Sony’s Presence at GamesCom 2009

I visited the first edition of GamesCom in Cologne which, with 245,000 visitors, more than 4,000 journalists and over 450 exhibitors, has already become the world’s largest gaming event. Of course, Sony was also there and I have no doubt that Sony made a lasting impression to many visitors with their presence.

Sony kicked off on Tuesday with a (pre)GamesCom conference, where they announced the new PS3 Slim, the PS3 price cut and content related developments like the European roll out of the PS Video Store and Vidzone, and the Digital reader service for the PSP.

From Wednesday until Sunday, Sony had a giant 1,800 square meters stand in hall 7 of the Cologne Trade Fair center.  The stand was build up like a giant Home Plaza, with banners on all sides that depicted the view when standing on the Home Square of PlayStation Square, and entertainment areas all around this central Plaza. Sony built up their stand in such a way that it would be interesting for both newcomers to the PS3/PSP world and existing fans of the PlayStation  consoles.

There was a very popular Buzz Quiz section where groups of people played Buzz on couches. People sang against and with each other in the SingStar section or raced in the Gran Turismo corner. There were PS3s (much of which were PS3 Slims) and PSP (GO)s everywhere so people could try out games (like White Knight Chronicles, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, and Little Big Planet PSP), watch VidZone, or simply get to know how the XMB-menu works and what multimedia possibilities the PS3 offers.

In a separate section (with a large waiting line to get in), Sony gave visitors the opportunity to try out the latest games, like Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, God of War III and MAG. Except for Uncharted 2, I played the demos of these games, which I will discuss in a second article.

With both the conference on Tuesday and the both giant (far much bigger than those of Microsoft and Nintendo) and well built up stand, to me Sony has shown it takes GamesCom and its European fans seriously. I can’t wait to see what Sony will show us at GamesCom 2010! Here are a few more pictures, with more of which you will see in my next article.