This term we were asked to look at Sony PlayStations, Move.Me and the potential of what it can be used for and how. Before beginning this research I decided to look at the history of Sony the company, Sony Computer Entertainment and how they have stood against other video game hardware developers.
The history of Sony the company
Sony’s history can be dated back to 1946 Tokyo, when two men, engineer Masaru Ibuka and physicist Akio Morita, founded the company. Originally named Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company) Ibuka and Morita made a living repairing radios and manufacturing small numbers of voltmeters in the crippled economy of post war Japan, whilst looking to develop a future in designing and manufacturing new electronics. Ibuka had a desire to create products for everyday life and so their first electronic innovation was an automatic rice cooker. It was a primitive product that often produced undercooked or over cooked rice which meant its success was limited, however it was the start of a long line of innovations. Ibuka and Morita were global thinkers, as it was with the radio transmitters and rice cooker, the pair thought about appealing to the masses and expanding the business in to the US and later Europe. To do this they realised the need for a global brand which crossed cultural and language borders. Due to another company using the name TTK, the company needed a new name, which is when Sony was born. The name Sony derives from the Latin word sonus meaning sound and the English word “sonny-boy” - a term used by Americans in the 1950’s to denote a bright youngster. It was chosen for its simple pronunciation that is the same in any language. Since those early days in Tokyo, Sony has continued to grow across the globe and become the household name that it is today due to innovation and a desire to create everyday use products.
History of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE)
The origins of Playstation go as far back as 1986, when Sony was working with Nintendo to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the upcoming Super Nintendo console, to be called the Super Disc. Relationships between the two companies soon collapsed when a day after Sony revealed its console, Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with Sony, opting to go with Phillips instead but using the same technology. An infuriated Sony president, Norio Ohga, then appointed Ken Kutaragi (a Sony executive promoted from his hardware engineering devision) the responsibility of the development of the PlayStation project to rival Nintendo. Sony used the Super Disc technology as the basis for its own PlayStation, then combined a CD/SNES cartridge-playing system. The development of the PlayStation faced a lot of criticism from the video games industry and at a meeting to decide its fate on whether to retain the project or not, Kutaragi had to remind Sony executives of the humiliation they suffered from Nintendo, in order to retain the project.
Sony later went on to establish a new branch company, Sony Computer Entertainment in November 1993 in Tokyo Japan, and after many designs and prototypes Sony Computer Entertainment finally released the PlayStation in December 1994. The PlayStation faced tough competition from Sega’s Saturn and Nintendos Ultra 64, however sales soon sky rocketed and were appearing all over homes in Japan and Europe in 1996. This up rise is sales was largely to do with price reductions and the humorous SAP’s (Society against PlayStation) commercials. Humorous advertising has proved successful throughout the PlayStation years, with the infamous Kevin Butler adverts for the PS3 (PlayStation 3) being popular in today’s video game market. At the start of 1998, worldwide software shipments hit a gargantuan 200 million units and, by the end of the year, hardware production was nearing the magic 50 million mark. Sony Computer Entertainment have gone from strength to strength, from the release of the PlayStation 2 in 2000,the PlayStation 3 in 2006 and with the soon to be released PlayStation Vita.
Other platforms, competition
Since the release of the PlayStation, Sony Computer Entertainment have had tough competition to compete with. From the Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn when PlayStation was first released, to the Xbox, when Microsoft decided to join the hardware development at the turn of the century, to the today, where PS3 is suffering tough competition in the form of Nintendo’s Wii and Xbox’ Kinect and their initiative game play.
Sega Saturn
SCE’s first main competition was Sega, who released their first 32-bit piece of hardware, the Sega Saturn, just eleven days before the PlayStation was released. Sega had been working on the development of the Saturn for over two years, making sure it met the needs of both the eastern and western markets, yet rushed the final specifications so they could release it before Sony. Sony was new to the games industry and therefore Sega already had the upper hand over the PlayStation for its familiarity in the market. This meant that by the end of the year, Sega had sold out of their original 170,000 Saturn’s, whereas some of the original 100,000 PlayStations remained on store shelves. Even though PlayStation was the superior machine in terms of hardware (due to its sophisticated 3D geometric graphics, ability to play full motion videos and external memory cards) it could not beat Sega’s popular titles such as Virtua Fighter. Since Japans release, the Saturn was showing to be more popular, yet Sega still feared the PlayStation because in May 1995, at the first Electronic Entertainment Exhibition (E3), Sega announced that their launch date for Americas release of the Saturn (September 2nd later that year) was actually a decoy to throw off Sony (who had announced they would be releasing the PlayStation 20 days later on 22nd September) and released 30,000 Saturn’s that very day in four retail chains. Fortunately for Sony, this bombshell backfired on Sega as third party companies were not prepared and so had no games to release for the Saturn. Big retail chains that had not been involved were also upset, and some even refused to carry the Saturn or its successor the Dreamcast in its store, allocating this now empty shelf space to the PlayStation.
N64 and Dreamcast
By 1996, Sony’s PlayStation had new competition in the form of Nintendo’s 64-bit console, the N64. At least 80 percent of the original 300,000 N64s were pre-ordered and the rest sold out on the release date in Japan. A month before the American launch, Nintendo made a last-minute announcement that the N64 would go on sale for just $200, preventing Sony and Sega from planning any competitive price cuts. The PlayStation had become more and more popular and clearly the N64 was selling well (probably due to price cuts, popular titles such as the Legend of Zelda series, and familiar characters such as Mario) yet the Saturn was far behind in third place. To overcome this, in 1997, Sega decided they needed a new console and sought help from Microsoft in the development of this new system named the Dreamcast. This was an immediate hit amongst hardcore gamers and was the first console to embrace online gaming. Sales of the Dreamcast lead it into second place ahead of the N64, however, when Sony announced it would be releasing the PlayStation 2 later that year (2000), sales of the Dreamcast began to stall.
Xbox
Since aiding with the development of Sega’s Dreamcast, Microsoft had gained insight into the world of designing video game hardware and Bill Gates announced that they would be releasing their own console. Ironically, this announcement led to the death of the Dreamcast as Sega believed the introduction of another console would simply damage sales even more and so Sega stopped production of the Dreamcast in March 2001 and stayed in the video game business as a software developer. Microsoft then released the Xbox in 2001. Nintendo launched the Game Cube three days after the Xbox was released, this new system was Nintendo’s first non cartridge system and all though it was not as powerful as its two competitors, Nintendo was hoping that their stable, familiar faces such as Mario, Zelda and Pokemon would keep their console popular. As was proven in the battle between the Saturn and PlayStation, the superiority of the machine doesn’t hold unless the popularity of the software can match.
Online Play
In late 2002, the race for online gaming began with the announcement by Microsoft that they would be introducing Xbox Live, a subscription based server that allowed players to compete against each other online. Although Sony’s PS2 was outselling Xbox, they realised they had to enter the world of online gaming as well if they were going to retain their lead, and so Sony released a network adapter that could be attached to the PS2 for online play. In November 2005, Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 and in 2006 Sony launched the PS3, by 2007 the competition between these two systems was high, but Sony had new competition in the form of Nintendo’s new innovative console that appealed to the untouched market of non-gamers, the Wii. After one full month of availability, the Wii seemed to be the favourite of the three systems maybe because of its cheaper price, or pure interest in the unique game play. To this day, a clear lead cannot be seen between these three competitors. The race is on for Microsoft and Sony to release and perfect their own form of unique game play just as Nintendo did with the Wii.
Move. Me
Sony’s attempt at perfecting their own form of unique game play has been to take their PlayStation Move (which works similar to the Wii, using the PlayStation Eye Camera to track the wands position and internal sensors detect the motions) and create something more than just a game. Sony Computer Entertainment have now released the Move.Me, which is not a game, but a software server application that uses the PlayStation Move Controller as an input device. It is designed for programmers to be inventive and create whatever they can using this with PlayStation 3, PlayStation Eye Camera and a PC. Sony wants to see what can be done with the PlayStation Move.Me and whether it can change the way we traditionally play games.
Practical research and testing
Our university was given a copy of the Move.Me development kit so we could use and experiment with it to gain a better understanding of its capabilities. Once everything was set up, we were all given a chance to use it. As I held the PlayStation Move Wand in my hand, I was reminded of my first time playing Eye Toy: Play, yet this time, it wasn’t just the image from the camera which reacted to and detected movement. The sword onscreen responded well with my movements of the PlayStation Wand, not only detected its location, but its direction as well, unfortunately this was all I could experiment with as it was the only code given. I could see how others with experience in coding etc could create more, but as for myself, there was not much else I could do with it.
Ideas of application
Something I would like to see done with the Move.Me, is where players can input and record their own moves and motions rather than imitating ones. This could be used in a Dance style game, which have recently become ever popular with Wii’s Just Dance, Xbox Kinects Dance Central and PS3 Moves DanceStar to name a few. This could encourage players to create their own routines, ultimately recording steps or specific moves that could be shared across the PlayStation Network. This would suit professional dancers to beginning learners. This idea could also be used in some games the same way as Nintendo’s Drawn to Life requires the player to create items to use in the game, for example creating personalised weapons or vehicles and other interactive objects.
In conclusion, I feel that Sony have released this product too early; like Nintendo did with the Wii, they should have waited and perfected it. My research has shown me that to show off its true potential, any piece of hardware needs to have a great piece of software too. I can understand their wish to release this software before any competitors release something similar, but first it needs something that really explains what it does and how to use it. If it can be made easier for use, not just coders and programmers, I think this could become a huge well known piece of software that could develop into something similar to the Apple store, or things of that kind, where anyone can create their own applications and games to share with other PlayStation owners.
No comments:
Post a Comment