E3 2006: EyeToy Concepts

Via IGN

<blockquote>The debate between who will be the leader in the shake-em-up controller war between Wii and PS3 will continue on for the ages, but for our money, Sony has already been the rebel leading the revolution for years now. EyeToy has been a meager hit in America, but it's mondo across the pond where it was invented, and SCE Europe is continuing its phenomenon with several games premiered here at E3 2006. Most are not America, but import fans and our Euro-carrying readers should definitely take a look out for a series of games that take EyeToy to the next level.

We weren't able to get any word on the conceptual idea of an infrared EyeToy for the nex-gen version (mentioned by EyeToy creator Richard Marx), but we did get to shoot the talk with lead producer Tom Holmes at SCE Europe about the PSP camera. While we didn't really like the performance level displayed on the SCE show floor, the producer stated that he had seen it himself back at the lab and had no problems, estimating that perhaps the framerate delay was due to the low-level lighting conditions on the floor that required it to kick into another processor mode. As far as gameplay concepts, he hinted that we should think beyond the idea, as many have jumped to the conclusion of, for playing standard EyeToy: Play with your face. That may be a feature for fun, but that's not really the main concept in development. When we asked if maybe the PSP could be used as a portable EyeToy, with perhaps a stand that you could simply set up at parties and rock out to, Tom responded, "Well, you could do that ... but then it would just be EyeToy: Play on PSP." We couldn't get specifics at this early junction about what they will be doing with EyeToy PSP, but the ideas they are playing with at the moment are more about filming the world around you and somehow interacting with that in gameplay. </blockquote>