ony started the Tokyo Game Show festivities this morning with a keynote presentation from Sony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai. The overall tone was almost apologetic, with numerous references to how the company plans to try harder to give consumers and developers more of what they want. The company made several new announcements during the 45-minute long presentation, including the official announcement of a rumble-enhanced Sixaxis controller and some demonstrations of new PSP/PS3 connectivity. Overall, it was a good overview of how the company plans to get further ahead in the game industry, though it was a pretty safe event.

Hirai began by talking about the success of the PlayStation platform since its launch in 1994. From that year to now, the company went from having no presence in the game-hardware business to amassing more than 250 million hardware sales worldwide. Hirai said that, going forward, the company has plans to make even more contributions to the entire industry. At the core of this strategy is a desire to create more interesting games and interesting entertainment, while continuing to innovate.

From there, Hirai went into a brief overview of the PlayStation brand, with an emphasis on the success of the PlayStation 2. Hirai said that it reached the 100 million sales mark in six years, whereas it took 11 years for the original PlayStation to hit that number. He added that the system still has plenty of life left in it, too, which isn’t that shocking—who wouldn’t want to keep those millions of users happy?

Next, the PlayStation Portable was brought into the spotlight. The announcements from last month’s Leipzig Games Convention were reiterated, including the system’s new Go!Messenger and media-download partnership with Sky TV in Europe. He also announced the new 1 SEG TV Tuner for the PSP, which will allow users to watch their favorite shows while on the go, in realtime. Well, it will allow users in Japan to watch their favorite shows—nothing was said about the possibility of it coming to the U.S.

All that talk about multimedia almost made us forgot about one thing—the games. The PSP is certainly a capable gaming machine, and Sony is expanding those capabilities even further. A slide popped up showing the recent PS3 release Lair being played on a PSP. Enterprising players in the U.S. had already figured out that was possible a few weeks ago, but it was interesting to see official confirmation about it.

Next, the head of planning at Sony Entertainment took over temporarily, and showed off further features of the PSP and PS3 connectivity. Using a PSP, he was able to turn on a remote PlayStation 3 console remotely and browse the system. So we could see what he was doing, he connected the PSP to the conference room’s screen using the PSP Lite’s new video out capabilities. Even blown up to gargantuan proportions, the display was bright and surprisingly crisp. Score one for Sony. When he was done, he turned off the PS3 remotely, too. He didn’t show off actual gameplay, but a slide did show Gran Turismo: Prologue and Everybody’s Golf being played on the PSP.

Hirai took over again, and said that remote play was the future of the PlayStation platform. As an example, a graphic showed a soccer game being played on a PS3 through PSP remote play, as other PS3s were able to view the action elsewhere.

After boasting about past successes and new functionality, Hirai’s presentation turned to a more introspective tone. He said the company has admitted that the PS3 hasn’t enjoyed the leap in sales that the company projected, and they started looking at why this was the case. Eventually, they decided that the company had shifted too much focus on the nongame aspects of the hardware, and not enough time showing off what the system was capable in actual gameplay terms. While it was obvious the company still is putting a major emphasis on these nongame features, they want to clarify that the platform is for games. He added that there are 40 games at various stages in development that can be played at the PlayStation booth in the convention hall. Excellent.

That said, he showed off a quick video montage featuring highlights from the PlayStation 3 lineup. A surprising number of them have already been released in the states—it was strange to see titles such as Afrika and Final Fantasty XIII crammed next to things like Spider-Man 3 and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Hirai next outlined a four-pronged approach the company was taking to change the course of the PlayStation 3 platform.

First, he said Sony was going to further build relationships with licensees. As an example, he cited the limited edition PSP Lite that Sony released last week in conjunction with Square Enix. There will also be periodic meetings of an advisory board, where developers can voice their concerns and complaints in a forum where changes can be made. The company will also be sharing more assets and know-how with developers, which will be a boon to those who have had a hard time developing software for the PS3.

Next, Sony plans to strengthen its first-party titles. A major part of this plan was the purchase of Evolution Studios and its offshoot, Big Big Studios. Evolution is best known for its World Rally Championship game and Motorstorm.

Another obstacle has been the overall pricing of Sony’s hardware, which Hirai says will see  further cuts. He didn’t specify how much those cuts would be or when we might expect to see them, though.