Tag Archives: eyetoy

PS4 could be bundled with new PlayStation Eye, which VGLeaks notes is called a “Dual Camera”.

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SCE producer Pete Smith has told Eurogamer that a company once pitched using the EyeToy to create a Kama Sutra-type application. “Seriously, this was a genuine pitch,” he said. “Obviously we didn’t sign it and it never ever saw the light of day. But we were going, how exactly would we QA it? You can imagine these two big hairy testers going, ‘No, you’re the bitch tonight’. How would you demo the game to press? In one sense I think, god, I wish it would have been done. We could have maybe got some celebrity endorsements and stuff like that. This guy – I can remember it, I will never forget him – he was like, ‘We want to do this. We think it could be great’. We get all kinds of pitches, but that’s definitely the one that stands out for me.” Takes all sorts, we reckon.

PS3 special projects manager Dr. Richard Marks has been talking up Sony’s new motion controller to PC World.

While the company has yet to make an official announcement for the peripheral, Marks did provide information as to why it’s important that you hold something in your hand.

“We learned that while people definitely enjoy physical interaction and movement, they also want precise control and a simple, fast, reliable way to trigger actions. We designed our new control system to accomplish all of this,” he told the site. “We believe the path we have chosen is an ideal combination of both spatial and action/button input, and of course we can combine that with voice and video data from the PlayStation Eye mic array and camera.

“Having a hand-held controller greatly increases the precision that is possible, since we have designed it specifically for that purpose. The new controller’s high-precision embedded sensors detect the sensitive movements of the hands, and the PlayStation Eye tracks the sphere on the controller to precisely detect the position in real-life 3D space.

“Another huge benefit of having a controller comes from being able to trigger abstract actions with a simple button press. This is very important, because this event triggering capability is complementary to the spatial input provided by the tracking, and some experiences need both.

“No matter how good our visual tracking might become, the feeling you get from actually squeezing something physical is a better simulation than just positioning your finger. This relates to an interface phenomenon I call “somatic gratification”. The feeling of the interaction can be just as important as the effectiveness.

Marks went on to say that Sony is looking into the possibility of incorporating familiar characters and franchises with the peripheral, and while the new controller will be out sometime during spring 2010, further details, along with a name, will be provided an official announcement is made.

Speaking to GI, Sony’s EyeToy devs have questioned the viability of its rivals’ casual titles – including Microsoft’s You’re in the Movies – and casted doubt as to whether the Wii controller is being used to its full potential.

“I think that [with You're In the Movies] they’re probably going to have some technical difficulties to wrestle with,” said EyeToy designer, Sandy Spangler.

“They’re using some technical elements that are not reliable, at least not according to our experience. They’re using background subtraction to put you in the movie, and it’s not very robust, that’s why we haven’t done it in any of our games.

“If the white shifts in the room or something, it can stop working,” he added. “Good luck to them.”

Turning his attention to the Wii-mote, Spangler said, “It’s more intuitive, it’s very clear, as opposed to trying to figure out how to… use the Wii remote in ways that maybe naturally don’t make sense – you wave it a lot to do activities where you wouldn’t be waving in real life.

“Whereas what we always try and do with our games is make a direct correlation between the motion that you’re doing and the action on screen, the effect you’re having on the game.”

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

According to this Rediff story, Sony’s signed deals with 13 developers in India in an effort to produce local PS2 software for both the Indian market and abroad.

In an effort to accelerate the growth of its popular gaming console Playstation 2 in India, Sony Computer Entertainment has tied up with 13 Indian game developers to produce Indian games that could be priced lower than the existing Rs 499 per title.

Atindriya Bose, country manager (Playstation), SCE, said game developers such as Indiagames, Trine, DQ Entertainment, Dhruva will be working with the company to produce games that could be marketed both in local and international markets.

Apparently Sony India’s going to be focussing on EyeToy games, and is looking to get the price of the titles as low as possible. Like, obviously. More through the link.

Last week’s GDC was a strange affair that threw up more questions than answers. While it carried the predicted unveiling of Gears of War 2 and a Microsoft keynote holding traditional big hitters such as Fable 2 and Ninja Gaiden II, the event’s main speech’s message was by no means “the norm”. Yes, the blood, swords and guns were all where they were supposed to be, but at the core of John Sheppard’s keynote was a theme of radical change that permeated the entire conference, and one that left both developers and platform holders alike chewing their nails.

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