Sony: Despite PlayStation Move’s Accuracy, Users Don’t Want “Accurate” Game Play

According to Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida, game players do not want a super accurate game playing experience, despite the technological accuracy that the company’s Move accessory can achieve in tracking user’s movement. While the Move is said to be more accurate than the Wii controllers from rival Nintendo, Sony says that they’re not trying to be a simulator as that will make game playing unplayable. Yoshida says, “You have to be very good at pingpong in real life if we make a simulator.” However, because the game has built-in algorithms, even people with poor pingpong skills can master a gameplay on the gaming console: “he game does a lot of assisting so that you won’t miserably fail.”

Yoshida had sat down with Wired to talk about the Move and the company’s strategy with game playing and how it will build video games to take advantage of better tracking accuracy, thanks to the Move’s system. Accuracy of tracking movements will aid in creating a depth of game play, while helping beginners move through levels and attaining a sense of achievement will create for a more engaging experience that’s more enjoyable.

We never intended to use the accuracy as-is, because that makes games totally unplayable…. But people love one-to-one, they really enjoy seeing on the screen what you are doing, actually tracked. Our teams have devised a way to make you feel that everything you do is accurately tracked….It’s taking the intent of the player by looking exactly at what he or she is doing, but assisting, filtering it a little bit, and still giving a little bit of what he or she has done. You feel like, “This is what I intended.” It makes you feel like a good player, but still allows people to progress from entry level to advanced. You remove the assistance bit by bit. Games become more challenging, but at the same time you understand completely that if you fail it’s your fault, and if you succeed it’s your achievement. I think that’s a new requirement for designing games using accurate motion tracking. But unless you have accurate motion tracking, you cannot create that depth of gameplay.

You can read more about Sony’s strategy and ideas for the Move on Wired.

Casey Pham
Categories: Gadgets, Gaming
Tags: Accessories, gaming controller, move, PlayStation, playstation move, Sony