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Former EyeToy exec warns of the difficulties facing Natal, 'Arc'
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Jamie MacDonald, former Vice President of Sony Worldwide Studios (the company responsible for EyeToy), gave out a few pointers to Sony and Microsoft regarding their respective motion controllers. MacDonald warned that gamers are expecting more from the 360 and PS3's motion gaming than they do from the Wii, due to both consoles' beefier hardware. However, he also warned about implementing "traditional long-form gameplay," lengthy sessions of which would leave players "completely knackered." MacDonald's wisest words came when speaking about pricing the two pieces of hardware. He suggested they follow Sony's strategy with EyeToy, where the peripheral and a piece of software came bundled for the price of a normal game, which kept consumers from "paying a premium for the hardware." That's a sweet thought, but it's a little presumptive -- after all, we've yet to hear a price for the two devices. (Hell, we haven't even heard a name for one of them.)
THQ boss Brian Farrell calls Sony motion controller 'PlayStation Arc' ... a lot [update]
Now there's a name we've heard before: "PlayStation Arc." Only now instead of being bandied around as rumor, it's been uttered by someone who should know something about it -- THQ chief executive officer Brian Farrell -- multiple times during the same investor call. "We are focused on our continued leadership in [casual games], taking advantage of the lower hardware price points that we expect will attract new mass market gamers, and new family-friendly platforms such as Microsoft's Natal and the PlayStation Arc motion controller," he announced. The motion controller -- which was recently bumped back for release this fall and has yet to receive an official name -- was referred to as "Arc" by Farrell several more times, during both his prepared statement and subsequent Q&A session. Responding to a question on the company's plans for Natal and "Arc," Farrell replied that THQ "would like to be there at launch" for both motion control devices. We've contacted Sony for comment on Farrell's ... comments, but don't expect its reps to be as loose-lipped as the THQ boss. Update: SCEA's senior director of corporate communications, Patrick Seybold, responded to our request for comment saying, "We haven't announced the final name of the product and the 'Arc' is a rumored code name."
