Sony unexpectedly announced the availablity of Final Fantasy VII on the US Playstation Store during E3.
Then, like an internet “Mexican Wave”, European users started demanding it too… AND… We’ve got it just a day after the US release (today)!
No one will know if it was planned to come out in Europe in the same week or whether SCEE were listening and rushed to get it to us early. The Playstation Store update was about a couple of hours later than usual tonight so it’s a possibility.
You can download it from the PS Store for £7.99/9.99 euros (1.3GB download) which is very reasonable considering it’ll cost you much more than that to get hold of pre-owned FFVII discs from eBay.
Small request: Please consider giving Metal Gear Solid the same treatment and we’ll all be even happier!
UPDATE 05/06/2009: I must have read someone’s mind! Konami has JUST confirmed Metal Gear Solid is going to be released on the US Playstation Store on 18th June. Hopefully it will hit Europe at the same time.
When you’ve been a train man as long as I have, you see a lot of people meeting, parting, joy, sadness… After a while, it doesn’t even get to you anymore. I wonder how long it’s been… There’s an invisible rail between me and the passengers. I could never live their lives. I’m just a train man plain and simple. It’s easier that way. That’s not to say that the crossing gate of my heart doesn’t hurt now and again. Back during the war, I remember there was a lot of painful scenes then. But, that’s a story for another day. Train man, Sector 7, Final Fantasy VII
Anyone catching the news coming out of E3 will know that Sony and Microsoft, as well as Nintendo, all now seem to be seriously commited to providing motion control systems for their consoles.
Nintendo are pushing ahead with a new iteration of their control system called Motion Plus which is an add-on for the Wii-mote that promises more precise movement tracking.
Microsoft surprised everyone with Project Natal, a motion tracking system which requires no physical controller. It tracks your body movements and even claims to include advanced facial recognition.
Sony also launched a new motion controller dubbed (unofficially) by the internet as the PSPenis! (Well, the prototype is a stick with a big purple bulb on the end so they should have seen that one coming!) It uses the Playstation Eye for tracking and also promises tracking precision to millimetre accuracy.
As all three companies now have a motion control strategy it makes serious sense for third party developers to begin designing games based solely around motion sensing. So we could see some very different games in the near future.
Although, there is at least one guy that doesn’t seem particulary happy about this prospect…
Other great Sony news from E3 (I’m focusing on Sony because I missed the Nintendo and Microsoft press conferences!) is the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV to be released on the PS3 in 2010. Yes, that’s in the same year as Final Fantasy XIII is coming out. Also Project Trico was officially announced and named The Last Guardian. It’s the sequel to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and it looks stunning.
EDITED 04/06/2009: I’m completely wrong of course! The Last Guardian is the prequel to Shadow of the Colossus and Shadow of the Colossus is the prequel to Ico. Thanks to LiQuidGFX for spotting the mistake.
There is also a shedload of new PSP games being released in the coming months including a new Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker as well as the previously announced Little Big Planet PSP and Motorstorm Arctic Edge.
It looks like Sony are finally getting the message that Playstation owners want games and lots of them. Which is great news!
Although the fact that someone leaked a load of pics may have something to do with the timing!
I should wait for the official announcement at E3 (when we were intended to find out about it) before I comment but my first impression is a little underwhelmed.
I’m not too keen on the new design (it slides apart now!). I prefer the old one to be honest, but thats only my personal preference.
The biggest change is that they’ve dumped the UMD drive and replaced it with 16GB of on-board flash memory. Getting rid of the UMD drive is a good thing but 16GB is a little miserly when you consider the size of PSP games. iPods come with about 120GB of space as standard now so you would expect a new PSP to at least equal it. Do Sony want us to buy lots of games or not?
Strangely they have shrunk the screen size to 3.8 inches. Probably to squeeze some more battery life but I can’t help thinking this is a step backwards.
But, like I said… We should wait until Sony officially tell us about it. I am being negative about unconfirmed speculation.
If they announce a load more PSP games in development, more integrated connectivity to the PlayStation Network for online gaming and bringing trophies across to the PSP. I would be very happy!
