Tucked away during last night's PlayStation 4 reveal, buried among all the new game announcements, hardware specs and controller discussion, was a little device that could actually have a surprisingly big say in the outcome of the next-gen console war - the PlayStation 4 Eye.
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The PlayStation 4 Eye is the successor to the PlayStation Eye, and the EyeToy before that. There's one very crucial difference, however - whereas previous Eyes were essentially little more than souped-up webcams with motion and colour detection, the PlayStation 4 Eye is a long bar with two cameras built in.
That second Eye literally adds an extra dimension to the PlayStation 4's player recognition abilities, since it lets the device use both cameras to track depth and figure out where a player is standing in the room. Yes, just like with Kinect.
The immediate reaction to this should be obvious - the PlayStation 4 Eye isn't just there to read the LED bar on top of the DualShock 4 controller and allow for PlayStation Move-type motion controls. It's also there to challenge Kinect, and attempt to offer the same sort of depth-based controller-free gaming Microsoft has been promoting for the past few years.
If rumours are to be believed (and, considering most of the PS4 ones from similar sources were spot on, they probably are), the successor to the Xbox 360 is likely to be packaged with an improved version of Kinect as standard. Kinect didn't immediately take off among "hardcore" gamers, and as such the lion's share of the Kinect library consists of family-friendly, "casual" titles.
This has led to a vicious cycle in which the core gamers don't want to buy Kinect because its games don't cater for them, while developers don't want to add Kinect features to their core games because only a fraction of core gamers own Kinect. But by making the Kinect a mandatory part of the next Xbox developers will know for a fact that everyone who owns the console also owns Kinect, and as result there is likely to be a huge increase in the number of core games with Kinect features.
So by adding a second camera to the PlayStation 4 Eye, allowing it to track depth and - we'd assume - making it compulsory too, Sony is essentially ensuring that these games can be ported to the PS4 and become multi-platform titles rather than Xbox 720 exclusives.
The important strategy for Sony is that a fair number of Kinect games in the future will be compatible on PS4.
Also, the Move-like LCD bar at the back of the DualShock 4 also makes use of the PlayStation 4 Eye, and could also be considered an extension of this idea. Many Wii U games in the future will make use of Wii Remote controls, so it's important to Sony that even if it ends up ditching the PS3 Move controller, its new system can still offer a Wii Remote-style control system to allow potential ports of Wii U games.
By adding Kinect-like depth sensing to its Eye, the LCD bar to the DualShock 4 and allowing smartphones to be used as a second screen like a makeshift Wii U GamePad, Sony may be trying to make the PS4 a jack-of-all trades.
Technology and graphical oomph is always interesting but it's the games that sell consoles. PlayStation 4 Eye will give developers more options for games they are developing - and that can only be a healthy thing.
Comments
24 comments so far...
crimbo on 21 Feb '13 said:
Who cares. Let nintendo and micros**t muck around with the gimmicks. Sony should stick with proper gaming controllers.
fatgangsta on 21 Feb '13 said:
Personally i don't want anything like this at all and being forced to adopt this will hurt the console in the long run depending on the Price of the console at launch but i also hope the SKU's that they will have will have should have one with and one with out
Padua on 21 Feb '13 said:
It is compatible with the dual shock and will probably support head tracking
Can't you guys see it is a proper controller when it needs to be and offers another dimension when it can be?
It is completely different to the silly "You are the Controller" that only works well on specific game types.
Chris Scullion on 21 Feb '13 said:
Like the EyeToy and the Move?
Chris Scullion on 21 Feb '13 said:
Of course I can see that, that's the point of the article. The point is it lets Sony put any sort of game on the PS4, even including the "silly" controller-free ones.
I don't see why it would be any better for head-tracking than the previous Eye would be, though. The movements would be too subtle. Mind you, I don't see why head tracking's so important to people anyway.
Bambis Dad on 21 Feb '13 said:
Don't forget introducing dance mat, guitar and karaoke games to consoles?
Fr33Kye on 21 Feb '13 said:
The dualshock 4 is no replacement for Move. I thij/jope sony intendo to give Move a fair shot this generation. The dualshock cant really be used the same way a wiimote can be
Bazza316 on 21 Feb '13 said:
I can't wait to use this joke in a game shop.
Me: Have you got the playstation 4 eye's?
Assistant: it comes with the console.
Me: I was asking if you've got a playstation you speccy t**t!!!!!!!
ethanet1995 on 21 Feb '13 said:
Me personally; i like to game most of the time on my own, in a dark room just holding a simple controller and pressing buttons. When i want to get down to some serious gaming, i dont want to be having to jump up and down or waving my arms about
Barca Azul on 21 Feb '13 said:
I've got something that looks really similar for my Bravia and its great for TV Skype.
billysastard on 22 Feb '13 said:
if lego made kinect it would look like that thing.
FixBeatGames on 22 Feb '13 said:
why do people hate move so much? i would bet a month's wage the vast majority of move haters haven't even touched it before.
it's easily the best motion tech out of all of them, the lag is practically non-existent, makes kinect look like you're doing everything on the moon.
killzone 3 plays absolutely fantastic with it. with the stick in your left hand and using the move to aim on screen and shoot sounds awkward but simply works amazing. try it. give it 3 or 4 goes on killzone 3 multiplayer, tell me it's not better than a controller, or even a mouse. seriously, i was kicking arse on killzone 3 online against people on controllers while i was on move!
sure all the move games tend to be throw-away 'party' games or games for kids, but that's because people are ignoring move's potential in not buying it, so more developers aren't using it in genius ways like killzone 3 does.
i think it being part of ps4, alot more people will give it a go and realize it's ALOT better and ALOT more than kinect and wii. both of which suffer from the same thing, waaaaaay too much lag. (when you have to learn to compensate for lag before you can learn the game you're playing, the kit is a fail surely?)
hopefully developers will put things like that into mainstream games, not just gimmicky stuff, now they know EVERYONE will be able to use it and not the small minority who bought move.
just my 2p
richomack360 on 22 Feb '13 said:
Question still remains - why on earth would i want to leave my couch, surrounded by crisps, potato wedges, various beverages, to flop about in front of the TV to do something my controller can do anyway ?
Sell it to me people. Because motion control is not welcome in my castle.
FixBeatGames on 22 Feb '13 said:
stop thinking about move with mini-games and dancing shenanigans...
think of it with killzone, or call of duty, if you master it (i did in a day or two), it's like using a controller AND a mouse.
p.s.
you can sit down comfortably on the sofa surrounded by crisps while using the move controllers when playing normal games.
havoc33 on 22 Feb '13 said:
That still doesn't change the fact that you have to be aware of where you're pointing the damn thing. I want to chill when I game, and whether or not I'm sitting, laying sideways or upside down in front or at an akward angle of the telly shouldn't affect my gaming performance. Motion controls is ultimately what made me not finish Skyward Sword. First time EVER I have not finished a Zelda game.
qSPARTANp on 22 Feb '13 said:
Looks visually awful...
Bambis Dad on 22 Feb '13 said:
You need three wimmen, two geezers, plenty of alcohol, kinect and a free spirit and it is the most fun in the world. Remember that youtube video that guy made of his girl friend in her undies on Wii fit? Well imagine that drunk and less clothes and more debauched. If you are caring about how accurate the tracking is then you've missed the point.
If you are a Nintendo fan then you can repeat this but don't have it on a family gaming night.
chedda memba on 22 Feb '13 said:
For starters it can't even do what the original Kinect does now which is full body skeletal tracking let alone what Kinect 2 will be able to do. IT CAN'T DO FULL BODY TRACKING. The journo who wrote this piece doesn't have a clue. To all the Kinect haters out there it's your loss.
Bambis Dad on 22 Feb '13 said:
Neither can Kinect Chedda. It is s**t unless you are typically proportioned, and I'm short and fat, really short and really fat, and it doesn't work for me. Now with a Wiimote+ or Move my size isn't an issue, but with Kinect it is. It isn't even like I can map the controls to suit like I can do with a PC, it is pure gimmick. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that there isn't one single game worth playing with it.
chedda memba on 22 Feb '13 said:
It picks up my 6 year old son just fine. I admit there are hardly if any so called hardcore titles out there but it also depends on what you regard as hardcore. Child of Eden was good. Easily better than move or Wii even though i used it more for media aspects and only ocasionally played games with it. I thought fruit Ninja worked well using Kinect and some of the kids super hero games actually worked really well my son loves them. Kinect has got plenty of room for improvement and im looking forward to seeing how V2 works out.
CatfishMurphy on 23 Feb '13 said:
So, pray tell, who was it who spent half an hour in June 2012 messing around with a webcam, a glow in the dark wand vibe and a Harry Potter knock off written in QR codes for the whole world to see?
Well actually it was me... but I got the idea from Sony at E3.
FIecher on 23 Feb '13 said:
As an XBox subscriber/player for the last 10 years (early adopter) I can say with some authority that Kinect is winky! It scares me that the next XBox NEED'S to have kinect kinected (oh dear) at all times, I really hope that the next iteration is something but not everything.
Looking at this Playstation variation it is, thankfully, nothing like the 360's and looks to be more focus for the move controller and although I've never played with move I'd say it holds more interesting possibilities for core gamers than Kinect. I was very interested in Playststion's reveal and they had some great things planned with sharing, gaikai cloud, system specs, spectate and my holy grail of Playstation gaming a more comfortable looking controller.
Microsoft really need to produce something special to keep me paying my subs but I'm not too confident that's going to happen.
I never thought I'd see myself migrating towards a Sony console as my 1st choice but they've listened to devs and are going in the right direction.
Paradaz - UK on 23 Feb '13 said:
If you'd used TrackIR on PC for FPS such as Arma2 or in any driving or flight game you could care to mention you'd understand the level of immersion it brings.
How many FPS games do you know of whereby you don't have to be looking where your weapon is pointing? How many times have you inadvertently 'leaned around a corner, or lifted out of your seat trying to peer over an obstacle in your way. Do you look at the bonnet of your car/straight ahead when turning a corner when driving? Do driving games need 'virtual mirrors'? Not if you can look in both mirrors naturally......
When natural body movement becomes automatic body movement within a game it becomes hard to play games without it. When your view is totally independent of the controls the immersion is multiplied.
If you only game on consoles, then you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.....at least with next-gen consoles it looks like it is something that is possible at last.
Sandbwoy on 23 Feb '13 said:
Unfortunately I have no use for these types of add-ons at the moment due to lack of available floor space. Luckily I haven't been missing out too much with regards to Kinect games, as there aren't that many good games for Kinect as yet. But as time goes on, games will get better and better. I'll either have to free up some floor space somehow, or get a new place. Just for the sake of gaming. Now that's dedication!