Move.me

Introduction:

Motion controls have somewhat taken the video game industry by storm as of late, with the success of the Nintendo Wii, it was inevitable that it's competition would attempt to cater to the family audience that buy motion control oriented games. With the Sony playstation 3 using the formula of an object the player holds that the console detects, and with Xbox using Kinect to recognize the players body. There have been successful games on both systems and many failures. With there currently being games set to be released that that they will "re invent kinect/playstation move"

Taking everything into account, Sony have decided to release a newer version of the playstation move, but this time round, allowing the player to go within the development kit. And create his/her own applications or games by doing so. With the hope that more creative options can be opened and stretch the motion control market even further.

This will be called the Playstation Move.Me

The history of Sony:

The beginning


"Originally called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo telecommunications Engineering Company), Sony's roots go back over half a century to 1946 when it was founded by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita."

During the aftermath of post world war disaster that overtook Japan, Sony was creating new inventions and electronic devices that would pave the way for their future success. their first innovative device being an electronic rice cooker. Although it had limited success, it would be one of the first in a long line of creative and revolutionary devices in years to come.

The two engineers knew that they would need to create a brand that could be recognized overseas, to assist with this. A new name would have to be created. As the name "TTK" was already in use by another company, the name "Sony" was then conceived. The name "Sony" comes from the latin word sonus. Which means sound, and the english word of Sonny boy. A word used by americans in the 1950's to denote a bright youngster.

The take off of Sony's success was the invention of the worlds first pocket radio. An invention that would act as a stepping stone to the global success that sony would later receive, as Sony became more popular overseas they marked their place in the uk electronics world. By opening a factory in the United Kingdom in 1968, making them the first major Japanese company to open a factory there.

Becoming Sony Computer Entertainment

May 18th 1994, this was when Sony Computer Entertainment was officially launched in the United States to market the upcoming Playstation console. During that year, the playstation was well under development in japan, but SCE of America was founded to assist the development of the console in the US. Up to that point it had received very little headway.

Sony ventured into the computer gaming world during the time of the super nintendo/sega genesis. As Sega's popularity had increased and was owning 52% of the market due to the release of the Sega CD, Nintendo decided that they were going to compete with Sega and make a CD unit of their own. This would be carried out with the help of sony, who would manufacture the CD unit named the "play station". However Sony would be faced with an unforseen circumstance.

behind the scenes, Nintendo was having some second thoughts, it had occurred to them that they would not own any rights the the CD technology. And due to Sony being the company that would manufacture and sell the system, Nintendo realized that in terms of profit, things could be bad for them in the long run. Because of this concern, Nintendo went to Phillips and had asked them to make a CD unit for them at the same time, whilst telling Sony that everything was ok.

So in 1991, at CES, Sony had announced the Nintendo play station, being oblivious to the deal Nintendo had made with Phillips. However, at the very same show. Nintendo announced that they were going to be releasing their own CD unit, and that Phillips would be the ones making the hardware. Ken Kutaragi, the man behind the Sony playstation then had talks with Norio Ohga, who was one of the higher ups within Sony. After having discussions with his bosses, Ken was able to pursuade Sony to begin work on their own console, they were to keep their CD technology and build a whole console around that. And they would name this the Sony Playstation.

originally, Sony was dead set against making an entire console When Ken Kutaragi proposed it to them originally. They stated that they were not a toy company, and that they were not going to get involved in that side of the market. However, due to Nintendo's sudden change of loyalty behind the back of Sony, they gave Ken the green light to go ahead with production of the playstation.

Marketing


An important factor was to ensure that the console had games, the main problem initially was that many third party companies were scared to work with technology as advanced as the 3d graphics the PS1 was capable of. So at first, many companies didn't want to get themselves involved. However due to the success of virtua fighter, many companies realized that it was possible to make successful 3d games that would work on the console. From that point on, Sony found itself with 250 companies under their belt in japan alone.

Looking at how the Sega Saturn and Panasonic 3D0 failed was vital, and they found themselves asking "what did these consoles do that we have to do better?" Taking this thought into mind. Alongside a fierce lineup of games over the first couple of years. Sony was able to compete with all of it's competitors, and even surpassing Sega due to the failure of the Sega Saturn.

"Many other consoles at the time were advertising video games systems as toys for kids to play, we were serious in marketing our system as an interactive electronic entertainment device aimed towards everyone."


Move.Me:


In terms of the demo version that i was able to play it performed just like the regular play station move, Due to the camera picking up a light as opposed to the human body it was very responsive. Unfortunately the only game i had access to was a sword game, so having played a sword game on the Move prior to testing there was nothing new for me to experience. However, none the less. The game worked fine.

In terms of motion control, I feel that holding onto an object is the way forward, due to bad experiences with xbox kinect and the motion controls being unresponsive due to the camera having to detect your whole body. At heart the game play must still exist, if the game itself isn't fun, or is frustrating then the player will get bored quickly.

The issue i find that motion controls as a whole have, is that there are certain types of game that just don't seem to work well with the motion controls. This is where i feel that there is a large problem. And that many hardcore gamers turn their backs on motion controls altogether, why would they spend money on a console add on that allows motion controls, but offers them a watered down experience of a genre they could enjoy more with a regular control pad. A style of game will need to be created using the Move.Me technology that will only be accessible with the motion control method, instead of using body movements to just select motions on a control pad that many games are currently doing.

If not, then use the extensive controls to somewhat revolutionize the way a current genre is played, for example. It could perhaps be possible to take a strategy game, and move your selected units around the battlefield using motions with the remote. Or take a music game and the player could take the role of a conductor, and the player is in charge of an entire orchestra. this could give an interesting twist on the music game scene, which is dropping in popularity rapidly.

Although the Move.Me allows people to create their own edits into existing software such as maya/3ds max for example, taking an object you've created and picking it up and looking at it. Although this is a clever idea, when it's broken down it may become an inconvenience. Why would the user plug in two remotes and move an object about when they could just use the shortcut keys on their keyboard and do it that way? This is an issue I think Sony will need to seriously consider if they intend this to take off.

One thought that crossed my mind was using the remote as perhaps some sort of mokap. As motion capture suits are extremely expensive and only AAA game titles seem to use them, with the right amount of knowledge in application creation, someone may be able to create a program that uses the lights on the remote and can be attached to animation that way. Even if the animation won't apply to a human skeleton, the recognition of two separate lights could lead potential for some form of motion capture involving the remotes. If this were to be successfully implemented, The playstation move.me could be considered a version of motion capture, as well as motion control. Which could not only prove that motion controls fit into the future of the games industry, but more serious hobbyists would be persuaded to try it out.

Conclusion:


Sony have achieved a lot over the years, and have always released their systems or add ons boasting the most advanced technology for the state we are currently in. However, for the Move.Me to really take off among gamers, it is going to need more than just responsive controls. To many, motion controls at this current state seem like a gimmick to snare families due to the success of the Wii. It personally feels that the ideas are all there, but the main issue is the format of how they are to be executed. Using motion controls to use in programs is a fantastic idea, however the fact the move controllers are so large, and that they seem very much like a gaming remote makes it hard to picture in practicality.

It feels to me that it will be a few more years until we really see motion control take off. Until that time, I feel like that Sony should take their own words into account. "They have the technology, but they don't have the games" In terms of the playstation, the games will always be the most important thing.