Sony Pushes PS3 Physics and PSP Online

Which means that PlayStation 3 games will play better and ladies will have more desire to have sex with you.

With the Tokyo Game Show still two months away, Sony gave its home audience in Japan an early taste of the next generation at a meeting in Tokyo this week. While there was little in the way of new game announcements, the conference coughed up a few nuggets of interesting information.

Sony wowed the assembled audience at the PlayStation Meeting 2005 with the same PlayStation 3 demo footage that won over the crowds at the company's press conference at E3 in May. Sony also showed a trailer for Capcom's next-generation Resident Evil game, which was announced earlier this week.

New titles were, however, not a top priority and there was only one new game announcement. From Software, one of Japan's most ardent next-gen developers and master of all things action, announced Project Force, a new giant-robot action game in the vein of some of the firm's recent mech games.

The main PlayStation 3 announcements at the meeting were of a more technical nature. Sony announced that it has teamed up with various game physics experts to make PlayStation 3 games as lifelike as possible.

Deals with Havok (physics software creator), Epic (creator of the Unreal 3.0 engine) and AGEIA (physics hardware and software creator - see our Ed Fries interview for more) will bring some of the most advanced physics capabilities to PlayStation 3 games.

The deal for Epic's Unreal 3.0 engine will also allow programmers to get started making PlayStation 3 games quickly, without having to spend time creating new tools for the new console's complex and powerful hardware.

But that's not all that Sony brought for attendees. The company also had a few revelations related to its new portable gaming system, the PSP.

Image-conscious gamers will be able to pick up the new Ceramic White - or just white, if you prefer - PSP on 15 September. The PSP has until now only been available in black, despite Sony's taunting of gamers with multiple colours in early promotional footage.

The white PSP will come only in a new Value Pack, which includes a white carrying pouch. The white-themed bundle will sell for ¥26.040 (£133).

The PSP will also gain a full Web browser later this month. Through a firmware update, the handheld will be able to get online to browse the Web and download content. The browser will not include Flash support, dashing the hopes of those hoping to be able to play Flash-based games on the go.

The firmware update also bequeaths to the PSP added multimedia functionality, including support for new video and audio formats.

One of Sony's great hopes for the PSP is for it to see use as more of an entertainment machine, rather than just a games console. One of the paths Sony hopes to go down is downloadable content, and the company introduced a new service called Portable TV at the show.

Precise details are sketchy at the moment, but P-TV, as it will also be known, will have something for everyone and includes programming covering a host of genres, including anime, drama, entertainment, lifestyle, sports, music and movies. These clips will be of the same quality as movie footage available on UMDs.

Sony's European arm has not confirmed when or if any of these new features will make their way here. The PSP will launch in the UK in the standard black Value Pack flavour on 1 September for £179.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games