DICE 2009: Sony's European Perspective

Sony's European studios have been doing some fairly inventive things over the past five-plus years with the likes of EyeToy, SingStar, Buzz! and so on. To talk about development in Europe, Michael Denny, senior vice president of Worldwide Studios Europe, and Mike Haigh, development director at Sony's London Studio, made an appearance at DICE to share their experiences.

Denny opened up the talk by going over Sony Europe's recent history and calling out some of the highest selling family and party-friendly titles, like Guitar Hero and Wii Play. He then talked about the community-driven success of Buzz! and SingStar. Nothing particularly shocking or interesting was mentioned in this bit.

Michael Denny then introduced Mike Haigh. Haigh began by explaining their view of what makes a good social gaming title, including group bonding, performing and competing, a broad appeal for all ages and spectator participation. He then explained the studio's take on social versus casual games, where social titles can still be complex, whereas casual titles are simple and are largely what is played by young kids or housewives.

Haigh then talked about the creation process behind the EyeToy and showed some early development videos that Dr. Richard Marks was toying with while working on developing the camera. He then moved on to talk about SingStar, a couple different early ideas for the game (like singing songs to defeat animals), and how two mics have been included in the package because tests showed that people were shy about singing on their own, but much more willing to do so with a partner.

Next up was the topic of Buzz! He didn't talk about the software a lot, but showed a few concepts for early buzzers, one that was box-shaped with a large red button in the middle and the four colored buttons set off to the side.

Haigh ended the presentation with a video look at EyePet, a new PlayStation Eye game coming for the PS3.

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