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Sony hosted their show in the evening of 6 June 2011, hours after Microsoft’s tepid presentation. The company behind PlayStation had a much more exciting lineup, including the formal North American introduction of PlayStation Vita, the PlayStation Portable’s successor. Hit the jump for details and impressions from Sony’s E3 2011 press conference.

After beginning their conference with a montage of games available on PlayStation systems, Sony Computer Entertainment of America President and CEO Jack Tretton addressed the elephant in the room—the PlayStation Network outage of the past few months. Tretton was flippant, almost arrogant about the issue at first, jokingly saying “You’re welcome” to the journalists present for giving them “controversy and bad news”, something that apparently every editor craves. He then thanked third-party publishers—the ones caught in the crossfire and most affected by this attack, losing millions of dollars in revenue—for their support, as well as retailers for giving them shelf space at a time when the PlayStation brand was worthless online.

He then apologized to consumers, on behalf of himself and the company, for any anxiety that may have been caused. It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Sony Consumer Products & Services Group President Hirai Kazuo’s deep and continuous bowing a few weeks ago, but the rest of the conference did make up for it. Addressing people who jumped the PlayStation ship and people who had “never been part of the Sony family”, he began to show what the PlayStation brand was all about, announcing that the PlayStation 3 was the leading NetFlix device and that they were part of a new partnership with CinemaNow. PS3’s value today is apparently exponentially greater than it was a few years ago, even though it lost PS2 backwards compatibility and Linux support, but that’s a topic for another day.

Tretton shifted the focus to PlayStation-exclusive games, introducing the co-presidents of Naughty Dog, Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra. They presented the third installment in the Uncharted series, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. In a live demo, protagonist Nathan Drake was moving around in a rocking ship in a storm. It looked amazing, with dynamic lighting and objects in the ship rolling around. Near the end of the demo Drake threw a grenade inside the cargo hold of the ship, causing a massive flood and the ship to turn on its side—and the perspective changed accordingly. With a solid campaign, impressive graphics that support 3D, and a new multiplayer mode, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception launches later this year exclusively for the PS3, with a multiplayer beta beginning 28 June.

Next up was Marcus Smith of Insomniac Games, who showed off Resistance 3. Set in 1957, the game will be a cross-country battle against the Chimera, as protagonist Joseph Capelli travels from Oklahoma to New York. The game looks pretty good, if the colors are a bit drab. Resistance 3 launches in September, with 3D and PlayStation Move support. A “Doomsday Edition” bundle was announced as well, including the game itself, a complete Move and navigation controller set, and a Sharpshooter Move accessory, all for USD 150.

Jack Tretton came back onstage to announce God of War Origins, a PS3 remaster of two PlayStation Portable titles, God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta. When he announced The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection, the PS3 remaster of two of the PlayStation 2’s best games, the audience reacted appropriately. Both titles will launch in September and be fully playable 3D.

Speaking of 3D, Tretton addressed the high price barrier preventing many consumers from making jump to 3D on consoles. As such, he announced a PlayStation-branded 3D 24-inch 3D display, designed for dorm rooms and bedrooms. The display uses 3D active glasses in a unique way—two players can play on the same screen, and depending on the settings on their glasses, will be able to see two different screens. It’s a pretty ingenious concept (even though the feature theoretically isn’t exclusive to the display, just the glasses) and will change how the concept of split-screen is viewed. Best of all, the display, which comes in a bundle with Resistance 3, a pair of 3D glasses, and a six-foot HDMI cable, will retail for USD 499, with additional glasses at USD 70.

With Sony pushing 3D gaming with glasses so aggressively, even belittling autostereoscopic technology like what Nintendo is doing with the 3DS, it’s great to see them taking actual steps to make it happen. Even if this new display isn’t too successful in the market, hopefully it will usher in a wave of affordable 3D equipment. The added functionality was what stirred up the audience as well—two people looking at the same screen but seeing different content. After a shaky start, this part year has been great for PlayStation, and we'll see what else Sony is doing with the PlayStation brand in the next part of our coverage.

Sony E3 2011 Press Conference Coverage:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Images courtesy of Sony's live stream of the conference.