Sony Sees 20 Stereoscopic 3D Games for PS3 by March

There will be 20 stereoscopic 3D games available for PS3 by next March, Kaz Hirai, CEO of the company’s Networked Products and Services group, said Tuesday at the company’s E3 news conference. They will include Sony’s Killzone 3, shipping in February, that also makes use of Sony’s new PlayStation Move motion control system.

Video footage from Killzone 3 in 3D was shown at the news conference. Other Sony 3D games to be offered for the PS3 include racing title Gran Turismo 3, EyePet and the latest MLB baseball game. Also available in 3D will be the third-party titles Crysis 2 from Electronic Arts, a Mortal Kombat title from Warner, NBA 2K11 from Take-Two Interactive, Tron Evolution from Disney and Shaun White Skateboarding and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier from Ubisoft. Several will also support PlayStation Move. More than 35 million PS3 consoles are now capable of handling stereoscopic 3D, Hirai said.

Move will launch Sept. 15 in Europe, Sept. 19 in North America and Oct. 21 in Japan, Sony said. The wand alone will cost $49.99, the navigation controller another $29.99. A bundle including a game and peripherals along with the existing PlayStation Eye camera will cost $99.99. The bundle rises to $399.99 with the addition of a PS3 console. Move games will cost $39.99 each. More than 40 Move games will be available by holiday season. Buttons on a controller are “crucial to precision,” Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing and PlayStation Network at Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in a swipe at the controller-free Kinect for Xbox 360 motion control system from Microsoft. Almost 40 developers signed on to make Move games since the Game Developers Conference early this year. Sony plans a cross-promotion with Coke in which 130 million packages of soda will advertise Move. It’s one of the biggest brand promotions SCEA has ever done, the company said.

PlayStation Network globally now has more than 50 million registered users, said Jack Tretton, CEO at SCEA. The service will remain free but the company is introducing the PlayStation Plus pay service later this month offering added features for a fee -- similar to the existing Xbox Live Gold membership for Xbox 360.

Free content for members will include full downloadable PlayStation Network games. A year’s subscription will cost $49.99, while three-month packages will be available at $17.99. Sony will offer three-month free trials.

Sony just passed the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year sales growth on the PS3, Tretton said. There’s also a major new PSP ad campaign kicking off later this week. More than 70 new PSP games will be out by the holiday. PS2 sales are still strong, Tretton said. About 7.3 million of them sold last year globally, and Sony expects “another strong year” for PS2 in North America and continued expansion in Latin America, he said.