Sony’s booth was
packed with gaming goodness, but the best surprise came from an item that isn’t
a game at all. It has mini-games, numerous features and will unite hundreds of
thousands of gamers all across the country, if not the world. It expands on the
power of the EyeToy camera, hinting at things that will almost certainly come
standard with PS3.
What is this thing
that I speak of? EyeToy Chat, Sony’s first foray into face-to-face chatting.
Using an EyeToy camera, a PS2 and a broadband Internet connection, gamers,
family, friends, strangers, aunts, uncles – absolutely anyone can get in front
of the camera and chat face-to-face with another person. Pets can chat too,
though I hear they’re camera shy. (Who knew?)
In other words,
what Sony is working on is a video phone for PS2, the first ever console game
video phone ever attempted. I tried but had no luck connecting to their network
at E3, so I can’t judge the software just yet. What I can tell you is that the
video should be pretty smooth by the time it’s complete.
Facts:
-
Video Phone Capabilities: 2 people
(or as many as you can cram into two EyeToy cameras) -
Voice Chat Capabilities: 16 people
-
Text Chat Capabilities: 256 people
Video messages can
be sent back and forth to your friends. Your address book holds approximately
255 addresses, so it’s unlikely that you’ll ever run out of space to store all
your contacts. There will also be the ability to search for others to chat
with. Mini-games include chess and backgammon, among others in the classic
board game genre. EyeToy Chat is intended to be an item that everyone will want
to own, therefore the games were designed for a broad range of players, most of
which will be older than the typical hardcore gamer.
This thing has a
lot of potential. I look forward to seeing its concept fully realized when it’s
released this summer.
