EyePet Proves the EyeToy was a Missed Opportunity on Sony's Part

Slashagamer: "Wait, Sony still makes EyeToy games? Of course they do, but because of Project Natal, the camera accessory has taken a backseat as of late. We already know Natal is much more advance in terms of how well the unit reacts to human movements, but that doesn't mean the EyeToy can't impress either."

[MonkeyMan]

this augmented reality stuff is so much more interesting then using your body as a controller

[Greywulf]

lol.. Natal is the biggest fluff this gen with absolutely no retail titles in the near future.

yet from hitting a ball with your body, yep... much more advanced....

people are stupid this gen if they think natal is different than eyetoy and what its capable of.

Its a missed opportunity for sony who is releasing games that use Natals "technology" arleady. Does this make sense to anyone?

[chrisnick]

the second i have to use natal with my controller(for movement or otherwise), i'll immediately feel stupid for buying it.

[raztad]

Well, EyeToy tech is proving to be cool and interesting with EyePet, but I dont have any hope of/or want it becoming THE NEXT BIG THING. On the other hand I feel MS is hyping Natal to the roof, with the obvious result that the whole 360 fanbase is dreaming with playing Halo 4 waggling their arms, and running in place like idiots. Thankfully a guy from Bungie already set expectation low saying they dont think Natal could be use in Halo.

Final remark, it is still very far away the day when we can enjoy a gaming session w/o some kind of classic controls, for now all we got is some gimickry like Wii's rail shooters but nothing else.

[gambare]

"this augmented reality stuff is so much more interesting then using your body as a controller "

I wonder how that will work because many gamers hates the Wii motion controller because they need to move their hands and arms, same with the six axis, then what makes the devs people will love to move their entire body if they hate to move part of it?

[JonnyBigBoss]

I agree 100%.

[LoVeRSaMa]

"We already know Natal is much more advance in terms of how well the unit reacts to human movements, but that doesn't mean the EyeToy can't impress either."

That's a good point, how Advanced an item is isn't the most important thing in the gen prof of that in the Nintendo Wii, if it was purely down to tech then PS3 would be miles in the lead.

I believe its all about the marketing and advertising, a good line up of fun interactive games will also help of course.

[Blaze929]

"people are stupid this gen if they think natal is different than eyetoy and what its capable of. "

No, more like people are in denial if they think Natal is simply just another eye toy. The xbox 360 already has an eye toy, Xbox LIVE vision cam. Natal is not being limited to games nor the xbox 360 as well. But no no no, its just an eye toy!

/sarcasm

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

All it takes is a bunch of BS PR lines, a fancy video montage of fake demo's and now people are calling Natal more advance? Please....... There is no proof that such thing was done in realtime. Project Natal only proves one thing, that xbox fanboys are brainwashed by anything MS puts out.

[SRU9600]

I see that Natal still has the Sony faithful as nervous as ever. lol

Listen, stop trying to convince everyone that Natal is going to suck. It only serves to make you look desperate (and in serious denial).

[Omegasyde]

SRU9600 -

You can talk the smack then.

The games for it are going to be interesting, i.e. A hardcore game will find the controls inprecise and slow (like Wii Bowling and Tenis)

A casual person will like it until someone "video tapes" them jumping around like an idiot as if they are playing around with an imaginary sprinkler trying so desperately to get wet.

[JD_Shadow]

How DARE you say that it's a fluff when you can make an elephant using Natal:

[SRU9600]

Omegasyde, I'm not "talking smack", I'm simply saying that constantly trying to convince people that Natal will suck is lame, particularly when the tech looks as impressive as it does.

Let's keep it real, if Sony had developed Natal, many of those same Natal haters would be acting like Jesus Christ Himself had invented it.

[Biphter]

But the problem here is we are talking about the PS EYE on PS3 (Eyepet will not work with Eye Toy). This is where Sony have dropped the ball. How many games have been released for PS Eye? A hand full, and When was the last one released? Nearly TWO years ago!

Sony suddenly decided that the success they had with PS2 Eyetoy somehow wouldn't translate over to the Core users of PS3... WHY? I don't know, but off the momentum of Eye of the Beholder and all the small PSN games that came out a few years ago, they could have released a steady stream of games and really given a good alternative to Wii. But they decided to sit on it all. How hard could it have been to make a new Eye Play (Which Nintendo have totally ripped off with Wii Play). And even make an Eye Sports game??

Back in 2003/4, Eye toy was doing for PS2 what the Wii mote has done for Wii. I remember being at Roskilde festival here in Denmark in 2003 when I first saw Eye Play.. it was set up live for people to play and it was amazing!

So PS3 gets PS Eye and a hand full of odd but quite fun games and then thats that for two years. Great. My PS Eye has been used only for Video calls across the pond to relatives back in UK and a glorified mic until I got my Bluetooth Headset since.

I look forward to EyePet, but good god Sony, release MORE for PS Eye!

BTW, Eye Toy/PS Eye is proven, Natal isn't... yet. If Microsoft live up to the hype then great stuff, Natal will be amazing... but until then, don't pass it as the next big thing. In the past things touted as the next big thing end up being a huge let down. Its the things that come out of nowhere (Or Laughed at... Wii) that end up in that category.

[sniper-squeak]

...that each company has started copying each other now. First Sony with their six-axis and then Project Natal. Soon you have "EyeToy3" from Sony which will be copying Natal.

I've seen it happen with games too, it just depends on which company is more reliable/appealing at the end of the day.

[rockleex]

http://n4g.com/events_e3200...

Yup, Sony touched on Wiimote and Natal before Nintendo and Microsoft did. ^_^

Dr. Richard Marx from Sony made a breakout-type of tech demo by using 3DV's Z camera. Microsoft conveniently bought 3DV in 2009. Microsoft also showed a breakout tech demo with Natal in E3 this year. Hmmm, reminds you of something? ^_^

Dr. Richard Marx also demoed better 3D object motion tracking than the original Wiimote in the video. That just goes to show how long Sony had been working on their Motion Controller.

Companies always copy and improve upon each other. But it seems like Sony had came up with the ideas by themselves, and improved upon it by themselves!!!

The stupid thing is that Sony never showed off their improvements, and therefore Nintendo and Microsoft came along and made Sony look foolish. I just hope Sony has a bunch of hardcore and casual games on release day for their Motion Controller.

[fllysurfer]

not setting any high hopes...

[lloyd_wonder]

Funny how xbox vision 2 isn't even out and everything. How's the Eye Toy/ Pet taking a back seat to something that isn't even out? The thing is, no one knows whether or not this type of tech will ever take off and be as mainstream as the wii.

The tech serves no more of a purpose than the Wii or Sony's motion wand does for games. It's actually a step backwards for MS if you think about it. At least Eye Pet can be incorporated into Sony's motion controller.

http://www.youtube.com/watc... H

[Kleptic]

not to mention the camera for the PS3 is not an eye'toy'...its just the playstation Eye...

but yeah I agree...i love it when the media hypes crap that isn't even out, and how what is available is so inferior...judge Natal, and the PS3 Eye/wand combo, when they are both released...until then, leave them alone...the PS Eye is an excellent camera for not much money...if the wand is cheap too, thats great...but for now, the camera does a lot of cool stuff...

[D3acon]

add some force feedback gloves and I will have to buy something like this. POWER GLOVES, or something.

[wooferine]

It'd be nice if this article's writer checked the story's facts. The EyeToy is the camera used with the Playstation 2. The camera used with the Playstation 3 is called the Playstation Eye.

[Kamikaze135]

I wish it had more support.

[Corepred4]

that when my friend (xbox 360 lover) came over and saw me playing killzone 2, he laughed at me using the controller to turn the game's valves yet when he saw natal in action he was in so amazed. even though its pretty much exactly the same thing...

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Let's not bring Natal into this.

Those who are unwilling to accept what it really is will buy it.

Those of us who saw Sony's presentation...where they did the EXACT SAME STUFF...but with an added controller...know the truth.

The Eye is already capable of 3D imaging, thermal detection, vocal recognition, and facial recognition.

What makes Natal better?

Oh...that's right...Microsoft made a commercial about it.

[wAtdaFck]

I think what Microsoft has that Sony doesn't is this blitzkrieg style rush of marketing and advertising that just gets the public all pumped up. Microsoft showing of Project Natal on Jimmy Fallon? I bet they'll release a line of soft drinks dedicated to the niche, "YOU ARE THE CONTROLLER!" despite our skepticism of the lack of force feedback, impractical hardcore applications (well, so far), and just looking plain stupid.

Sony needs to get on the ball with marketing (r.i.p. Billy Mays). It was only this week that I grew some hype for EyePet, despite its announcement and trailers a year ago.

[beardpapa]

^ Natal + Halo + Mountain Dew = Ingredients to win the crowd over

I was telling my gf the other night about MS possibly creating their own retail chain to directly compete against the Apple stores, and I told her I thought it would be successful. Reason being that aside from MS being good at copying other techs, they're extremely good at marketing their products.

The way I see it is, they've never really had much originality to them. Nothing that screams "Microsoft made this." It's more like Product B is "Product A 1.2 - the Microsoft version."

[Omegasyde]

Thermal Detection? Sorry but no, You mean infrared then yes.

A Thermal Detection Camera would be pointless unless its for the Xbox 360. It might come in handy, to notify users that their gaming time is about to expire.

[Corepred4]

and i bet your gf didn't give a dam! lol and continued to text boyfriend #2 lmao

[Godmars290]

They should be able to do that, as well as voice command, before the wand is out.

[wAtdaFck]

Integration of Playstation Home, Playstation Store, and Life with Playstation (read: no loading) into a revamped XMB wouldn't be so bad either :D

[Godmars290]

Give it an app that it should have had years ago.

Though it would be cool if you could teleconference in HOME.

[zag]

I have a PS3 with the eye toy, it's been out for years, PS2 have sword game where you have a sword and swing it about to kill stuff.

Anyway, on the PS3 store there's around 10 games on there you can buy/download, some are great some a bit plain or short.

I have 2-3 of the eye toy games, eyepet looks interesting.

As for side things you can download the freebie eyetoy video recorder and record/edit videos for free.

You can already do video calls via the PS3 if both PS3's have eyetoy.

[Omegasyde]

I'd take cross game chat any day of the week over motion control XMB.

You need to censor your comments before Sony R&D reads your comment and actually put it into the next patch before chat.

I will remember your name and save many "swear words" for you if that does indeed happen Godmars290.

[The_Beast]

Did you watch the latest Eye Pet game play footage.

He made the menu pop and he was scrolling across by moving his hands.

[Neo604]

like selecting option with your hand

interact with object like a dodgeball.

voice reconiction like TC end war.

I don't know what esle Natal can do cause that's all MS showed.

[beardpapa]

someone on here posted a link to a youtube video of a comparison of the PS2 eyetoy & the marketing video for the Natal. The vid showed the eyetoy doing pretty much the stuff you mentioned.

Found the link in my history

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[siliticx]

Seemingly integrated with NXE and thats pretty much it.

The Eyetoy/PSEye really really needs more marketing and Eyepet seems to be the start of it.

[Saaking]

Natal is just a more (slightly) advanced and expensive (you know it won't cost less than $100 and you can find the pseye for around 25 bucks if you look) pseye. This is just like the PlayStation wand which is basically and upgraded Wii controller. However as someone above said MS touted Natal as being controller-free and therefore the moment you use a controller with it then it kind of goes against the point of natal (a controller-less experience as stated in the commercial)

[Godmars290]

So long as it doesn't apply to "casual" games.

MS can and probably will get away with making said claims if they make a Halo of COD title that needs one. Not if its Wiisports.

[beardpapa]

Just how is the Natal more advanced though? Just because it has an extra camera? Couldn't you just put an infrared light next to a webcam to illuminate the room and program software to interpret image w/ infrared?

I don't know, but if I were just an average joe consumer, I would've thought the natal was very advanced if only seeing the Jimmy fallon show an the milo tech demo. But because I've seen videos of EyeToy, played one long ago at ToysRus, and found through articles on n4g that milo was just smoke & mirrors, I now think Natal is simply just another webcam with an extra feature that can be DIY added easily with some time & effort.

[clintos59]

The media didnt wanna BELIEVE it. For us GAMERS its always been something NEW that SONT started but wasnt BIG in the medias EYES. People dont realise that sony tried the natal tech out but didnt like how it didnt respond to your ACTIONS that well & is a BIG reason sony didnt just use the tech themselves. From what we have seen with Eyepet it seems way more LEGIT than natal.

Its just funny how MS comes out with tech sony already worked with & because of MS is great advertising skills the MEDIA makes natal seem revolutionary when it hasnt even SHOWCASED anything LEGIT. Until we see Milo being runned like Eyepet, for now natal is just all SPECULATIONS.

[keysy420]

sony needs to put money into advertising this game every little girl in the world will want this. my daughter seen it and is going crazy over it.
Im acutally pissed at sony i may have to get her a ps3 now. with uncharted and other games coming i'm gonna want to be playing my system now everytime i walk into my living room i got to look at this furry thing running around. i could mess with it for a hour but she is gonna be crazy with the thing

[ngg12345]

have you played the games that used it. I mean this is just another natal is awesome because it uses video camera unlike that sony who could have used it and would have been as awesome as microsoft but knew that the eyetoy sucked and video camera gaming is terrible. Instead they bring in the sony wand which is just another wiimote clone I would guess this website is saying. Is the same site that wrote every pro natal article I'm wondering?

[ngg12345]

Of wagging your hand and making pictures with airplanes. It barely is that great and actually in reality is more of a tech demo (not really a tech demo because that is all you could do with a video camera technology).

[hakis86]

At least it's a "gimmick" that WORKS - that you can interact with in realtime, unlike Milo which several big sites has called smoke and mirrors (controlled by another person, and they had to do spesific things for him to work, right?).

I'm looking forward to see who's doing it best with the camera in a couple of years, for now this is more speculations and flamebait =)

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Stick to the forums please..

Nobody here cares what you have to say.

[hakis86]

Where can I find you in the forums - the 360 section?

I don't know why you disagreed with me, I just quoted what several big sites have written.

In the end we have to wait and see what happens.

[hakis86]

"We already know Natal is much more advance in terms of how well the unit reacts to human movements, but that doesn't mean the EyeToy can't impress either."

I didn't know that. I still don't know that. To me Sony's montion controller looks better than Natal, at least I can expect to play games like Elder Scrolls V and Fallout 4 WITH the Sony Wand. Can you do that with Natal, or will it be limited to games like Riccochet?

EDIT: typos

[Marty8370]

Natal is an inferior copycat product, thats a fact.

I mean MS had to fake the presentation at E3 cos it's vapourware.

Sony on the other hand had an actual prototype running.

[Gun_Senshi]

1) Mis informed idiot
2) its Playstation EYE not eyetoy
3) Tony Hawk said there is 3 second delay so no 1:1 tracking for natal

[Ninjamonkey]

I just dont understand why sony didnt market this better.

What sony SHOULD have done is to release the camera with a FULL eyetoy game. That would have created huge casual intrest...

Really eyetoy needs a re release if its ever going to get anywhere...

But it goes to show that sony could actually create the better motion tech here. Whilst MS just has NATAL, sony has a great controller AND this camera. All they need to do is update the tech a little.

[JesterMd]

Not sure why everyone thinks that Natal is not a proven technology. A software company would not release SDKs to the public if the product didn't work. That would've been a complete financial disaster if it really didn't work.

Natal is also being released to the PC market. So, the integration of this device could be used to navigate Windows and other programs (all dependent on how individual software developers implement it).

It's just silly to me to see the bickering back and forth of "Natal doesn't work" or "it's all fluff" when in fact there is development happening to incorporate Natal into their products by third-party developers and not just Microsoft doing integration.

This blind fanboyism may be why the Xbox was able to surpass the PS3 in sales (in the US anyways). One side constantly saying, "it can't be done" or "it's all fluff", and yet the competitor (MS) is sailing right by and implementing these features and/or technologies that fanboys said wasn't possible.

A good analogy would be like having scientists battle religious folks. No matter how much evidence scientists present on a particular, controversial subject, religious folks always say it's not true but have no true evidence to counter the scientists data.

[vShinobi]

Natal is more advance then EyePet anyone with eyes can see that, Natal will sell more because of the hype, will Natal be the next big thing? no, every single hardcore gamer i've talked said the samething "Natal looks ok but not for me" Natal will be a cool addition to have but it won't replace the controller nor will it "shut down the PS3" as fanboys say lmao seriously fanboys are funny...

360 fanboys: Natal will be the best thing in the history of mankind.
PS3 fanboys: Natal will fail its for kids.

Do you guys ever read back what you type?