According to 3XG, the PS3 might be home to a 3D version of the Eyetoy. Citing a ‘reliable source’, the website claims that somebody at Sony London has “witnessed end-to-end user testing of 3D Eye chat” which would, if true, bring 3D video communication “into the living room.”
Interestingly, PlayStation Move doesn’t require an update to the existing, 2D Eyetoy but one can only wonder what would happen if the ‘3D’ Eyetoy came into fruition and what differences it might bring other than the ability to run up to the screen to scare whoever you’re talking to half to death.
Moreover, it would certainly rattle a few cages at Microsoft, and a dual camera Eyetoy might well give PlayStation 3 owners another reason to be interested.
3shirts
Sounds cool. I imagine it’s a long way off but it would seem a logical step if 3D TVs take off
Danza Di Fuoco
That would be cool
cc_star
Just trying to work out if its simply adding a 3D effect to Eyechat or an actual 3D camera
If it’s a 3D camera then it would be cool to have a range fun mini-games and not have the need for a controller, saving that for more complicated gaming experiences.
Jas-n
I’d presume it’s a whole new, dual lens camera,
Plus I doubt it’d be as large and slow (read: lag) as Natal is… but we’ll see later on, sort of puts me off getting move until it’s confirmed of denied, no point getting a PSEye, then the 3D version comes out.
Jas-n
would be great for 3D photo’s too, would be better quality (presumably) than the 3DS although… not portable.
Pete_UK
The cameras in Kinect have an FPS of 30, which is half the reason for the lag. If an all-seeing-eyetoy was released it’d have at least two of the existing 60fps cameras; through some jiggerypokery these could be vsynched and bingo – 60fps 3d video chat in your livingroom!
Cadabena
Would it just be a couple of PS Eyes next to each other? Seems the most sensible, cheapest and easiest way to go about it.
Cadabena
Though it just occurred to me, cutting the 4 USB ports to 2 means Slim/40gb/80gb owners wouldn’t have any spare ports… so maybe two PS Eyes isn’t how they’d go about it.
jimmy-google
Maybe they could release an EyeToy which contained a USB hub.
jimmy-google
This sounds like something Sony would work on as a reaction to MS’s E3 2009 announcement of Natal (now Kinect).
Maybe they’ll save it for TGS or Gamescom just before MS release Kinect to spoil their party.
Deathbrin
Eyetoy? You mean PlayStation Eye? Or Eyetoy being resurrected? I’m a bit confused.
X201
Well said.
It gets my goat as well when people get the name of it wrong.
DrNate86
I don’t understand this, 3D whatnow? How would a 3D eye be different? Is Natal 3D?
Deathbrin
Well if you have a 3DTV, and someone has a 3D Eye-something, you could see him or her, or him and her through the video chat in 3D on your 3DTV.
DrNate86
I got that bit, what I don’t understand is how it would affect the games? Are you getting any benefit from upgrading to 3D eye?
Deathbrin
The quote is only about some “3D Chat”… Nothing on games so far, i guess.
Uhyve
I guess it would just mean that all Kinect and all Wii games would be able to be ported to the PS3… which would be quite funny.
Apnomis
I can’t see this for the current generation – if you were going to relaunch the Eye you would do so in conjunction with the marketing push for Move. Yes existing Eye owners would be a little bit miffed, but I doubt there are that many Eye owners about – if Move is a success there is soon to be a lot more owners about!
The only way I can see this coming to the PS3 is if it has absolutely no gameplay benefits for the Move system and is simply an optional niche extra for those people that have a 3DTV and want to make their own 3D content, either so their augmented reality image is in 3D (I don’t see how you could do EyePet properly in 3D for example unless the whole image is in 3D and not just the overlay graphics) or their Video Conferencing is in 3D etc…
Deathbrin
But Move doesn’t need or benefit from a 3D Eye? While 3DTVs would.
Apnomis
That’s what I just said? – They couldn’t launch Move with a normal Eye and then make games that needed you to get a new 3D Eye.
So if this is true it would only be a niche peripheral for 3DTV owners. I bet EyePet would look great in 3D to actually see where in relation to your room EyePet is standing – you couldn’t do that with a 2D Eye, you could make the overlay graphics like the fishing rod float in front of the screen but you couldn’t actually give the image depth as most of what you see on screen is from the Eye. Given EyePet Move is 3D compatible it would make sense for a 3D Eye to be used…
bunimomike
Sexually harassing hannes_truce will never be the same again. 8-)
Charmed_Fanatic
oh, i thought it said EyePet … oh well …