PlayStation Day Report News

At PlayStation Day in London, Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 has sold more units in total across Europe than Microsoft's Xbox 360. The system has been consistently outselling the Xbox 360 since October 2007 in the territory, and has notched up 5 million unit sales throughout Europe altogether.

In addition to the 5 million total sales of PS3s, it was also unveiled that Sony has sold 12 million PSP's in Europe to date, as well as 48 million PS2s in the region.

At the event, Kaz Hirai emphasised the importance of online communities in the PS3's future, with PSN's Home hub playing a crucial role in that. However, he was unable to pin down a release date for Home, instead commenting that "more time" was required to make Home the experience that Sony was striving for.

Sony also exhibited a trailer for its highly anticipated LittleBigPlanet project. The trailer started with a nice nod to Guerrilla's Killzone 2 with a couple of mini-Helghan characters amidst the game's various platform based puzzles. However, the trailer was met with a muted reception by the crowd.

The footage of Resistance 2 exhibited some nice looking graphics, and it appears that the project is coming along well visually. It was also revealed that Resistance 2 will support 60 players online in the game's multiplayer battlefields, with an emphasis on battles within battles and smaller skirmishes as part of a larger overall experience.

Killzone 2 was confirmed for a February 2009 release, which could suggest a slight delay for the title. Although an official release date was never announced, Sony UK release schedules have previously slated the title for September 2008.

Disappointingly, the PlayStation Day keynote also revealed a disappointing total of 8 player slots for online combat in Killzone 2.

Adding further details to what's already known about MotorStorm 2, the keynote speeches unveiled one of the gameplay dynamics in the game. Utilising the game's various new surfaces across its 16 tropical tracks, driving through bodies of water will have the effect of cooling down your vehicle's engine. This allows gamers to stop their vehicles from overheating following prolonged boosts.

The keynotes also revealed that races in MotorStorm 2 will feature up to 20 other AI cars in the single-player game; the multiplayer supporting up to 16 online racers, or 4 player offline split-screen.

One of the more notable events of PlayStation Day was an exclusive showing of EA DICE's first Mirror's Edge trailer, showing the first in-game footage to be revealed to date. Living up to the press release hype and screenshots, Mirror's Edge does indeed look like a tour de force of the French art of Parkour.

The female, Far-eastern looking protagonist was shown in the trailer, although most of the footage came from the elaborate FPS view that the game employs. With an extensive and detailed display of how the protagonist's limbs move as they travel across the cityscape, it became apparent that Mirror's Edge might live up to its billing of re-defining how players control a character from the FPS perspective.

The lead character was shown running across the top of skyscrapers, vaulting between objects, tight-rope walking over drainpipes, jumping between buildings, climbing up ledges, wall running, and ducking under obstacles.

Combat was also shown against armed enemy characters. However, it should be noted that the lead character was unarmed, performing only hand-to-hand combat moves such as kick, blocks, and punches.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was hailed as a success story at PlayStation Day, selling a total of 1.5 million units at retail in Europe since its late March release.

Sony didn't totally forget about PSP owners, as the electronics giant also announced GoView for the PSP. Utilising Sky's video download system on the PSP, GoView will allow gamers to download media via pay per view or subscription based payment methods.

It should be noted, however, that the service will run through the PC. PSP owners will have to use software on their PC to download GoView content, which they can then upload to their PSP and watch on the move. However, users will not be able to upload GoView content straight to their PSP via Wi-Fi connection.