We just got a brief glimpse at the new
PlayStation Eye-based augmented reality
EyePet game from Sony, which is on track for a holiday release on the PS3. It's no Project Natal, but what the game lacks in gesture-based interaction (though we were able to pet and play with the little guy pretty intuitively) it makes up for in extensive adorability. You can naturally play, feed, groom and customize your pet -- even teach the thing to draw shapes and bring them to life in a sense -- but it's surprisingly fun to just watch the little dude scamper around in seemingly real space. The title will be available both as a standalone game and as a bundle with the PlayStation Eye. Check out a video of the game in an early beta state after the break, and you can find
Joystiq's E3 impressions of the game
here.
posted Jul 28th 2009 3:59PM
What the hell? Where'd autonomous drone story go? I saw the headline, went to another site really quick, then came back and it was gone. I was looking forward to reading it :(((
oookay, now it's back.
you know what would be scarier? If amazon took all the 1984 books off your kindle...oh wait....
(yeah I know amazon already addressed the issue...)
Looks cool. It's not quite as good of interaction as the demo movie released at E3 would show, but it's still cool.
I have to imagine if you don't have a white coffee table the experience might not even be as good as this. Visual recognition (including Natal) has its limits.
I don't doubt the poweress of Natal and PSEye. You have to remember that this is early beta, and the first looks. Id imagine when first testing this they may have had the pet walking on air. When developing a game you don't usually have all the bells and whistles while debugging (unless you are preparing to release). Having a marble table may have been impressive, but since they are just showing of proof of concepts, and not really final products it isn't really necessary.
Assuming that something that doesn't work now will be made to work later because "it's just software" is a great way to end up failing. This trap has nailed so many software projects I've been on it's hardly even surprising anymore.
If you want it to work with marble tables, get it working with marble tables early or face the consequences later.
...and if you have a projector with your PS3 behind you on a shelf?
less creepy than MILO!
Wicked Cool!!
sony really should have had this at their e3 press conference and removed half the crap they had.... looks really really cool but it does look like its more or less tied to the cards.
The card replaces the Sixaxis. You will access all menus using (as seen in the video) and manipulate the placement of the gadgets you bring to play with the pet (as seen on the video). But the people in the video didn't venture too far off from using those few things. You can do much more without the card.
If only this thing came out when Yugioh was popular. My god, that would've sold insanely well.
testing
r u damn nuts you will loose the HD and blueray player ok go back to your old cd's and dvd´s
copy of natal i have a ps3 but now thinking of selling it and buy a xbox 360
lol, sony has been doing motion tracking via camera since ps2, eyepet was announced over a year ago, how is this a copy of natal? Sell your PS3, you don't deserve uncharted 2 or god of war 3.
Copy of Natal even though this game was first shown a year ago?
or mag and the next two final fantasy, you only deserve 1.
actually this is nothing like natal, hell the iphone can do frigging augemented reality, its just tracking the cards, its basically just a kids version of the original augmented reality from the ps3...
...
Oh ya, eye of judgement, its basically eye of judgement 2, the kids edition LOL
@ Chris.
Actually this is exactly what Milo (Natal is the hardware) was told to be: interaction with a virtual being. The difference is that this is working already and will be out in a few months, while Milo is far from being either. Besides, if you recall the Milo demo there was really no interaction with anything on- screen. The person would say a scripted line (those who tried it confirmed you had to say exactly what the system expected in order to get an answer) and the "kid" would make a gesture or say something back. That's as far as interaction went. That's what I call a game! (sarcasm). The only interaction the lady in the demo had with the environment was creating ripples on the pond's water, which we have been able to do with the Eyetoy/PSEye for years now.
BTW- the card has two functions: access the menus and manipulate any props you bring to the world. All other interaction is with you hands (or body depending what you move). There is plenty of interactivity and certainly more than Milo can hope to have at this point.
this should be used for the next pokemon
I still prefer wiimote+nunchuck+motionplus on xbox360/ps3 instead, IMHO, better control for ACT/FPS games
personally i most look forward to NATAL+standard controller, standard controller so it feels the same, but natal so that leaning my body to look around in the screen makes it feel more ... you know... like im really the shooter:) God say pleas ethat BFBC2 and MW2 will have this support!
RE: NATAL + controller. Technically the PS Eye can already do what you're talking about. I'm not claiming either is better, just saying the technology is already there for Sony's system, so I'm not sure why you specify NATAL.
In either case, both look like great systems, and neither look like "must-have" systems.
Mouse + keyboard FTW!
So whats the difference from this and the demo they had almost 2 years ago.. other than "hey its something that ACTUALLY WORKS?"
i see the new car interface and the menu and its in realtime, but honestly in this long of a time frame, makes me wonder whats going on with sony, that this wasnt finished for last holiday season.
Sony why is it always over promise and under deliver? Why is it always RIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDGGGGGGGEEEEEEE RACER? And dropping megatons? Why is it tech demos when microsoft and nintendo actually putting something together and making money with it?
Again i ask what happen to the progress with EYEdentity?
Not going to sell well.
It's not the PS3, I don't think it would sell well on the 360 either. I just don't see the install base of the PS3 (which scews the oldest of all three consoles) be willing to buy this as a seperate game.
I could see it maybe working if it was a free pack in for the Eye-Toy but I just don't see how one would spend any signifigant time with a "game" like this.
Wait for the pokemon card game where you place the cards on the table and the pokemons appear and fight... That will definitely sale ...
I meant "sell" instead of "sale"
not so sure. this looks very interesting for my kids...what is the recommended minimum age for this game?
@Chris
Pokemon is owned by Nintendo. It will never appear on PS3 or 360 or PSP. But yes, that would cool.
@Sean,
I didn't know that ...
But still, it can work with other card games. Here in Japan, in game centers, I can already see an hybrid of that.
You place the cards on the table, and the screen placed in the table show the characters of the cards and then you can order them for actions.
If it works in game centers, I guess it can attract those same people to play at home, especially if you can fight online!
Bite his arm!
OFF THE TABLE!
*whack*
Is it just me, or could this take D&D to the next level?
HELL. YES.
Weirdly this also takes your viginity to the next level. now you can be a lvl 20 virgin that can also play D&D with yourself....
(eye)toy? (eye)pet? (i) see what you're doing there, Sony and it's pretty bush league. Come up with your own branding.
You know the EyeToy (and branding) name came from the PS2 era, right?
yes, i had a PS2 eyetoy. it still came out after the iMac, iPod, ect.
Get off of Apple's nuts...
What a loser.
Learn to read. Its Eyetoy, not iToy. You are a dolt.
@Angel:
Apple's have seeds, not nuts.
Looks cute, but really - how many of us will just play with it for 10 minutes and then try different ways of killing it.
I was actually sitting here waiting for them to grab a cardboard box and drop it on the thing. Also, don't you think that a little paper card is to easy to loose? They should use like the case or something.
each company (MS/SOny) has been working on this technology for years. no one copied anyone. theres several videos dating back from one of the trade shows (GDC, i think) that show this stuff from way back to 06. can't wait for natal, and pseye #2 to release.
This is where I make my point that everything Natal puts in (or Sony puts in) will easily be copied by the other console
The only slight advantage Sony has over Natal is probably more precise movement detection.
So basically, it's a stalemate.
I expect nothing else than raging fanboy comments on this.
Another pointless display of new technology used on something that will have all of 10 minutes of shelf life for most gamers.
BTW, dumb question here, but what if you don't have a coffee table right in front of the camera. Then what?
You have a floor?
it pees on the floor.
Wow, that's actually pretty cool.
D&D and many other "dice/card" games. Me, a couple friends, and one of their 9 year old kids spent this past weekend playing a game called Descent with cards and dice which would be pretty awesome to see on the TV with the spells and animations instead of plastic figures and cardboard templates. It would even be cooler if TV tech got to the point where LCDs (OLED, whatever) could be your coffee table with multi-touch (unlike Surface which is too big) then you could play on the table.
hmm, was supposed to be a reply to "jol" ... and I know I hit the right reply button.
Eye of Judgment came out over a year ago. It is what you describe.
this weekend, I went out, had some beer, and talked to some women.
I win.
Not quite... Eye of Judgment was a card game. I'm talking about a dynamic dungeon map made with cardboard cutouts and plastic avatars. It's fun for the kids in it's regular form.
@Grammar: So did I ;)
This puts Sony ahead of Microsoft since Sony already had EyeToy technology since the PS2 and they are adding their wand concept while Microsoft is still working on their Natal. Obviously Wii is behind now, especially when you include graphics.
this isnt the same as NATAL...
I know Natal is more advanced (full-body plus more gesturesi) but it won't be out til the next generation. Sony has this out already, plus they still have the wand.
And I take back that the Wii is behind, since Sony and Microsoft haven't released their wares to the public yet.
Natal is more advanced because it has far more hype behind it.
Natal is way better than Eyetoys in the same basis than Dukem Nukem Forever is way better than Halo.
Or you could say, a vaporware (fanboy wish) is always superior to a real product.
:-P
yeah it is the same as natal
Seeing this makes me hope volumetric displays become possible/commonplace. Imagine the critter actually being there, rather than viewing it through the display 'mirror'.
Is there a Michael Vick mode?
Not sure if I would ever play THIS game but the possibilities are very interesting!
people would buy this, play with it for 20 minutes, then be bored.
... but kids will probably get quite a bit of play out of this along with their parents.
Not japanese people, they will get addicted.
This is Nintendogs only more lame
What exactly do you feel makes it more lame than nintendogs? Is it that it is not dogs or is it that it is not nintendo?
It's that it's a virtual pet inside an actual physical space, depicted on your television. It's that people around the world will be sitting there petting the air as they pet their virtual pet. Don't misunderstand me, this isn't a Nintendo/Sony comment, Nintendogs is lame in itself, but this is just that plus more lameness.
You don't seem to know what "lame" actually means.
Actually I do know what lame means.
But if you use the slang term, this is lame.
The game costs just $30 buck, but each virtual pet vet visit will cost an additional $160 to $2000 determined by a random 'issues selector', I guess.
So CUTE!!
Only thing is you need to have a table set up in a certain way.
hi from Greece. I'd prefer a real puppy that has genuine intelligence. Knowing that the virtual creature has a pre-programmed repertoire of behaviors would make our interactions uninteresting no matter how vast that collection. And even if Sony somehow allowed downloading of new behaviors or even provided the user with some sort of programming tool it would STILL be uninteresting. What they need instead is to develop an advanced A.I.
this seams cool. will buy since project natal will not be out before late next year.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Susan
http://onlinemariogames.net
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Susan
http://onlinemariogames.net