Whoever is running Sony’s PR these days is certainly on the ball, gone are the days of bizarre adverts featuring circus clowns. In a PSMove (aha!) entirely unrelated to the launch of Kinect, Sony have released a video celebrating the PS2 camera EyeToy. You know, the one that was out years ago which did full body tracking.
I’m sure the timing of this video is entirely coincendental and not related to the Kinect launch at all. Lets hear what Senior researcher and creatore of EyeToy, Richard Marks has to say:
‘We really wanted to explore new gaming possibilities so we tried different things where you use your body in different ways – some things using your head, some using your hands, ‘ he said.
As I said, the timing of this video is entirely coincedental.
‘It seemed that we kept running into kind of a limit to the kind of game experiences you could do with just your body.We had some really fun things you could do but they tended to be shallow and kind of mini-game like’ continues Richard.
Just a fluke Sony launched this video today, honest.
‘With EyeToy we had the ability to select buttons with just your hands and that was kind of neat and magical, but actually got kind of tiresome.,’
Coincedence. Pure coincedence.
‘What we discovered was that people liked some of the demos we had where you actually held something in your hand as it was tracking that more precisely. These experiences gave us more gameplay opportunities.’
Richard Marks are you trying to suggest body tracking system limits the types of games you can make?
‘The biggest advantages we get with PlayStation Move is that it can be tracked very precisely. Unlike trying to track somebody’s body – everyone’s body is a little bit different – the Move is exactly the same in every way. It also works in the dark perfectly, and we’ve got sensors inside the move that gives us more precision.’
Source: US PS Blog
Grey_Ghost13
Sony’s PR guys do seem to be a new bunch that seem to be on the same wave length as quite a few of us, immature, jouvenile and up for a laugh!
I know it’s hard to compare the tech of the PS2 Eyetoy to MS Kinect, but I don’t think thats the point of the video. It’s more that Sony believe the concept of full body motion capture is not as fun as using a controller like move. Which I agree with.
Nice writting Tuffcub by the way.
cc_star
I freakin’ LOVE Richard Marks tech demos, I hope they find their way on to the PSN Store, even so I can just play around – at the moment I use Tumble for this, but doing some of the other stuff he does would be great… So if you’re listening Sony – release ’em!
billsmugs
I completely agree, Sony could make some good money by charging a couple of quid for a bundle of tech demos, and other studios could get in on the act too (eg the DMM and Euphoria demos that were shown around the launch of the first Force Unleashed game)
This reminds me of an idea I had once of a game that consists of a load of Euphoria enabled people walking around a landscape with some cliffs and barriers etc, where you lock onto a person and poke them with the Move controller, or send them flying into each other. Its pretty juvenile, but I’d happily pay £2 for it and it wouldn’t cost much to make!
If they are worried about people not understanding that they may not be as stable as an actual game, they could put them in a separte section of the store, with some kind of disclaimer before you access it.
jimmy-google
I have about 4 EyeToys at home. We used them at youth clubs and they were increaibly popular (as was Singstar). No other games had the popularity but we did need a new game almost every time we used it. There just wasn’t enough depth for the kids to keep go back to it.
Evntually Fifa, Nightfire and Buzz took over as we ran out of games.
The benefit for us was that we could get a ps2 for £100 and the games were under £30 with a camera (or under £10 second hand).
They still get the odd run out on the ps3 when friends come round (though they mainly want to play buzz now).
Kevling
Psst, Tuffcub, it’s “coincidence” and “coincidental” ;)
Yahavage
Haha love this xD
lukieboy1981
Nice one Sony ;-)
fps_d0minat0r
it is kinda true. kinect is a limiting factor to what the xbox can do without it and its a shame microsoft spent so much on it rather than improve the quality of titles people were looking forward to more than kinect e.g. crackdown 2 and alan wake.
stylishkev1
He makes a good point, I had the eyetoy, and it did get a bit boring after a while, maybe adding to existing tech with the Move is a good strategy from Sony.
Loving the sly dig.
doswillrule
Sony can hardly talk about plagiarism after the SIXAXIS debacle…
gazzagb
I have very fond memories of my Eye-toy, it was great fun, but go too tiring after 20mins or so.