And then, Sony brought the house down. I thought it couldn't get any bigger after the announcement of The Last Guardian, but oh was I wrong. Because they announced the Final Fantasy 7 remake that's been teased for years. The character models appear to use modified Advent Children models, and I also think the in-game engine is modified from Final Fantasy 15's, which combine to make this look spectacular. No release date was given, but I will predict it will have a 2017 release date to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy 7.
After that, I blanked out just slightly. they showed off a quartet of new games from Devolver Digital: Ronin, Eitr, Mother Russia Bleeds and Crossing Souls. They looked fascinating, but what little I noticed caused me to ignore most of this segment, since none of those games seemed to interest me - instead, spots sickened me, which is not what I want my games to do.
Sony then started talking about Kickstarter. I was confused at first, and then the trailer came on. Shenmue 3 appears to be happening. A game originally based on the Dreamcast, Shenmue 3 launched a kickstarter literally during the Sony conference. As of writing, the kickstarter sits at 1.2 million dollars, 60% of the asking price of two million. A direct sequel to the previous games, this kickstarts still has a month remaining. I fully expect this game to get far more than than the asking funding, and with Sony behind them, we can be sure that funding this game will get this game released.
Next, Batman: Arkham Knight was showcased. With the release date of June 23rd, we are shown one of the exclusive Scarecrow Nightmare missions. With you controlling a cop, you suddenly get dosed with Fear Toxin and you start shooting everything. It looks very fast paced, but I don't know what the final reward for these missions will be, so we'll have to see if the exclusivity is worth it.
The next bits step away from games for a bit, first talking about Project Morpheus and dropping a few names of games coming for the system (which we'll probably hear more about in the coming days after people get some hands-on with it on the show floor), and then about Playstation Vue, a tv programming system currently availabe in LA, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Philedelphia. They will be allowing subscribers to choose channels they want to pay for, which is huge - coming at a time when Verzion is pushing this exact thing with their Custom TV packages. Further, Playstation Plus members will get an undisclosed discounted rate on subscriptions, which would just add to the already massive value of the service.
Returning to the games, which is far more interesting than Vue or Morpheus (though both are big for Sony, I'm sure) we are treated to a reveal of Call of Duty Black Ops 3. The segment starts with a four player co-op mission, fighting a wave of mechanized shock troops, as well as hackable artillery walkers. After that, they surprised by showing multiplayer footage, which felt very like titanfall without mechs - there was a lot of wall running to be had and seemed very fast-paced. It looked very polished, though since I'm not a fan of the CoD installments, much of the excitement was lost on me. They also announced that from here on, PS4 users will be the first to play all map packs for Call of Duty, and a beta for Black Ops 3 will appear on PS4 first in August.
Shifting gears to the Star Wars side of things, we have an announcement for Disney Infinity 3.0. Coming this fall, Disney Infinity will add Star Wars characters to their already robust lineup with two new playsets set in the world. Even better, Playstation will get an exclusive starter pack which includes the base, five figurines (Including the exclusive Boba Fett figurine!!!) and the playsets Twilight of the Republic and Rise Against the Empire playsets, all a month before any other platform. It's all exciting stuff, but I've stayed away from games like this solely because the figurine collection aspect seems like an unnecessary money sink for me.
More Star Wars news, we are treated to some Battlefront co-op missions. We see the Survival mission type for the first time, pitting two rebel soldiers against waves of Imperial forces, starting with stormtroopers but including AT-STs and possibly Sith warriors. It looked very exciting and I suddenly began wondering if I wanted to get this one. Playable Offline, split-screen or online, the lack of a campaign still makes me leery. Star Wars Battlefront is slated for a November 17th release.