What with the massive drop-off in the sale of PSP game hardware still continuing, and the massive pressure being put on the traditional mobile game platforms by the explosion of free and cheap games on the iPhone, its great to see that Sony is not giving up without a fight!
And in one exciting new direction they are clearly thinking outside the box…er PSP - literally!! Its early days yet, but the release last year of Invizimals and the release last week of Second Sight, signal perhaps, that Sony is prepared to take the PSP into the 21st century - and to a place that iPhones cannot go?
Both Invizimals and Second Sight make use of the PSP Cam to add an extra dimension to the game or learning experience. The camera is used to input extra information to the PSP which then is used to either add extra characters to the game or generate extra video or 3D experiences for students.
Now whilst neither the game nor the edu-tool are particularly exciting for most PSP gamers (and in fact are not even available for PSP gamers in the USA) they may signal new directions for PSP games.
Adding credibility to this observation is the patent filed by Sony where the PSP is used to operate a remote car using a camera on the car - which, like the above two “games” then inputs that info to the PSP. In the patent, apparently, it actually describes the purpose as:
a user may control the car… so as to spy on their friends… then upload the stored video images to a website.”
The point is that Sony is clearly experimenting with ways to take our gaming experiences interactive with the real world. And once they take this step - the opportunities for developing dramatic new game experiences are endless.
In other words we think (hope?) that these recent moves from Sony signal that completely new game experiences are about to be developed.
