Sony: gamers want 'perfect digital human'

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 17 August, 2011

"Dangerous" experiences could emerge.

Gamers want to see the "perfect human being in digital form" in their games, Sony has said.

In a behind closed doors discussion on the future of video games, Sony president of Worldwide Studio, Shuhei Yoshida, outlined his vision of what games may be like in 2021.

"I think what people want in games in 10 years is the perfect human being in digital form," he said, "where you can't tell the difference if it's real or digital. In your reality it's a human."

According to Sony's 3D chief Mick Hocking, who also took part in the discussion, the next 10 years will see crucial improvements to AI that should help realise Yoshida's prediction.

"In 10 years, are we going to be able to interact with characters in the games? In Uncharted you can see they're getting ever closer to real acting performances with great scripts and great interaction, but the more accurate they become, it's still an acting performance that's coming back at you.

"Will we have AI that allows us to truly interact with a character, talk to a character, show the character objects and it can recognise them?"

Complimenting this "perfect digital human" is the idea that players may become "actors" in the virtual experience, with the console using a camera to study facial expressions and biometric sensors to study mood.

"Perhaps you're playing a detective game and you're playing a witness," Hocking suggested. "The game has got to decide whether you're lying, rather than you deciding whether the character's lying in the game, because we can look at your expression on your face.

"That kind of stuff would be really exciting - bringing the player in as an actor themselves.

"In 10 years' time it would be nice to think we could form a map of the player. Your facial expressions, your heart rate, you can see how you build over time a map of a player and learn their emotional states and learn how their emotional state changes. Maybe even their social network can comment on them.

"The more accurate that map can become the more accurate we can be about delivering an experience to change that emotional state. If they're feeling sad we can make them feel happy again. It would be great to think that's possible within 10 years."

"In the future, in 10 years, I like to think developers will have access to information of the player in real-time, and will be able to create some almost dangerous activities," Yoshida stated.

Perhaps in the nearer term, 3D and holographics technology will come together to create new video game experiences – something Sony has already begun experimenting with.

"Holographics is definitely feasible within the next 10 years," Hocking said. "We can produce a pseudo-holographic effect now by head tracking the player with a Sony 3DTV and EyeToy. You bring something out of the screen and you can look around it, which is quite a different experience to just having standard 3D.

"We're right at the start of doing the R&D on this, so, we're really looking to our game designers taking these types of technologies and working out what they can do to enhance the actual gameplay."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (55) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ClaimBonership #1 9 months ago

    no we dont

  • Phoenisis #2 9 months ago

    I just want fun games to play :-(

  • coolbritannia #3 9 months ago

    We need EMOTION ENGINE!

  • SBfistfun #4 9 months ago

    Load of blocks

  • Xensor #5 9 months ago

    Yes i want games to be able to read my biometrics and adjust my mood. No i'm not concerned, i'm far too busy being happy :)

  • riceNpea #6 9 months ago

    will Kelly Lebrock finally emerge from my wardrobe?!

    i hope so. i've got enough nuclear missiles.

  • A_Nonny #7 9 months ago

    He might as well have said "gamers want the perfect digital girlfriend", because that's all anyone will do with technology like this.

  • dirtysteve #8 9 months ago

    Maybe the Japanese do, but the rest of us just don't care about your digital eyelash rendering.

  • Adaptor #9 9 months ago

    I want hyperrealistic giant enemy crabs, damnit!

  • alcides #10 9 months ago

    that would maybe feel a little wrong shooting other real looking humans.

  • alcides #11 9 months ago

    oh and I want a real life Drake coded for cuddle.

  • Nevflinn #12 9 months ago

    I really wish our graphical demands would stop now - really, I'd be thankful for graphics at wii-level. Games seriously benefit from them, and not every game can work in sprite form, but I've seen too many sci-fi movies to know what happens when we blur the line between reality and illusion.

  • SummonerPascal #13 9 months ago

    Games are games.
    They're not reality.
    Thank you.

  • Lord_Gremlin #14 9 months ago

    I just want games that let me dismember enemies in spectacular fashion.

  • Chibi-Kibou #15 9 months ago

    Well, I certainly don't o.O

    What do I want, for 2021? Well, aside from the FX Antigravity Racing League... >.>

    Videogames that portray truly dynamic and emergent worlds. I'd play a game with ASCII graphics that could do that for real .. then again I play Dwarf Fortress. But even that is only a.. what's the word.. facsimile? of a true simulated world.

  • Nithron #16 9 months ago

    I'd settle for a story that wasn't written in a GCSE English class.

  • Pwnsweet #17 9 months ago

    I just want a Final Fantasy VII remake...

  • Ryze #18 9 months ago

    It'll have Toy Story graphics, and be just like jacking into The Matrix.

  • doragonpawwa #19 9 months ago

    Great potential for XXX entertainment. Profit hmm

  • Springchicken #20 9 months ago

    This is moronic, Sony. Engaging with fictional characters shouldn't be boiled down to a Turing Test of how realistic our senses perceive them to be. There's been a few 'real' humans in games already: those I've engaged with on an emotional level. I couldn't give a toss how many polygons they're stuffed with, if they garble the same tired dialogue 99% of games are satisfied to exhibit they're not going to be convincing.

  • Vyggo #21 9 months ago

    Maybe I'll be interested in all that stuff in 10 years, but I am definately not now. If you are talking solely about decent AI then sure, but that is a field that has hardly improved in comparison to graphical fidelity. For god sake, many games still have dumber AI than the commando's in Halflife 1. I would be surprised if this neglected field suddenly got attention.
    Edited by Vyggo at 17/08/11 @ 04:17

  • stryker1121 #22 9 months ago

    When I'm around humans, I can learn.

  • Canyarion #23 9 months ago

    Funny how developers always think they're 10 years away of real AI, no matter the progress.

  • toa_boa #24 9 months ago

    actually I just want Locoroco 3 :-D

  • RodHull #25 9 months ago

    @riceNpea

    "will Kelly Lebrock finally emerge from my wardrobe?!

    i hope so. i've got enough nuclear missiles. "

    If she does, there's an awful risk Tom Cruise will come out of your closet.

  • Inmediasress #26 9 months ago

    What I want is a good story which lacks from 99% of games today that alone makes up for all the graphics they could push into it.
    Otherwise don't the japanese already have girlfriend simultaros or wtf???
    If you really want it that bad pay for a damn hooker.

  • Miths #27 9 months ago

    "I just want games that let me dismember enemies in spectacular fashion."

    And if they could make those enemies people who spam adverts for shoes and handbags on gaming sites, it would be even better.

  • orangpelupa #28 9 months ago

    ""Perhaps you're playing a detective game and you're playing a witness," Hocking suggested. "The game has got to decide whether you're lying, rather than you deciding whether the character's lying in the game, because we can look at your expression on your face."


    LA Noire.... in Reverse!

  • TelexStar #29 9 months ago

    When all our single-player games are plugged into facebook in 2014, what will be the point of this Shuhei? I'll already be able to punch little timmy in the virtual face and shoot off his knee caps before posting the in-game video to facebook won't I?

  • technotica #30 9 months ago

    In the 60s people though we'd all have jetpacks by the 90s, in the 2010s people think we will have a true AI by 2020...

  • frunk #31 9 months ago

    Could predict everyone would be down on this type of article... all too "blue sky" for most people. It is a shame - you should open your minds a little. Nope - this is not going to change anything now. But I am sure glad folks like Sony are looking this far forward for new games experiences.

    Bring it on! I LOVE the future!

    But you could sit here and moan... phht... "Polygons are so crap - I much prefer my sprite based games." "I don't need a mouse I have a keyboard - it can do more and its faster."... I have been in games since the 80's - things always change. That is why this world is still exciting.

    Some of it will fail, but some won't. Not trying is just insta-fail.

  • abigsmurf #32 9 months ago

    Dangerous experiences such as electro gonorrhea: the noisy killer!

  • TheEarlOfZinger #33 9 months ago

    Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine, was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.

  • 3william56 #34 9 months ago

    Milo had "dangerous experience" written all over it.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #35 9 months ago

    Besides, how on earth will they be able to improve on the AI we had in Brink?!

  • grussbarbar #36 9 months ago

    Sony branded Milo and Vitality Sensor combo confirmed. XP

    But seriously, I would welcome better A.I. since in most games, A.I. is pretty much non-existent. (We even consistently call it Artificial Stupidity around here.) I would prever improvements in basic movement/strategy and pathfinding before anyone tries to tackle the more advanced interaction A.I. though.

  • Quint2020 #37 9 months ago

    Say goodbye to game where the ultimate objective is shooting people in the face if this becomes a reality, just imagine the Mail headlines!

  • paulf #38 9 months ago

    @rodhull Tom Cruise coming out of the closet? More chance of seeing a 'perfect digital human'

  • Gumersindo #39 9 months ago

    Let the fantasy be fantasy and the reality be reality.
    Edited by Gumersindo at 17/08/11 @ 09:20

  • Whitster #40 9 months ago

    I want colourful games with stylised graphics full of whimsy, what are you doing in that regard sony?

  • Ptarmigandalf #41 9 months ago

    If Sony are really this out of touch with reality, then they are even more fucked than I thought. :-(

  • TopKatt #42 9 months ago

    I'm more interested in realistic worlds to explore.


    Maybe kill some stuff while I'm there.

  • Olemak #43 9 months ago

    Not really too keen on hyperrealism in games. I remember being annoyed at waiting outside of closed shops in Oblivion, because the shopkeepers were pretending to be asleep. I really dont want to wait outside a shop for hours just to discover that the proprietor har closed the shop indefinately in order to dynamically visit a relative in another city, just because the hyper-realistic emotion engine told it to.

    Maybe stuff like that could be cool in some games, like God games, I dont know, but I am not really all that interested in that kind of games.

  • madeinbeats #44 9 months ago

    Well, if that's true, then Sony fans are pretty, pretty creepy bastards!! At least we got an official launch date for the PS4 now though.

  • tursachan #45 9 months ago

    [link url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_in_video_gaming
    ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_in_vid...[/link]

    That's ten years ago. Gran Turismo, Max Payne, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Devil May Cry.

    My outlandish prediction for gaming in ten years time is that we'll be playing fundamentally the same games but they'll look better.

  • CloisterBlack #46 9 months ago

    Eh, we have already achieved realistic boob physics, so we got that out of the way.
    Everything else can wait.
    Edited by CloisterBlack at 17/08/11 @ 11:25

  • silver-jon #47 9 months ago

    I still remember the first time I felt that the character in a game resembled someone human. Not graphically, but in animation. It was in Half Life 2 when Alyx's father teased her about fancying Freeman and then she (I think) gave him an affectionate kiss on the cheek. Nothing fancy about the graphics. Just brilliance in the execution of character.

  • geeza2020 #48 9 months ago

    "Will we have AI that allows us to truly interact with a character, talk to a character, show the character objects and it can recognise them?"

    Nope

  • Rack #49 9 months ago

    Playing a witness in a detective game? Is that in between playing the linesman in a football game and part of the pit crew in an F1 game?

  • UncleLou #50 9 months ago

    Not sure what's with all the negativity here, he just voices a few interesting ideas. And let's be honest, if there is a good game once that features some of these ideas, you'll all be first in line.

  • arcam #51 9 months ago

    It's not cool to admit you like graphics any more. In fact I think it makes you a chav or something.

  • geeza2020 #52 9 months ago

    UncleLou - How can all of us be first in line? Thats a wide line ;-)

  • cyber_nicco #53 9 months ago

    I think he means "a human being in perfect digital form", not "the perfect human being in digital form".

  • Kaminari #54 9 months ago

    It always cracks me up when game devs talk about AI.

    There are some people out there called computer and cognitive scientists whose daily job for the past 40 years has been to work their ass off on true AI, yet Sony guys think they know better and can deliver genuine digital emotions. Wlecome to the real world, clowns.

  • CamberGreber #55 9 months ago

    We heard this same Hype Bullshit in 2001 a decade ago?

    Yah and the PS3 was sopossed to have every game in 1080p @60fps.

    Even the fastest Super Computers cant do real AI cause the software and the understanding of the human brain are still in there infancy.