Crystal Ballin': E3 Predictions Part 2 - Sony

So less than a month away and all of us gamers will be drooling over new trailers, screenshots, and news that is to surely ooze out from E3.

Probably the biggest draw of the the show is the conferences held by the major platform holders, and this year definitely will be an interesting one for the Big Three.

Microsoft has to make up ground with core title releases and the Kinect, Sony has to regain lost ground not only with consumers but publishers, and Nintendo is easily poised to steal the show with their new console reveal.

What else might happen though? What news and huge surprises will be announced? That's where I come in. There is some for sure answers and some completely out there guesses going on here but remember, this is my take on what I believe will happen at E3.

And in case you missed it here is Part 1 of our predictions dealing with Microsoft.

Here is the conference schedule and the order in which I will do these posts:

Microsoft: June 6 12PM EST

Sony: June 6 8PM EST

Nintendo: June 7 12PM EST

This time, Sony will be the focus. They started the year off with a bang with titles like LittleBigPlanet 2, Killzone 3, MLB 2011: The Show, and SOCOM 4. Then just the day after SOCOM 4 launced, the PSN went down due to a hacker attack. Almost a month later and we are just now getting restoration of service and even then not complete restoration. 

Will this affect Sony's press conference or will they just attempt to sweep it under the rug and let all their announcements try to overshadow it? My E3 predictions continue after the jump.

So let's get the PSN outage out of the way. Sony HAS to acknowledge it in some sort of way with either an apology or saying how they learned from their experience and improved the service. If they can get that squared away and out of the way early on in the presser, I think people will be more likely to forgive and hope back on the Playstation wagon. 

To be honest, if their presser starts with Kevin Butler addressing everyone to apologize for the inconvenience this has caused developers and consumers, then I know I personally will be happy. Why? If you look at last years E3, everyone said it would be great for Kevin Butler to either host the entire press conference or to at least make and appearance. Guess, what? He did. 

It showed that Sony was actually listening to what people were saying and acted upon it. So for them to do something similar this year would show that they still value us as more than just a consumer handing over money and that they are willing to do whatever it takes to make us happy.

It's kind of sad that a marketing tool apologizing on the behalf of Sony
means more to me than the actual corporate guys doing it.

Now, moving on from that, onto the juicy bits!!!

I'm pretty sure the flow of Sony's presser is going to start off with the PS3, into PSP, and cap it off with the NGP.

Let's get the Playstation Move out of the way. While it has been moderately successful, Sony won't spend a lot of time on this. They'll talk some marketing numbers and pretty much cover all the games that already use it like Killzone 3 and SOCOM 4 and showcase a few new games that will support it, and then move along.

Then they will show off some more Sorcery, the original Move "killer app," and maybe No More Heroes Paradise. What better way to stick it to both Microsoft and Nintendo than showing off a Playstation exclusive game that takes the Wii game and upgrades it for the PS3 and Move?

Next, the rest of their 1st party line-up for the year: Resistance 3, Uncharted 3, Twisted Metal, The Last Guardian (Squee!), and the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection. Maybe a bit of new gameplay with these and they will also talk about Beta access for some of them like Resistance and Uncharted and maybe details on a a Twisted Metal beta.

Let's not forget the recently announced Starhawk as well.

Surprise announcements from Sony will include a God of War Portable Collection and Heavenly Sword 2. God of War Portable Collection has all but been officially announced for North America and the rumors concerning Heavenly Sword 2 (ever since 2008) make it seem pretty likely in the future.

As a side note, I believe that the handheld iterations of God of War are the best of the series, and for Sony to upgrade them and package them together in one sweet set for the PS3 is quite a treat that they are providing us.

Trust me, this game does not disappoint.

You know how Activision and Microsoft are all kinds of buddy buddy with the Call of Duty franchise? Well Sony has EA on their side and guess what EA has coming out to directly compete with Modern Warfare 3? Battlefield 3.  EA will showcase it and probably have some deal where Playstation Plus members will get into the beta this year. If you are not excited about Battlefield 3, then maybe this 12 minute gameplay video might help convince you otherwise.

This is what they showcased at PAX East. Imagine what it looks like now....

As for a completely out of left field guess, I see Hideo Kojima coming onstage and dropping one hell of an announcement. There have been rumors of this circulating for a while but what could it possibly be? Well I got a list!

Things Kojima Could AnnounceThat Would Be Awesome:

- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the PS3.
- A brand new Metal Gear title featuring a new character for PS3.
-  A Metal Gear Solid, any of them, for NGP.
- Another Castlevania for consoles.
- Policenauts reboot/remake.
- Zone of the Enders 3

You know you miss it.

But the company who should have a tremendous presence during Sony's conference is Square-Enix.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Final Fantasy Type 0, Final Fantasy XIV are a scheduled to hit Sony's systems as exclusives (minus PC version of XIV) and they also have Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Hitman: Absolution that are coming to PS3 as multiplatform releases. With the history that these two major companies have had together since the original Playstation, I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled the biggest surprise of the show.

A Kingdom Hearts 3 or a Final Fantasy VII remake announcement would do it. Unfortunately, with Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Kingdom Hearts 3D keeping the producers and directors quite busy, an E3 announcement is highly unlikely.

One can dream.....

Plus, that would completely pull people away from Sony's NGP, the supposed highlight of their conference.

We will get a release window for the system, tech specs, as well as demos of the new games they announced back in January like Uncharted Portable, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, and Call of Duty as well as Hideo Kojima's mystery game.

And a demonstration of how all of this neat stuff works.

Overall, I don't think there will be any huge announcements or surprises when it comes to the NGP. Sony will pretty much use this time to clear up and rumors and further cement the details on their new handheld.

Oh wait, there is that thing with the ACTUAL name of the system.

Well, that's all I got for Sony. Everyone will oooh and aaaah for the NGP, but the big news will be from what games come for the PS3 in the near future. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments.