Rounding out the quartet of press conferences on Monday, in elaborate fashion, was Sony, whose obvious focus was the advancement of its 3D campaign and the introduction of its new handheld.

Before Jack Tretton graced the stage, a sizzle reel ran, highlighting the best and newest games on Sony’s platforms. Once the man came out, he was quick to address the elephant in the room: the notorious and recent troubles of the PSN. While somewhat apologetic, he segued the moment into an appraisal of the continued quality of the Sony brand, its systems, and its network.

From there, he introduced a new PlayStation media partner: CinemaNow, a service providing TV and movies, which will be available for free to PSN users.

Starting off the games portion of the show was one of Sony’s show-stoppers, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. The gameplay demo shown featured Nathan Drake stumbling around what appeared to be some sort of dank, decrepit cruise ship. Moving cautiously and with the steps of a drunken sailor, he makes his way into the bowels of the ship, silently taking down enemies in his typical style along the way. Of course, plans go awry and Drake finds himself in a fire fight, which leads to a massive, water-welcoming hole appearing in the ship’s hull. He barely makes it out as the interior fills with water and the ship goes sideways. After the demo, multiplayer specifics (the beta starts June 28) and a release date (November 1, 2011) were discussed.

Following up Uncharted was the second Insomniac Games title of the day: Resistance 3, the presumably final chapter in the alternate history war epic. Taking place five years after the events of Resistance 2, R3 concerns the actions of the Remnants, a band of humans fighting against the extinction of their species at the hands of the Chimera. The demo’s events took place in St. Louis, as the player attempts to retrieve a power core while a giant monster–a trend for Resistance now, it seems–wreaks havoc on the city. Following the demonstration, a Sharp Shooter bundle–containing Resistance 3, a Sharp Shooter peripheral, a Move controller and Navigation controller, and a PlayStation Eye–was announced. It will retail for $150.

To confirm its dedication to 3D, Sony continued by talking about two 3D collections coming to PS3: the God of War Origins Collection–which will contain the two PSP GoW games–and the HD Ico and Shadow of the Colossus collection, both of which will release in September.

In addition, Sony will personally be rolling out several complementary pieces of hardware. Firstly, a PlayStation-branded 24-inch 3D display, with the ability to allow two players wearing 3D glasses to each see a unique image–essentially eliminating the hassle of splitting the screen to allow for two images in co-op. Though the glasses can be bought separately for $69.99 per pair, a bundle containing glasses, Resistance 3, an HDMI cable and the display will be available for $499.99.

After the 3D segment, the transition was made to Move. First up was NBA 2K12. The game’s Move functionality, as demonstrated, allows players to target on-screen athletes for certain actions using the Move reticule before using button presses to execute those actions (passing and stealing were specifically highlighted). NBA star Kobe Bryant was brought out to help demonstrate. And, you know, for panache. Following this was a demonstration of a Move-controlled, first-person action game from the developers of Sports Champions. Titled Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest, it features a skeleton as the main character and a multitude of first-person, Move-related gameplay mechanics.

In a short interlude of sorts, a sizzle reel of inFamous 2–featuring demonstrations aplenty of Cole’s powers–played. Afterwards, it was announced that the creation of user-generated content would be made possible by using the Move. The transition to LittleBigPlanet 2 was made, and it was announced that “deeper” Move integration would be added in September of this year, including the ability to create levels with and for the Move technology itself.

A brief trailer for Starhawk, the sequel to Warhawk, ran next, featuring an assortment of land, air, and space combat scenes. The game, described as a “run-and-gun third-person shooter”, is set to release in early 2012.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time’s trailer–featuring Sly’s occasional enemy and reoccurring character in the series, Dmitri the chameleon, posing as the raccoon bandit–ran next, revealing a 2012 date of release.

A trailer and brief explanation for Dusk 514 followed. The game, a persistent first-person shooter which will connect directly to the PC MMO EVE Online (in yet unexplained ways), will feature Move and PlayStation Vita support. Exclusively on PSN, the game will see a beta later this year, with a release slated for 2012.

Ken Levine took the stage next, bringing with him a short gameplay trailer for BioShock Infinite. He went on to explain the change of heart he experienced concerning motion controls (the PlayStation Move, more specifically and conveniently). In a conversation with Sony, he was told that the point of Move implementation didn’t have to be dumbing things down to make it palatable to everyone, but presenting the option to invite less-experienced players into the BioShock world: “What we’re talking about is removing this barrier of entry.” No specifics were discussed or shown, though a BioShock project was hinted at for the PSV.

In conjunction with Levine’s announcement, Sony revealed that customers who purchased Infinite on PS3 would receive the original BioShock on the very same blu-ray disc as a PlayStation exclusive. This segued into a slew of other PS exclusivity announcements, including:

• • The Star Trek game slated for release next year–in parallel with the new film in the series–will receive Move support on PS3, as well as an exclusive prequel game for download on PSN.
  • An exclusive slope for the upcoming SSX: Mt. Fuji.
  • An extra Blu-ray disc with the purchase of Need for Speed: The Run, containing several supercars.
  • The inclusion of Battlefield 1943 on the Blu-ray disc of Battlefield 3 .
  • An exclusive mode in the upcoming Saints Row: The Third.

Following their semi-haughty exclusive binge, Sony briefly mentioned PlayStation Suite, an upcoming software framework designed to provide downloadable PlayStation content to other devices. It is set to release later this year.

In an even briefer fashion, Sony acknowledged, that, yes, the PSP still exists, and that they “continue to have very high expectations of the PSP for years to come.” Of course, the PSP became inconsequential as soon as the talk shifted to the expected  reveal of the PlayStation Vita (PSV), the newest hardware-heavy portable gaming solution from Sony.  Two SKUs were announced: A WiFi-only model for $249.99, and a WiFi + 3G (courtesy of everyone’s favorite provider, AT&T) model for $299.99. Demonstrations and trailers followed for:

• Uncharted: Golden Abyss (lots of optional touching and tilting)
• Ruin (a “social action-RPG” which will support PS3 cloud save tech)
• ModNation Racers (emphasis on PSV-based track creation, as well as the ability to draw in user-created content from the PS3 MNR)
• LittleBigPlanet (supporting in-game touch and tilt functionality, as well as picture taking, the creation tools from LittleBigPlanet 2, and the ability to share costumes from the PS3)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (featuring Yoshinori Ono presenting live gameplay and the inclusion of Cole from inFamous as a playable character)

A PSV highlight reel followed, including upcoming games such as Wipeout, LittleBigPlanet, a billiards game, ModNation Racers, Super Stardust, Hot Shots Golf, Sound Shapes, and Virtua Tennis. Finally it was announced that the PSV would release during the holiday season this year.

Whew!

Finally, we have Nintendo. Join us as we liveblog our way through!