I stayed up late last night to see Kaz Hirai's keynote at TGS. Unfortunately the good folks at Gamespot were, for some reason, unable to bring us a video feed of the event. Luckily there was a live blogging session so my wait wasn't in vain. Or was it?

Kaz is quick to talk numbers. The Playstation 2 has been an unparalleled success and is still going strong. The Playstation Portable is soon to reach another milestone in sales, reaffirming its second place in the market for handhelds. Their handheld is also set to be released in a few new colors and Sony also has a couple of new peripherals in the works.

What is interesting is that Sony is really stepping up the functionality of their portable device. Kaz recognizes the need for more multimedia functionality like e-mail and television. The show goes on to demonstrate the new Remote Play feature which seems to be a neat addition if it really works as well as the guys from Sony make it seem. The big problem is of course one of connectivity. The big cities of Japan are known to have a good wireless coverage with plenty of WiFi hotspots. As I have found out first hand, this is not the case in the United States, and it's certainly not the case in most of Europe. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this one turns out.

Perhaps the biggest development when it comes to the PSP is the announcement that soon users will be able to access the Playstation store on their PCs to buy games for and transfer them to their PSPs without the need fora Playstation 3. I'm really excited for this feature because I have yet to shell out the cash to buy a Playstation 3--it's frickin' eighthundred and forty dollars here in Europe.

But where are the games? ... Anyone? The Playstation Portable is in desperate need of some really strong titles. Even though there are some gems to be found on the system, the better part of the PSP library is still made up of ports (which are often even stripped down version of the originals). The PSP is proving to be a very flexible system, which is good, but it seems Sony is trying to shift the focus away from what the core business of the PSP should be: games.

So what about the Playstation 3? Kaz begins by apologizing for the fact that Sony was unable to do a worldwide launch of the PS3. Wow! I was actually shocked. Anyway, some forty games are supposedly on the show floor. Good. Sony really needs to step up when it comes to games on their flagship machine. No matter how versatile their console is, no matter how advanced the technology is, the damn thing needs games to be able to compete with Microsoft and Nintendo. Also, Sony has to start making good on the promise that their technology is indeed more advanced than the competition. So far we have yet to see a game that really distinguishes the PS3 from the competition. Oh and no, I don't think that game is Afrika.

The Dual Shock 3 is official. Yay! No really, I am excited. A lot of people seem to downplay the importance, but it signifies one important thing: Sony is finally, at the very least, giving the impression that it is listening to its (potential) customers. I consider that rather big. It is also big because Sony once said something along the lines of "force feedback is last-gen". I guess the users disagreed. More to the point, like many people, I have played some games on this Playstation 3 and I really feel that something is missing in the experience. I really do believe that a feedback functionality like rumble is integral to modern game experience. I think it is a mistake that Sony opted to go for the current Sixaxis controller. A mistake that is now corrected.

Home is delayed until spring 2008. Wait, what? This Home stuff is supposed to be one of the more important "features" of the Playstation experience right? One would think that, to boost sales this holiday season, it is of prime importance for Sony to make this work this fall. I commend Sony for trying to make the experience as good as possible, but there are two ways to do it: you can delay the product and use the extra time to do the necessary work, or you could significantly increase resources on this project to achieve the same thing. Of course, the latter solution will cost more, but I really believe this time is crucial for Sony to make their move. They didn't shine at E3 (granted, they did a lot better than last year), they didn't shine at Leipzig so what are you doing, Sony?

Kaz took the stage after Ken Kutaragi, the father of Playstation, was made responsible for being unable to bring succes to the Playstation 3. But is Kaz Hirai fairing any better? I don't know. At the moment I am not impressed. The last couple of press conferences were solid, but ultimately nothing special. There is no price cut, there is no 40GB model, there are not that many major exclusives. Kaz says Sony should get back to basics and I agree. But I guess we don't agree on what the basics actually are. To me, it's about the games, what do you think?