Sony working on "Revolution Killer"?
Some truly juicy rumors tend to pop up in Gamespot's regular Rumor Control feature, and this latest one is no different. According to an insider at Macromedia, the company responsible for the hugely popular Flash software (and now apparently working on a Flash Lite for the PS3 and PSP), Sony is preparing to turn the Playstation 2 into a Revolution adversary. The company apparently plans to release a motion-sensitive controller that would cooperate with the Eyetoy and thus turn the PS2 into a bastion for weird and unique games. Ha.
Now, if we were to assume this were at all true, it would be easy to see that this scheme does make a lot of sense. Given its age and market penetration, the PS2 could match the Revolution in terms of price and, thanks to this new controller, at least partially in terms of weird input device. It would no doubt be a very attractive alternative to developers, especially since the PS2 would already have a 100 million unit lead on the Revolution. Sounds like a great move, doesn't it?
There's just one problem. Should Sony implement this plan, they'd be doing it based on the incorrect assumption that the Revolution's unique control system is its secret to success. Now, that's somewhat true, but a key ingredient is being overlooked. The Eyetoy seemed like a pretty innovative control system, right? Now, let's list all the awesome Eyetoy games we've played.
Oh, well there's...the one with the ninjas and...window washing...and...err...
The games! We're interested in the Revolution because of the games--the possibilities that a new control system brings to the developer. Just slapping a crazy new peripheral onto the PS2 isn't going to automagically create wonderful new games. The Revolution's controller is merely a means to an end, after all. This doesn't mean Sony couldn't pull out some classy games for this device, but it certainly seems as if they're approaching this endeavor from the wrong angle. And hey, if this is "Revolution Killer" is anything like their "Halo Killer", it might be fair to expect the Revolution to die quite quickly...of laughter, that is.
