty much guaranteed - is the announcement of the new PS3 grill.
Really hoping George Foreman staggers on stage to announce it.
Also! Maybe some game announcements, and possibly a couple of Vita shaped surprises.
Sony set the bar high with its Gamescom conference. Let's hope SCEJ got the memo about keeping things short and punchy and bringing the games. All the games.
There's a lady on stage holding a clipboard. Is this the new PS3?
There's going to be a photo taking session on the stage afterwards. What will we be taking photos of?
I'm hoping it'll be a topless Jim Ryan.
Oh, and a shout out to Jim Ryan's dad. I'm told he's a reader of the liveblogs. And that he's amused/disconcerted that I'm always going on about how damned sexy he is.
What I'd love - what I'd really, really love - is an announcement of Final Fantasy 12 for Vita.
While we're living in fantasy land, I may as well cross my fingers for a Gran Turismo announcement. And Gradius 6 on Vita.
Weslol Yin Poole and his crack news team will also be bringing you all the news as it happens on the site. Should there be any, that is.
It begins!
Hiroshi Kawano, president of SCEJ takes to the stage.
Would, basically.
He's going to run us through services, and some messages for us. Super!
Andrew House moonwalks on stage wearing a grass skirt. Definitely would.
Balls, there's a live-feed of this, isn't there? I can't just make this stuff up.
Straight in with the PS3 slim.
There's a black model which we've likely all seen by now - and it's joined by a white model too. No George Foreman on hand, sadly.
It is, for those watching at home, mighty small. Andrew House says it's half the weight/size of the original.
The price remains the same - but there's more storage. 250 GB and 500 GB available. I believe it's an SSD, but that hasn't been confirmed just yet.
Available October 4th. The black one, at least.
299 EUROS for the 500 GB, 229 EUROS for the smaller model.
Sorry for the slow updates - problems with the translation over here.
PS Plus coming to Vita in November. No precise date just yet.
49.99 USD for a year's subscription.
Sony's looking to accelerate the connectivity of the PS3 and Vita in the future.
PSN's grown since its launch in 2006 - available in 59 countries and 17 languages now.
Gaikai - SCE will utilise the network to allow new cloud services, and delivering games through the system. It's important to address the latency - and Gaikai's the company to do that, says House.
They're developing these services - and Sony says you can rely on them. Sadly we can't rely on them to announce anything concrete on Gaikai, it seems.
I really like the look of the new PS3 slim - it's a definite improvement over the existing model, even if it's not quite as handsome as the original.
The white model's coming out on October 22, with 250 GB. No word on if it's coming to the West, sadly.
There's an Everybody's Golf pack coming. Again, don't expect that to make its way out of Japan.
There's lots of exciting games aside from Everybody's Golf 6, says Hawano. Let's see some now!
Puppeteer, Sports Champions 2, EDF Vita and plenty others.
These are all games scheduled for before the end of the year.
Also to look forward to - Yakuza 5, Call of Duty Black Ops 2. The translator's struggling to keep up, as am I.
Plenty games, basically. Many of them are coming westward - though Tales of Xillia 2 and Yakuza 5 aren't two of them.
A Rocksmith section! It's been out in the US for a while, but it's coming to Japan (and to the UK) later this year.
Bertie's been having a crack at this recently, and it does what it sets out to do, apparently.
There was a horrible moment during that showreel were Vic Viper turned up and I thought we were seeing a Gradius game. It was, of course, just from Zone of the Enders HD.
Why am I waffling about what happened about five minutes ago? Because it's the Wonderbook section, which is traditionally the time to go take a dump/have a fag/make some tea during a Sony conference.
I'm doing all three at once, which is raising some curious looks from everyone in attendance.
And my straining seems to have broken the game - the plastic family looks confused/upset, and quickly leave the stage.
Music Unlimited - he's talking about the Japanese service, which is available across PS3 and Vita and is free of charge for the first 30 days.
Torne's a digital recorder - and it's Japan-only, I'm afraid. Lovely box, though.
Nasne, again, is a Japan-only device. It does look nice though! Kind of like a little baby PS3.
Ah, updates are being eaten by the internet, so apologies that it's slowing down a little. You're missing out on some PSP gold.
We're back and with a vengeance - there's a PSP price cut in Japan, as well as a One Piece Pirate game. And Final Fantasy 3's coming out tomorrow. Wait, what? I thought that came out ages ago.
PSP's are still big here - I've seen plenty on public transport the past few days, and literally no Vitas. Speaking of the Vita...
We're going to get some announcements, says Kawano.
22 titles were available at launch - there's now 65 available physically, with 91 available in total on the store.
Project Diva F is absolutely HUGE over here - as Kawano says, it's the biggest hit on the Vita.
Samurai & Dragons is a free-to-play game from Sega for the Vita. It's out already over here.
Would love to see both of these come to the West. Is anyone listening? Are you still awake?
PSOne Classics is a thing that exists on the Vita. Which Kawano's showing off now. Which I've also got in my bag. New things please!
More than 600 games in the archive - 180,000 have been downloaded since the service went live last week.
Regarding those 60 titles - I think that's on the Japanese store. We've got a much more paltry selection in Europe.
600 titles, even.
"I have so far discussed what the Vita's done since the start - now on to news to you"
Cosmic Red and Sapphire Blue Vita colours inbound, available in November.
They'll be available from November 15 in Japan. Red one pleuse.
I'm the bearded guy in the second row waving like a moron. HELLO!
Comics on the Vita - they look mighty on the OLED, as One Piece Pirate proves.
Will we see this in the UK so we can read the Beano on the go? I don't know!
The Reader Store, it's called, and it's available from October. 3000 comics available at launch.
Don't go back to sleep just yet - here's some new games for Vita.
PSO Online, Soul Sacrifice, PS Beat Me Do and something with a cardboard box.
Nothing new new new there, though - a run-through of the line-up we already knew existed.
Black Ops Declassified makes a slightly incongruous appearance. I've said it before, but I may as well say it again - it doesn't look too hot.
How much would you pay me to rush the stage and lick his cheeks?
Declassified BLOPS - we'll be getting a runthrough in a second, so you can see it running first hand.
It's Keiji Inafune! Say something controversial, Keiji - I'm in danger of dozing off here.
He's saying that the Japanese games industry's doomed, and that everyone in the room will be out of a job by next summer.
He says we won't even be able to trade in our Vitas for some hot soup when we're all homeless on the streets.
Actually, none of that's true - he's just saying the game's now coming out in Spring next year.
There'll be a demo this Christmas.
And here's a co-op video for you all.
A living book opens up to reveal some third party action. It's a third person adventure - someone at Sony's Japan Studio last told me said it's a lot like Dragon Ball with its very OTT action.
Though I'm still lazily pinning it down as a Dark Souls/Monster Hunter mash-up. With OTT action.
"We hope that this will be a major masterpiece" says Kawano.
A chap from Marvellous AQL takes to the stage for an unannounced game.
Make that three new games - Valhalla Knights 3 is the first, out next year.
It started off as a PSP game - and now it's shifted over to the Vita. A back to basics approach for the series. I'm not going to pretend I know what those basics are.
A trio of screenshots show off what the Vita's done for Valhalla Knights. Made it more pervy, it seems from one of those shots.
Avaloner: Did he just mention boobs?
Yes he did.
Shinovi Versus next - an all-new game, coming out on February 28th next year.
Do you remember the time that Sony came on stage and announced an awesome Vita game from one of its biggest studios? Right now I'm struggling to.
Oboromuramasa's up next - again it's got its roots in the PSP.
This one's out 28th March next year.
Marky264: Martin where is Gran Turismo because I can't even Whiff and decent titles yet :/ Come on Kaz get on Stage!
I can get up on stage and announce it, if you want.
"Why is he holding the mic like that" says Wes. I think he's going to burst into song.
Koei are next up to thrill us.
Toukiden's the game, from the Dynasty Warriors team.
It's got a monster in it.
I just dropped my dongle, which has provided the most exciting moment of the show so far. Sorry you weren't here to witness it.
Anyway, in the meantime Toukiden's been announced, which is a cross platform game between Vita and PSP. It's a whole new project.
Bandai Namco on stage now! Apparently Namco sounds a bit like a very rude word in Japanese, so Simon Parkin told me once.
CaptainF: I hope Rodan eats Mark Robinson on his flight home.
I'm hoping this too.
All the points to whoever can remind me what word it is.
Anyway, Rude Word Bandai have taken to the stage to announce a new Gundam game. Even the Japanese press seem unimpressed.
Destruction's the theme for this one, which is outside what typical Gundam games do.
CaptainF: I bet that was the most epic shit ever, and we couldn't see it.
I streaked, basically. Epic's not quite the word.
Dreadaxe: what was the point of that, what did you see that we couldn't. seriously why turn the cameras away from the screen.
It was a Gundam game - third person action with gunplay and big swords. No idea why the livestream turned away.
Another Namco game's due up - Yusuke Tomizawa's on stage to announce it.
God Eater 2's the game, developed by Project G.E. Again, it's a PSP and Vita game.
Big swords and more third party Monster Hunter-esque action - the Vita version looks more handsome than the PSP one, unsurprisingly.
Kantaroumiya: Your eyes aren't ready yet, that's why.
Everybody in the audience watching the screen is now bleeding profusely from their eye sockets. Be grateful you were saved.
The Vita uses twin sticks for cameras, and has a bit more pretty. The man next to me just did a bit of fart. More as it happens.
2013 launch for God Eater 2 - nothing more than that right now.
AKB 1/153 is coming this year, as are Fate games, EDF and a handful more. I can't help but feel that Sony's given up on the Vita.
There'll be hands-on with Soul Sacrifice at the show, and 26 other Vita games.
There's an ARG coming out to accompany TGS - it's a mystery solving game, and it's irrelevant to all of you. But if you feel like you're missing out it's also available, in some form, on the internet.
Kawano's wrapping up what's been a very underwhelming show.
No FFX HD news, and nothing particularly compelling for a western audience for the Vita. I'm going to go and have a little cry in the corner.
Thanks! (And sorry). But mostly thanks!