Earlier today we announced Sucker Punch Productions has officially joined Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. We’re thrilled to share the news and welcome Sucker Punch to the PlayStation family.

Brian Fleming, managing partner of Sucker Punch Productions had this to say about becoming the sixteenth studio to join PlayStation:

“We’ve enjoyed an incredible relationship with Sony that has allowed us to combine our creative design capabilities with their guidance to make some of the best franchises to hit the PlayStation platforms. Equally important, the relationship with SCE has provided us the flexibility and trust to take creative risks and invent new properties. And best of all, we get to keep doing what we do — pushing ourselves to make more innovative games and more exciting experiences for PlayStation gamers!”

We’ve worked closely with Sucker Punch for more than 12 years, bringing fan favorites like Sly Cooper series and, of course, the inFAMOUS storyline to life on PlayStation platforms. On behalf of our executive team and Worldwide Studios, I’d like to take just a moment to welcome this immensely talented group of individuals to our team. I look forward to seeing what kind of gaming magic we can make happen in the months and years ahead!

This year we showcased one of the strongest software lineups in our history, including many creative and show stopping titles for the upcoming PlayStation Vita, family friendly options for PlayStation Move and an amazing lineup of AAA titles and franchise favorites for PS3. The positive response we received from our community was overwhelming, and the confirmation from E3 judges was very gratifying. In fact, PlayStation hardware and software was nominated for more than 140 awards at E3 this year. Here’s a look at just a few of the accolades we received:

PlayStation Vita

G4TV.com, “Best New Hardware”
GameCritics: “Best Hardware”
Game Informer: “Best Tech”

Journey

Examiner.com: “Best Living Artwork”
GamesBeat/VentureBeat: “Best Games of E3 2011”
G4TV.com: “Best Downloadable”

Sound Shapes

IGN: “Best Music/Rhythm Game”
GameTrailers: “Best Music Game”
GameCritics: “Best Handheld/Mobile Game”

Twisted Metal

Attack of the Fanboy: “Best of E3 PlayStation 3”
PlayStation: The Official Magazine: “Most Valuable Game”
VGChartz: “Best Multiplayer”

UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception

G4TV.com: “Best Action/Adventure Game”
GameTrailers: “Best Multiplayer,” “Best 3D Graphics,” “Best Graphics”
Yahoo! Games: “Best of E3 2011”

UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss

Game Informer: “Best Handheld Game”
E! Online: “Top 10 Games of E3”
Game Trailers: “Best PlayStation Vita Game”

The year ahead will be a memorable one for PlayStation fans everywhere. The introduction of innovative hardware such as PS Vita and the PlayStation 3D Display will set the bar high when it comes to both quality and creativity. PlayStation Vita will provide gamers with the highest definition handheld gaming experiences, delivering new ways to play at home and on-the-go. In addition, the PlayStation 3D Display will offer PS3 users and their friends the ability to face-off with the exclusive two-player mode and provide easy access to all of their favorite 3D entertainment. Developers meanwhile will have more ways than ever to challenge and change the way people play and experience PlayStation games.

We are continuing to work closely with the global community of Worldwide Studios game developers and partners to deliver innovative games and content for the entire family of PlayStation hardware. I’m personally looking forward to all of the great software titles launching in the upcoming months, including Resistance 3, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and Twisted Metal. We’ve got some great new PlayStation Move titles coming as well, including Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest, and Carnival Island. And of course…we’ve got all kinds of great PlayStation Vita titles in the works, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, ModNation Racers, LittleBigPlanet and Sound Shapes. Too much goodness to talk about in one little blog post…

Thanks to all of the great PlayStation fans out there who helped make E3 2011 one to remember!

Thanks,
Scott
Twitter: @RohdeScott

As a preview to our biggest industry conference—E3—we’re conducting a media tour this week featuring early looks at some of this year’s most-anticipated PlayStation 3 titles: inFAMOUS 2, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Resistance 3, Twisted Metal, and UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception. We’re inviting several of our media partners to get a firsthand look at new content and information from each of the titles, and we’ll be sharing what we show them on the PlayStation.Blog starting tonight and throughout the next week.

In fiscal year 2011 alone, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios brought you 50 full game releases across three PlayStation platforms. Our close-knit community of development studios and partners is one of our most valuable assets in developing innovative gameplay that pushes the industry forward.

For example, both Guerilla Games, the team behind the Killzone franchise, and Zipper Interactive, the creators of SOCOM, worked closely together to develop the new PlayStation Move sharp shooter attachment. And with PlayStation 3 being the only gaming console readily capable for high-definition stereoscopic 3D, we’re continuing to see our developers advancing 3D gameplay. This week on the tour, Insomniac Games North Carolina studio will showcase a 3D CG-animated gameplay experience with the first hands-on of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One in 3D. Insomniac Games also recently announced 3D and PlayStation Move support for Resistance 3, and Naughty Dog has blown people away with the fire effects they’ve shown off in their first single-player 3D reveal. And there’s much more to come!

As we head into this week of activity, we just want to thank you for your support throughout the first part of this year and we look forward to giving you many more great games throughout 2011. We always love hearing from our community, so tell us in the comments what PlayStation games you’re most anticipating in the coming months!

It’s no surprise that Naughty Dog’s unique combination of storytelling cinematics, frantic action sequences, challenging traversal and tricky puzzle solving has been recognized across the industry and worldwide. Last evening in Las Vegas, UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves took the Interactive Achievement Awards by storm, grabbing ten awards, the most for any one title. It also won “Overall Game of the Year” for 2009, which is the second time PlayStation has been awarded this coveted honor by the academy. UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves has also garnered more than 150 other industry awards, has over 1.5 million online users worldwide, and has surpassed 3.5 million copies sold worldwide – the fastest selling first-party title for PlayStation. Not to mention, it’s established a new standard for games developed on the PS3 platform.

We’re incredibly excited to see all of the continued innovations and platform-defining games that will come from the creative minds at Naughty Dog. Giving consumers a reason to be excited about video games is our “make.believe” promise and we’re thrilled to have Naughty Dog to help us make this a reality. With that, I’d like to share with you Christophe’s “make.believe” story from his point of view:

We are starting NOW with inFAMOUS, the incredible new open world action title from Sucker Punch that hit store shelves last week, MAG – the first and only 256 player FPS coming out of our Zipper studio, UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves, the latest epic creation from the brilliant, creative minds at Naughty Dog, and Ratchet and Clank Future 2: A Crack in Time, another exciting chapter in the Ratchet series from our long-time partners at Insomniac… and the list goes on.

Our team invests the time and dollars to bring you a diverse library of games, games which our competitors might find too risky to take a chance on. Make sure to check the news from the press conference to see and hear a little more about Worldwide Studios future vision. We showed an incredible 14 disc based first party games today that you simply will not find on another system.

For example, I’m excited to announce the debut of the next big thing in the Play, Create, Share genre – ModNation Racers. This game joins LittleBigPlanet as another truly innovative title in a genre that continues to be defined by Sony. In ModNation Racers, the players can design their own karts, drivers and tracks with an intuitive, yet amazingly deep set of tools. In fact, the tools are so deep, the developer, United Front Games, is using the tools to build the entire game! We will have a lot more to share on ModNation Racers, so stay tuned.

I’m incredibly excited about the SCE first party exclusive lineup over the next 6-12 months, and I’m only scratching the surface in this quick post. To whet your appetite, take a look at the new UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves.

Be sure to check back for details during and after E3 for more updates.