Sony Computer Entertainment's former head
of worldwide development, Phil Harrison, expressed frustration in one of his
last public appearances before leaving the company that Sony's Japanese
executives were too slow at accepting the idea of social gaming, only to see
Nintendo take the baton and run with it. This was despite the fact that Sony
has sold over seven million EyeToy games, as well as six million copies of Buzz and
12 million of SingStar, proving the strong appetite for radical control schemes
and uncomplicated, inclusive family fun.
Like the Wii, the EyeToy digital camera games
let users physically interact with the on-screen action, were a social
experience primarily designed for short bursts of fun with all the family, and no
joypad skills were required.
Mike Haigh, Director of Sony's London
Studio which developed EyeToy and SingStar, says Wii's rampant success does
"hurt", but he believes PlayStation consoles cater to an even wider
audience than Wii, pleasing both the hardcore and the new "casual"
audience. "Yeah, it hurts to see something that we've developed in EyeToy
sort of being taken to the next level with Wii," he says, "but we are
constrained somewhat in that we are not just an 'alternative control' company,
we're looking at everything."
"I think the difference between Sony
and Nintendo is that Nintendo has hung their whole thing on that alternative
controller. I think they had to. Wii is a single concept, whereas PlayStation
is so multi-faceted, it has so many aspects."
But Mr Haigh is not arrogant about EyeToy's
success, admitting that its popularity was "a complete shock to us"
and "more luck than judgment". He believes the key to its broad appeal
is its simplicity, and that its timing was perfect. "There was a vacuum
there. There were about a 100 million PS2s (sold around the world) so there was
really broad potential. And because of the (console's built-in) DVD drive it
was in the living room, whereas the Xbox predominately sat in the boy's
bedroom. I think that was key for both EyeToy and SingStar, that it was in the
living room."
Colleague Ron Festejo, a veteran producer
at Sony who was also instrumental in EyeToy's development, says EyeToy helped "break
barriers for people that have a problem learning what the controls are for
video games. A lot of people get really put off playing games because there are
far too many buttons to worry about."
Like Nintendo with Wii, Festejo said
widening the audience for video games was definitely one of Sony’s aims. He
says in the past, if a family member suggested playing video games after
dinner, adults would generally decline.
"But if someone was to say, ‘Let’s play cards’ or ‘Let’s play
Trivial Pursuit or Monopoly’, then you would generally find that the whole
family would play together. That’s what I hoped EyeToy would do, bring people
together."
The latest EyeToy games released for PS2 later this month will no doubt be met with derision by hardcore gamers, but should
provide youngsters with some giggles. EyeToy: Heroes comes with a foam
sword for hacking and slashing your way through dungeons, while young ladies
will be offered EyeToy: Pom Pom Party, a cheerleading game complete with
colourful pom-poms. The peripherals are not only fun novelties that kids will
enjoy waving around, but they help improve the EyeToy's motion detection.
Accuracy is a problem in many EyeToy games, especially in low-light
conditions.
During a recent visit to the home of
EyeToy, Sony's London Studio, Gamesmaster was given technical demonstrations of
some future uses for the PlayStation Eye camera for PS3 that were far more
exciting than what we have seen from the technology so far.
A simple yet instantly fun game where you
can swing an object attached by magic string to your face simply by moving your
head around was an impressive demonstration of radically improved facial
recognition. Even in poor light and with the user moving very swiftly around
the room, the PS3 kept track of the player's every movement, and the momentum
of the swinging object was realistic and convincing.
Another demonstration saw the PS3
impressively keeping track of a simple playing card with a geometric design on
it, regardless of how quickly it was waved around. It was similar to the
previous demonstration, except that on-screen, the card was represented by
polygons, so naturally could represent anything, such as a magic wand, baseball
bat, sword or animal.
There were also fun and novel
demonstrations of using the camera on a tripod, mounted with the camera
pointing down on a desk as in PS3 trading card game Eye of Judgment. One game let players draw a landscape and a
ship, which were photographed in a snap then instantly provided the backdrop to
play a fully personalised "Lunar Lander" game.
Another demo let players draw vehicles (or
simply photograph everyday items like a toy car or animal) and a maze for a
two-player, fully personalised version of the Atari 2600 classic Combat. Some
of the games will be used in a virtual pet simulator to be released on PS3 next
year that will let users interact with their critter via the EyeToy camera.