With E3 upon us in the coming weeks, and Sony keeping tight lipped about their schedule I think it’s time we started predicting the outcome, the announcements and surprises with educated and industry sector knowledge.

Sony have always dropped bombs at E3 with most of their biggest announcements being at this show. They have also shown a trend to release things within 24 hours of the announcement such as the video store which was released the very same night they enlighten us all.

With a lot new technology in the mix such as motion controls and 3D video games it will be a very dynamic press presentation. Like previous events it will most certainly be kitted out with the latest Sony tech, previous events have seen mega giant screens and a video wall made of hundreds of Sony Bravia TV’s. Following this trend I would like to see an array of 3D TV’s used for presentation – this is unlikely however as the Sony 3D TV’s are still a way of the market a more likely scenario is a range of their net TV’s in use, which leads nicely into my first prediction.

Social Networking

With Facebook and Twitter being added to PS3 games and the ability for the PS3 system to post updates about what you have purchased I would expect Sony to push this further especially since it ties in with their new Internet enabled TV’s.

I would expect these to be used as part of a large video wall, but with a few dedicated to live Twitter remarks maybe? However, since Sony is developing more and more Bravia apps for their TV’s I think Sony’s way forward with social networking is to blend these app’s into the PS3 for added functionality and consolidation – moreover these could easily be re-jigged for the PSP.

It is likely that an XMB update will occur and more of these features will be included, or at least the existing tools will be enhanced.

With Sony continuing to work closely with Google we may start seeing more location based services, or more enhancements to the Life With Playstation software. YouTube integration already seen in some games maybe enhanced also.

Unlikely to happen is for Twitter updates and Facebook chat to be built into the XMB, however not impossible since Facebook recently allowed this type of protocol transfer.

Games

With a strong first party lineup expect to hear some details about:

• Killzone 3
• Uncharted 3
• DC Universe Online
• Final Fantasy 13 Versus
• Final Fantasy 14 Online
• Gran Turismo 5 (and Gran Turismo TV)
• Media Molecule Sequel

Expect to see actual live footage of:

• Socom 4 (with motion controls)
• The Last Guardian
• inFamous 2
• The Agency

The way out there choices could be some old school reinvention

• Destruction Derby
• Lunar for PS3
• G-Police
• Poy Poy Online
• maybe even a space Sim such as Colony Wars

Are all vague possiblities however I would expect to see some well founded games in 3D

• Wipeout 3D (Wipeout Rush)
• Gran Turismo 5
• Uncharted 2 (already has a depth engine built in)

You can also be guaranteed to see many Move titles

• Generic Party Games
• Motion Fighter
• Resident Evil 5
• Little Big Planet Add-On

But since the motion controllers have triggers and they can be held up to the screen for one-to-one tracking, using two could nicely replicate a paddle shift gear box…

Sales and Number

Sony always like to start with sales and numbers to get this out of the way, so expect a lot of this at the start with pretty bar graphs and 3D modelled Playstations. However I would expect price reductions in the developer SDK’s for the 3D engine as it’s expensive at the moment.

Kept Quiet

The move system using the eye camera supports directional audio capture, and the move controllers work in the XMB according to the SDK documents when you enable debugging – however this has never been mentioned, why?

Do Sony plan to allow for some sort of minority report type interface with voice cue’s, or move supported applications – move browser anyone?

Would be nice, be still not likely

We all want cross-game voice chat, will we ever get it, most likely not. If we do it will be in the form of Skype.

Mobile phone support over blue-tooth would also be beneficial but even if Sony did bother with this it would most likely only work with Sony Ericsson phones.

Background patching, not likely due to limitations of memory when playing games, even with the recent increase.

Premium Service

With issues surrounding wallets on the PSN it is likely that Sony are getting ready for a premium service – maybe even with premium streaming TV channels…

All in all it will be a very interesting E3!