Now that we've had a day where we've said a few snarky but mostly adoring things about Microsoft's E3 data dump, what can we expect today from Sony's inexorable riposte? Let's see: PlayStation Home stuff, check...buncha cool exclusives like Killzone 2 and LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, check...Mass Effect 2 coming to PS3...err, huh?
Nah, just kidding about that last one, but pursuing at least the figment of my imagination for a minute or two (visualize a dog chasing its tail) consider the fact that Bioware only sold around 2 million copies of Mass Effect total on the Xbox 360. I know. Only. But still, look at how much better Sony's doing in Japan, and after all, it is an arr-pee-gee. Of course they'd have to add in all the PC fixes, and...alright, alright, it's not going to happen. Remember, I'm exactly zero percent as accurate as Kreskin about these things.
As for what Sony's really going to reveal today, you can bet it'll either be a few earth-quaking humdingers or a whole bunch of pebble-jiggling yawners. What's clanging away in the rumor mill? Well there's the hypothetical God of War 3 debut for one. If anything has the potential to grab all the attention away from Square Enix's jaw-dropping announcement yesterday, it's this ineluctable tertiary installment in director David Jaffe's towel-snapping hack and slash. Then there's Sony's PlayStation Home (i.e. The Sims Sony, i.e. The Sony Mii Channel). Even with the recent and significant 2.4 update to the PS3's XMB interface, the company's probably been keeping its strongest cards back for this week. I certainly would.
Regarding Final Fantasy. Don't sweat it, Sony owners. Square Enix is too big and expending too much effort (three or four year development cycles) to drop a game like Final Fantasy 13 on less than half its potential sell-to market. Look at it another way: Sony didn't lose a major exclusive, so much as Square Enix made an extremely smart business decision. And everyone wins, because everyone gets a crack at the game. Which, by the way, we're all just assuming is going to be amazing. It's not like Square Enix hasn't dropped the ball before.
Secondly, Final Fantasy is surely my favorite game franchise, but it may not be yours, and popular as it is in Japan (and increasingly more over here in recent years) it's certainly no Gran Turismo 5 (GT4 sold 9.4 million, GT3 about 15 million, and GT5: Prologue's already at around 2 million and climbing). Sony has plenty of other exclusives left, too, including majors like the Resistance and Killzone franchises. And then there's Sony's inevitable response to the Microsoft/Netflix streaming video deal.
So stick around. Sony's press conference is today at 11:30am PT -- our fearless two-man ground team will be live-blogging it from Today @ PC World -- and by this time tomorrow, all our best attempts at second-guessing Sony will probably look like a cockeyed crapshoot.
