E3: Sony press conference headlined by
PlayStation Vita

As the rumors leading up to E3 2011 suggested, Sony decided to side with the PlayStation Vita name for the device previously dubbed NGP. The handheld was a large focus during the company's press conference, and for good reason.

It had a solid showing, with a number of big-name Vita games discussed, and a lovely $249/$299 price point disclosed. In general, the event went rather smoothly, I thought. Next time, boys, be sure to start on time. Think of poor Nick Chester.

E3 New Game Announcements:
God of War Origins Collection brings PSP games to PS3
E3: PS Move title Medieval Moves: Dead Man's Quest shown
E3: Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time announced, coming 2012
E3: Irrational bringing BioShock to NGP
E3: Draw tracks with your finger in ModNation Racers NGP
E3: InFAMOUS lead playable in Street Fighter X Tekken

E3 News:
E3: Sony press conference streams and liveblog
E3: Jack Tretton addresses PSN issues at start of show
E3: Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta dated
E3: CinemaNow coming to PlayStation 3
E3: ICO/SotC HD collection out in September in 3D!
E3: Sony pushes hard to get consumers invested in 3D
E3: LittleBigPlanet 2 gets better Move support
E3: Details trickle in on PS3 exclusive Dust 514
E3: BioShock Infinite getting PS Move support
E3: PS3 gets SSX, Need for Speed, Battlefield exclusives
E3: Move-outfitted Resistance 3 Doomsday Edition for $150
E3: Sony confirms PlayStation Vita, $249/299 pricetag
E3: Large number of third parties creating games for Vita
E3: PSP hits 70 million units sold worldwide
E3: NBA 2K12 includes PlayStation Move support

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E3: PSP hits 70 million units sold worldwide

Not to be completely overshadowed by the PlayStation Vita (too late!), the PlayStation Portable has some good news today as well.

Namely, sales. Did the headline ruin it? Yeah -- the handheld that's still hanging on there has seen 70 million units sold worldwide as of April 27, 2011. Also, there are 3,200 UMD-based games now in existence. If you could kill a man with UMDs, that'd be enough to do it with!

"SCE will continue to promote the expansion of the PSP platform and offer a variety of interactive digital entertainment along with PlayStation Vita," reads a press release. We'll see about that.

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E3: NBA 2K12 includes PlayStation Move support

Sony has been working hard on getting third-party publishers to support PlayStation Move, and now, they can count 2K Sports among them. The sports publisher trotted out none other than Kobe Bryant at Sony's E3 press conference this evening to help demonstrate the Move integration that NBA 2K12 will include.

Called "NBA On The Move," the feature allows you to use the Move wand to point an on-screen reticle at a player to whom you want to pass the rock, and by pulling the trigger on the controller, a player will take a shot. On defense, you can target players with the wand, and doing so will switch to them; pressing a shoulder button will attempt to block a shot. It didn't look very intuitive, and while Bryant did a good job of pretending to have a good time, either he didn't know what he was doing, or the functionality just hadn't been implemented that well.

If you have PlayStation Move, you can try out NBA On The Move yourself when NBA 2K12 launches on October 4, 2011.

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E3: Large number of third parties creating games
for Vita

At the Sony press conference, it was announced that a large amount of third party companies were going to be creating games for the PlayStation Vita. At the same time as the announcement, the official press release hit our tips line. THE MAGIC OF THE INTERNET!

The full list is pretty impressive: LEVEL-5, Square-Enix, Epic, Ubisoft (to name a few). Hit the jump to check it out.

List of Third Party Game Developers and PublishersAs of June 7th, 2011 (in alphabetical order of developer/publisher)    JAPAN    ACQUIRE Corp.Jorudan Co., Ltd. ALPHA･UNIT CO.,LTDKADOKAWA GAMES, LTD. ALVION Inc.Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. AQ INTERACTIVE INC.KAGA CREATE CO., LTD AQUAPLUS Co., LtdKonami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. ARC SYSTEM WORKS Co., Ltd.LEVEL-5 Inc. ARIKA CO., LTD.MAGES Inc. （5pb） ARTDINK CORPORATIONMainichi Communications Inc. ASCII MEDIA WORKS Inc.Marvelous Entertainment Inc. ASGARD Co., Ltd.media5 Corporation Aspect Co., Ltd.NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. BROCCOLI Co., Ltd.Nihon Falcom Corporation Capcom Co., Ltd．Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. CHUN SOFT CO., LtdNOWPRODUCTION, CO., LTD Codemasters Software Company LimitedOaKs co., Lｔｄ. Crafts & Meister Co., Ltd.PAON CORPORATION CyberConnect2 Co., Ltd.POLYGON MAGIC, INC. CYBERFRONT CorporationPROTOTYPE CO., LTD. D3 PUBLISHER Inc.Q Entertainment Inc. DIGITAL WORKS ENTERTAINMENT INC.SAFARI GAMES., Ltd Dimps CorporationSEGA CORPORATION dorasu corporationSilverStarJapan Co., Ltd. Edia Co., Ltd.SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION ENTERBRAIN, INC.Sonic Powered co., Ltd. FromSoftware, Inc.Spike Co., Ltd Gameloft K.K.SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd. GANBARION Co., Ltd.Starfish-SD Inc. Genki Co., Ltd.SUNCORPORATION Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.SystemPrisma Co., Ltd. GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc.SystemSoft Alpha Corp. GUST CO., LTD.TECMO KOEI GAMES CO., LTD. HAMSTER CorporationTGL HUNEX CO., LTD.TOMY Company, Ltd. IDEA FACTORY CO., LTD.TOSE CO., LTD. Ignition Entertainment Ltd.tri-Ace Inc. IMAGICA DIGITALSCAPE Co., Ltd.Ubisoft K.K. Index Corporation （Atlus）Views Co., Ltd. IREM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INC.YUKE'S Co., Ltd.  76 companies in total   NORTH AMERICA   Activision, Inc.Paramount Digital Entertainment Capybara GamesPopCap Games "CCP"Powerhead Games Demiurge StudiosRockster Games Electronic ArtsTHQ Epic Games Inc.Trendy Entertainment Far Sight StudiosUbisoft® FrimaWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment High Voltage Software2K Games Kung Fu Factory2K Sports  20 companies in total

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E3: InFAMOUS lead playable in Street Fighter X
Tekken

Not only did Sony and Capcom just announce that Street Fighter X Tekken is coming to the Playstation Vita, but they've also just told us that Cole McGrath from the InFAMOUS series will be appearing in game as a playable fighter. It's incredible to see a very Western character like Cole get a Japanese art direction overhaul. I had very little interest in the character before, but seeing him with these new exaggerated animations and beefy, badass moves has definitely caught my attention.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of another time that a non-Capcom, non-fighting game character has appeared in a Street Fighter related title. Even if you don't care about PS Vita or inFAMOUS, if you're a Street Fighter fan, you should be excited about this. If the game is getting PS Vita specific characters, that opens the door for potential PS3, 360, Project Cafe, and 3DS specific characters as well (assuming the game comes to Project Cafe and the 3DS).

You can bet I'll be hounding Capcom for details on this when I meet with them on Wednesday. in the meantime, lets discuss. Whichs console specific characters would you like to see in each potential version of the game?

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Blade Gets His Anime Vampire-Slaying Action On

Marvel and Madhouse have finally released a teaser for the Blade anime for fans to sink their teeth into.

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ying-Action-On

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OSX Lion Will Include Hardware Acceleration for
the HTML5 Canvas

I was looking through the 250+ new features and improvements for Lion (available for $29.99 as an upgrade in July) and found this little gem in the Safari Improvements:Improved graphics performanceWeb pages that use the HTML5 Canvas element can tap into the graphics processing unit on your Mac to display graphics and animations. [...]

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for-the-html5-canvas/

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E3: Sony pushes hard to get consumers invested in
3D

Sony just announced to new products aimed to get consumers to give 3D gaming, TV, and movies a try. First up is the Playstation 3D monitor -- a 24 inch HD/3D TV that has the added capacity to play local co-op games without the need for split screen by displaying two totally different screens at once. The package comes with a pair of 3D glasses, an HDMI cable, and a copy of Resistance 3, and retails at $499.

Less exciting is a new low cost pair of 3D glasses which retail at $69.99, which is still expensive as hell. Still, for a luxury purchase, that little 3D TV isn't too bad of a deal, and that "split screen without a split screen" trick is impressive. I just wonder if it has staying power, or if like 3D, it's just some visual "wow" factor which quickly becomes less exciting after the honeymoon period is over.

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E3: Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time announced, coming
2012

YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!

I love the Sly Cooper series, and the next game in the previously-only PlayStation 2 series was just announced for the PlayStation 3. Not much is known about the title except that it is called Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and will most likely involve thieves ... in time.

The trailer shown during the Sony conference looked great, containing the same cell-shaded style and wacky humor the series is known for.

I am really excited about this. The Sly series is awesome.

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E3: PS Move title Medieval Moves: Dead Man's
Quest shown

An odd but interesting PlayStation Move game by the name of Medieval Moves: Dead Man's Quest was announced at Sony's press event. 

In it, you control a silhouette while moving, with the camera pulling back to a first-person view when you whip out your sword and shield, bow, or throwing stars. Yeah, throwing stars -- and you get to hit skeletons with them. SKELETONS! All right, you have my attention, guys.

The demo hit hard that branching paths were a focus, and all in all, it looked pretty neat; a good use of the PlayStation Move, which is appreciated. Fall 2011 is when it's coming to PlayStation 3.

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