Visit to PlayStation Headquarters

Gina von Esmarch http://www.bowllicker.com

Beth Blecherman http://www.techmamas.com

Christy Matte http://quirkyfusion.com

Elise Crane Derby http://elisesramblings.blogspot.com/

Glennia Campbell  http://glenniacampbell.typepad.com

Grace Duffy http://formerlygracie.com

Heidi Leder http://www.coast2coastmom.com/

Lori Cunningham http://WellConnectedMom.com

Leticia Barr http://www.techsavvymama.com/

Stacy Libby http://ltvmom.com

Michele McGraw http://scraposfmygeeklife.com

MJ Tam http://chicagonista.com/

Sarah Auerswald http://www.SarahAuerswald.com

Yvonne Condes http://yvonneinla.blogspot.com

Demonstrating Sony’s commitment to families, Sony Entertainment President and CEO Jack Tretton himself, addressed our new PlayStation Family group.  Tretton is a family man himself with kids ages 20, 16, and 13, all of which grew up in a gaming family household.  He talked to us about the compelling reasons why PlayStation is the family entertainment unit for the family room.  More on this later.

Playstation’s commitment to families didn’t stop at the CEO.  Their Senior Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, Director of Corporate Communications, Director of Hardware Marketing and Director of Software Marketing addressed us as well.

We were most excited to hear from John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing, as he introduced to us Sony’s new upcoming PSVita – the ultimate in handheld gaming.

The highly touted PS Vita launches February 22, 2012.  It comes in a WiFi version for $249 and a 3G version with subscription plan with AT&T (price not yet specified).  The current PSP will continue to sell at $129 and be fully supported.

I was truly surprised how lightweight the PSVita is.  It fits very comfortably in your hands and the graphics are stunning.  I have not seen such realistic graphics in a gaming handheld before.  Sony credits the high-definition like graphics to the OLED screen.

After a morning of insightful meetings and a tour of some of the facilities, it was time to get our game on.  PlayStation had set up a room full of PlayStation 3 gaming stations to try out some of their newest games including Carnival Island, Medieval Moves, Everybody Dance, Ratchet & Clank All 4 One, Uncharted 3:  Drake’s Deception.  Every one of them was a lot of fun.  I have played Ratchet & Clank quite a bit at home and love it.  Uncharted 3 is the most realistic video game I have ever seen.  And Carnival Island?  It’s all about the midway games and it’s so realistic using the Move controllers.  I could have played all day, but it was time to move on to dinner.

The end of a fun day resulted in a fun night at Cha Cha Cha Cuba in San Mateo.  We had a plethora of appetizers and there was plenty of sangria on hand.  It was a lot of fun being with like-minded tech moms.  We all like to game, we are all over-connected (is there such a thing???), and know how to “pass notes” in class through our tweets, instant messaging, and yes, even Skype…as one end of our long conference table called the other end to see how the meeting was going for them!

Expect to see a lot more on the PlayStation 3, PSVita, and upcoming games as the PlayStation Family continues to evolve. As I learn more about using the PlayStation 3, I will share my insight and favorite family games.