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EyeToy - Sony's Next Big Thing?
Thanks to CNN Money for their article tipping Sony's EyeToy USB camera and games as "a sure-fire contender" for this Xmas's must-have holiday toy. It's argued this intriguing motion-capture party game is "...the sort of thing that could get parents (or others who otherwise might not care about video games) off the couch and playing games with their kids", and consumer response looks good in the UK, where it's already racked up 5 weeks atop the charts. It's even audaciously suggested that the game/camera combo, which is due on November 4th for $49, "could take the family audience away from Nintendo."
this reminds me of the awful Hough tranforms...
Fight or flight its all the same
Live to die another day
--Ryan
Worst...Idea...Ever. (Score:2)
by Alkaiser (114022) on Mon Jul 07, '03 01:02 PM (#6384166)
Worst Peripheral of E3. #5 one one of the Worst of Show Lists, and #2 on the other. The two guest reviewers rated it as the worst thing there.
This will make parents push their children aside and investigate it till they found a trace of violence to sue the manufacturer.
I've seen this kind of game in museums and exhibitions for a long time, they allways sucked.
Maybe this eyetoy finally has the processing power needed to make it good, maybe they've designed better games than the "proof of concept" ones that existed in the past. But to me it allways felt like the PowerGlove: Good idea on paper, useless piece of junk in real life. Hell, at least the powerglove is a cool toy to play with, this is just a very expensive mirror...
You can't take the sky from me...
What's so revolutionary? I've got games on my Intel PC Pro webcam from 1998 that do the same thing, but more bubbles to pop and less ninjas to kill.
...and that's all there is to it.
This isn't that new of a technology. I remember a couple of years ago on Techtv they were playing around with one of these for the PC. IT doens't look that different of an implementation. This will be fun for a couple of days,then people will get bored with it. It is super gimmicky. I think it will be about as successfull as those fishing games that look like a fishing rod or the golf games where you have to swing the club. They are fun for a little while, then you get tired of them and they sit and gather dust.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
The technology is old. Very old. The most fun I had with the technology was watching someone play virtual soccer in a museum and watching him break down in laughter in front of a couple hundred people half way through the game.
This will not be an uber-hit with a game -- it will be a hit with video messaging. This has the potential to be idiot proof enough for my mom to use which means the idea of my 5 year old niece sending grand-ma videos at anytime without having to know what a phone is, how it works, or worry about long distance charges, is absolutely fantastic. Sure, you can set this up with PCs today, but my impression of PC software at this time is that it is too complex and too expensive for a five year old and her grand-ma (who can't type) to use.
One of the surprising thing is how much women like it.
Normally if you stuck a video game on the TV during a party, all the women would find another party to go to.
With the Eye Toy women (well slightly pissed women) actively enjoy playing the games, which just would not happen normally.
I think that it's actually the lack of a physical controller that is the key feature, rather than having yourself appear on the screen (though that does get people interested in the first place).
Of course when the ladies are jiggling around to play these games, all the blokes at the party get to stand appreciating the skills of the female gamers.
So I've heard.
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
This might catch on for video conferencing, and for really young children still fascinated by seeing themselves on TV, but I know that I play video games to enter a new world, not see how crappy my living room looks on my television.
Moan moan moan stupid.
Moan moan moan won't catch on.
Whatever. I've had a dozen or so people who would never *ever* play a video game plopped in front of this and they have a GREAT time.
You sit in front of camper strike for eighteen hours at a time, and those of us who like to have fun will spend ten minutes playing wishy washy before it's someone else's turn. Sony are on to a big winner here, you watch.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
The hardware accessory and games seem more appropriate for the Gamecube.
I can remember seeing this thing at E3 and thinking how it was kind of lame and maybe someday a good game could come out of it.
Since then, I've probably seen 100 articles, reviews, etc. screaming how absoutly baddass this thing was. I was being to question my judgement. Now I see that most people think it sucks and the places that I read the positive reviews were probably owned by Sony or something.
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
Nintendo doesn't have the family audience - it has the kiddie audience.
"You mean I actually have to move my ass to play games now? WORST IDEA EVER!"
I can't see this thing catching on at all... it's a curiosity, but how many games will actually use this effectively? I can't imagine the games that use it will have much gameplay (anyone remember the Activator for the Genesis?)... you can also use it to put your face in the game for stuff like Tony Hawk Underground or perhaps EA's sports games... but I certainly wouldn't pay more than about $5 for that.
10 years from now, I think it'll just be another footnote in video game history next to the Nintendo U-Force and R.O.B.
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
Money talks people. This things been on sale in Australia for over a month now and its been consistently sold out across Sydney for weeks at a time. I work at Toys 'R' Us (much to my dismay) and we just can't get enough of them. People will ring around all of Sydney and drive all the way across town if they find a shop with one left. Sony just keeps running out of them. People are buying PS2s just for this one peripheral. Parents see it as healthier than a normal game. The games are simple but sometimes addictive, and the hardware works very well from what I've seen. Sony have come up with a winner here, regardless of it being "lame" or whatever.
;) so it will probably work over there too.
And you know that Australia is mini-America (but without the guns and huge trucks
I wonder when the tae bo trainer game comes out.
"It's like having a personal trainer come to your house!"
On second thought, maybe a different type of "Adult" video game will be the next genre for this device...
Hey, you know how much fun Mechassault and such are on the X-Box with the full voice support? What if at the same time as playing a game like that, you could see your teammate pop-up in a low-res comm window on your hud anytime he talked? Color-key his image onto a mech-cockpit and people will be out building their own helmets and costumes for various games. Get some decent use out of cosplay equipment.
Funny, how late the US release of this software is. Eye Toy is in the Top 10 all over Europe for weeks now and you only have it announced for November 4th? Six weeks from now? Oh my god, the US is really NOT the country, where the new games are happening.
Anyway, you (the typical games/slashdot-reader/gamer) are not the key audience for this game anyway, so it doesn't matter at all, if you consider this old, worst of show or whatever. This game is meant to "bring people to the PS 2 that are not gamers or haven't been gamers before". It is a game targeted at people who enjoy having fun together, having fun at silly board games and the like. This is a party game, not a video game. And since it is much easer, to have fun in groups of 3 or more people on a console than on a pc, it is not the same as a lame intel camera and a 15" screen beige box somewhere under a desk.
This is not for slashdotters, not for nerds, maybe not even for classic computer gamers, this is for people that just want to have fun (which means that everyone from the three groups mentioned earlier in this sentence is invited, if they can stop bashing it from behind their desks and come out and play...)
Just have fun.
http://www.indiegamejam.com/igj1/index.html
This year's Indie Game Jam explored this mode of interaction to great effect.
Also, on the art side, check out Zach Simpson's "Shadow Garden": http://www.mine-control.com/
The most exciting thing about the Eyetoy for me is the other games that could be made using it. At the moment it's all for kiddie stuff like cleaning windows and rythmn games, but it could work really well with other genres, even if it's only by sticking your picture on a character or being used for dodging (in a shooting or boxing game for instance)
If enough people buy the eyetoy, game designers will be tempted to add eyetoy features to their games.
I read about this about a month ago on the BBC website in this article. It sounds pretty cool, seems like a good value for the money (same price as a game), and is easy to pickup and just play. According to a developer in the article:
"It draws in so many people that don't normally play video games," said EyeToy developer Ron Festejo, "within five to 10 seconds you know how to play."
I guess we'll really see after the Christmas season if it's going to take off here too.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
They have been available in Australia for about 2 months now and have been completely sold out.
Apparently they will have stock for CHRISTMAS and the shortage is worldwide.
Amazing considering it has only been released in Europe and Australia, etc.
Future tips for CNN money: There is a movie called "Return of the king" coming out soon in the US, and I predict that several people will go and see it. Also there is a games company called "Electronic Arts" that occasionally releases popular games.
And yes, I am jealous that an ex-workmate has just got a job developing eye-toy 2 :-)
I could have sworn we'd covered this already...