EyeToy team questions format rivals

By Robert Purchese Published 25 November, 2008

Reckons You're in the Movies won't work.

Sony's EyeToy team has told GamesIndustry.biz that Microsoft and Nintendo will run into problems with their entirely distinct and not at all rippy-offy camera games.

"I think that [with You're In the Movies] they're probably going to have some technical difficulties to wrestle with," said Sandy Spangler, designer for EyeToy.

"They're using some technical elements that are not reliable, at least not according to our experience. They're using background subtraction to put you in the movie, and it's not very robust, that's why we haven't done it in any of our games. If the white shifts in the room or something, it can stop working."

"Good luck to them," she added.

You're in the Movies launches on Xbox 360 this Friday, but Spangler has been shocked by the lack of Xbox Live Vision camera support for the console across the board.

"It's surprising - the camera came out a while ago and they came out with the one download game, Totem Ball, and then that was it," she said.

The EyeToy team were much more receptive to Nintendo, however, offering the company praise for attracting a wider casual audience to videogames.

"I think it's just great, it's just making that many more people out there who maybe would never have thought about buying a videogame system or playing videogames - suddenly they're interested," said Spangler.

But the applause was short-lived, as Spangler and team believe - perhaps unsurprisingly - that EyeToy controls are superior to the Wiimote.

"It's more intuitive, it's very clear, as opposed to trying to figure out how to... use the Wii remote in ways that maybe naturally don't make sense. You wave it a lot to do activities where you wouldn't be waving in real life.

"Whereas what we always try and do with our games is make a direct correlation between the motion that you're doing and the action on screen, the effect you're having on the game."

Point your limbs at GamesIndustry.biz for the full interview with the EyeToy team, in which they talk about the future of the camera and the PS3's PlayStation Eye.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Widge #1 3 years ago

    I want an eyetoy, but not for £25

  • DFawkes #2 3 years ago

    I bet, should You're In the Movies work, he shall still refuse his Humble Pie.

  • KidCactus #3 3 years ago

    It's not like there's lots of software to the Playstation Eye either.
    Edited by 1 at 25/11/08 @ 13:59

  • Eraysor #4 3 years ago

    Doesn't anyone realise that the Eyetoy was a PS2 novelty that nobody cares about anymore? I haven't touched a camera-based game since the first one.

  • Oh-Bollox #5 3 years ago

    "Good luck to them," he added.

    "Good luck to them," he fucking lied.

  • systems #6 3 years ago

    I've got a Live Vision camera. The only use I've had of it is to make my head in RS:Vegas and RS:Vegas 2. I was hoping more games would use it (Oblivion, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, GRAW) but oh no. And now it's even pointless in the few arcade games which use it as they'll all support avatars instead.

    You're in the movies isn't doing well:
    http://ww w.metacritic.com/games/platform...

  • Tzetrik #7 3 years ago

    Its all great tech, but who really wants to support it? Its so gimmicky. The best use of any camera has to be the face mapper in R6V, I've not used it for anything else.

  • Razz #8 3 years ago

    There's a Wii camera?

  • BadDevotions #9 3 years ago

    @systems

    i couldn't get my face on RS:Vegas1 for some reason. couldn't see the option anywhere. :S

  • onyxbox #10 3 years ago

    It's not like there's lots of software to the Playstation Eye either.

    eyetoy has quite a few games to be honest... they're all on the PSN Store (including a free application for making your own videos with effects and stuff).

    And the Eye of Judgement is pretty cool... Eye Pet next year... doesn't LBP make use of it quite a bit too and singstar... you can even use it as a microphone for in game chat etc. (a bit like the Wii microphone thing)

    I'd say Sony have that all in order... the MS version is very 'Me too'... same goes for Avatars and Lips.

    On that note, Microsoft's efforts in this casual arena are a bit like those old Top of the Pops albums; not bad, slighly naff... good enough for some... but not the real deal.

    360's strengths definitely lie elsewhere and I bet MS drop support for all that like a stone once Christmas is out of the way.


  • Madafunkola #11 3 years ago

    The camera functionality on Burnout Paradise is always good for a giggle - on BOTH formats!

  • kangarootoo #12 3 years ago

    "The best use of any camera has to be the face mapper in R6V"

    "I've not used it for anything else."

    So on the basis of your own personal use, you are defining the limits of potential for an entire control system?


    "The most unimaginative use of any camera has to be the face mapper in R6V"

    Fixed.

  • IronCladChicken #13 3 years ago

    The best use must still the be the light sabre game some chap wrote in his puter a good few years before the eyetoy was released.

  • SEVQA #14 3 years ago

    For those lucky enough to have a backward compatible PS3 to PS2, I recommend you buy all the EyeToy Play games at bargain prices - the only thing though and this is inexplicably stupid, you have to buy the PS2 EyeToy camera for them to work as the PS3 camera wont work with the PS2 EyeToy games! but still worth it as the library is extensive and very fun especially EyeToy Groove!

  • ronuds #15 3 years ago

    "I'd say Sony have that all in order... the MS version is very 'Me too'... same goes for Avatars and Lips."

    Oh Lordy - another person who thinks Sony or Nintendo invented everything. Check out the history of avatars and karaoke games and I think you'll find they predate anything Sony or Nintendo has used them for.

  • SeesThroughAll #16 3 years ago

    Oh Lordy - another person who thinks Sony (?) or Nintendo invented everything.

    Sony? To be honest, quite a lot of people seem to think Nintendo invented the wheel or something, but Sony?

  • ronuds #17 3 years ago

    Sony for Singstar, Ninty for avatars.

  • pervertron #18 3 years ago

    Wait ... "You're In the Movies" won't work? But it's being developed by Zoe Mode (a Kuju subsiduary) .. you know, the one that did Eye Toy: 3, Eye Toy: Play Sports, Eye Create and Eye Toy: Astro Zoo.

    So they can't do Eye Toy games eh? So why did they do four of them already?


  • onyxbox #19 3 years ago

    Oh Lordy - another person who thinks Sony or Nintendo invented everything. Check out the history of avatars and karaoke games and I think you'll find they predate anything Sony or Nintendo has used them for.

    Eh?

    I think you might have miss understood me. I don't think Nintendo and Sony invented everything... I just think that if Nintendo had never put Mii's into the Wii experience I'd bet money on MS would not have Avatars, and if Sony hadn't had success with Singstar then MS would not have done Lips... and just to balance things out... I don't think Sony would have Trophies without MS doing Accheiments.

    This IMO qualifies calling 'Lips' a me too version of Singstar, I mean it's a direct rippof... presentation 'n everything. Same goes for Avatars... I mean c'mon the Avatars even run onto the screen and you get all that Nintendo type jingle when you save your Avatar.

    :-D

  • ronuds #20 3 years ago

    @ onybox

    But you can say "if x never did y then z never would have happened" regarding just about any situation. I'm sure Singstar was a ripoff from somewhere else, along with Mii's, etc., etc., etc. I'm not saying MS is authentic in any way, but neither are Sony or Nintendo.

    I get your point, though. :)

  • tonynibbles #21 3 years ago

    Well Wiimote does at least appear to be entirely ripped off from EyeToy right.

    Playing Wii Sports for the first time did feel remarkably like playing EyeToy Play 4 years earlier...

  • RedSparrows #22 3 years ago

    MS's attempts so far at appealing to a Singstar/Eyetoy/Buzz market have been pretty shoddy. You'd think they'd get some decent QA/cash behind it.

  • cheekyjay #23 3 years ago

    Personally, I think that the Playstation Eye is the peripheral that offers the MOST opportunities for new interesting input methods in gaming right now. Perhaps not the current commercial technology but potential future Eye-Toy style devices, with head and limb tracking software built in. Imagine a camera operated Wii Sports type game or some kind of Minority Report type input in strategy gaming or menu control. It's not too harsh a criticism to suggest that Nintendo have become aware of their own technology's shortcomings in terms of 1 to 1 input (look at the development of the Wii Motion Plus for evidence), but what they have shown is the ability (perhaps a necessity after the comercial shortcomings of the Gamecube, but nonetheless a huge achievement) to forge a new audience and really provide an intuitive casual experience (let's not mention the brand-weakening horrors of Wii Music!). What strikes me as odd is how Sony and Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom have thus far failed to capitalise on these areas. Sony Europe in particular have been notable in their recent absence from the market. The casual market lives on new IP, interesting new toy-like experiences that anyone can pick up and play. Sony did a great job on the PS2 bringing Buzz, Singstar and EyeToy to market, and certainly in the case of Singstar and Buzz have continued to lengthen the appeal of those brands on the PS3... but where's EyeToy? The PSEye has so far only had a fairly niche Japanese title developed for it, with NOTHING, not even Wii-ported shovelware adapted for the system. I am of course discounting PSN content, as however valid these efforts have been thus far, they just don't (yet) have any real appeal to the casual customer who's decisions are usually made by word-of-mouth advertising, and (sad as it is) box art! Considering the controllers for every PS3 have an albeit basic motion control ability built in, the combination of this plus camera SHOULD make for some truly unique games with broad appeal. And when it works it really works - compare Samba De Amigo on the Wii to the far more precise minigame version on the Sega EyeToy collection - approached right, in certain genres, this input CAN be superior to Wiimote input. We won't mention Microsoft's laughably low-key attack on the market with their vision camera as that has yet to amount to anything or prove itself technically, but Sony really do seem to be missing an opportunity. We approach 2009 with only EyePet officially announced for the camera - where are all the games that will bring a new audience to HD gaming? What is Sony europe doing? Was Phil Harrison right to step down over his Japanese colleagues inability to see the potential in casual gaming?
    Edited by 1 at 26/11/08 @ 01:14

  • onyxbox #24 3 years ago

    @rounds

    But you can say "if x never did y then z never would have happened" regarding just about any situation.

    yeah, I appreciate that... and I did feel a bit uncomfortable about putting that argument forward but at the same time needed a way to get across that these apps look a teeny bit too similar to be just inspired by the predecessor.

    :-)

    I get your point, though. :)

    cheers.

  • SEVQA #25 3 years ago

    2/10 for Burt - Good call EyeToy team - now lets have some more eye toy play and groove!