Sony Demonstrates PS2 Video Conferencing

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing Sony 's demonstration of a PlayStation 2 using a USB webcam to run a video-conference across the Internet, as showcased at the IPv6 Business Summit 2004 in Japan earlier this week. GI.biz points out that, although this conference was "about the IPv6 [Internet] protocol", according to their sources, "Sony has been encouraging developers to use the EyeToy webcam peripheral to add video communications to their online PS2 games - over the plain old IPv4 Internet - and it's expected that the first games to use the functionality could arrive before the end of the year." The article concludes that this move "would give Sony a technological lead over Microsoft", but is also "likely to raise a number of contentious issues - such as the possibility for abuse of the service."

Comments

Useless in games

[MBraynard]

I can't think of a single game existing where this would be remotely useful. Voice? Very useful. Seeing your opponent give you the middle finger after you sniper him? Pointless.

Re:Useless in games

[wan-fu]

What about a game like Ghost Recon or SOCOM where signaling can be just as effective as voice (and maybe even adding a 'cool' factor to the game) and perhaps if the game were to do something like in NS or Counter-Strike (a current or soon to be feature? I can't remember) where voice communications can be overheard by the opposing team? Or how about a game like DDR? I think a game of DDR over internet could be very cool if you could see your opponent/partner. It's not just about being useful either, it's about enhancing the game experience.

Re:Useless in games

[Babbster]

Yeah, enhancing the game experience, meaning making it better. Having some 15-year-old moon me while playing a video game is not my idea of enhancement. As far as signaling in a team game like you describe, that's just plain pointless unless the movements are actually mapped and replicated by the avatars on-screen (THAT would be cool). If it's just a little window with a picture, that actually HURTS the immersion factor and would get people killed as they switched attention back and forth between the video window and the game proper. DDR would be a bad idea for a completely different reason in that there's no way - unless the encoding is being handled in its own hardware - that a camera like this could keep up with the movements in a fast song (of course, add that to the delay and, again, you have something that would be more distracting than fun).

Apart from hearing-impaired people who obviously can't use voice features, and maybe slow, turn-based games, video conferencing within a game seems like pure, useless gimmick. Just because voice is cool in games doesn't mean that video automatically has the same potential.

How does this contribute to games?

[MMaestro]

How could this make my gaming experience more fun? I know Sony is trying to make an "entertainment system" with the Playstation line (PSX anyone?) but considering the majority of PS2 owners bought it for the games, how is this going to make games more fun?