A young man crouches, staring intently into a small camera about 10 feet in front of him, hands balled into fists hovering at chest level. Overhead, his image flickers on a television screen as cartoon characters leap from a series of footbridges. He swings his hands in a circular motion, waxing on and waxing off, sending the animated avatars flying.
The sight of a man knocking digital characters askew stopped more than a few people at San Diego's Comic-Con last week. The blend of real and computer images smashed together on a game screen was too much for most to pass up. The furor was fueled by a new game peripheral from Sony called the EyeToy, a Universal Serial Bus camera with motion-tracking technology that places gamers' images on the screen and allows players to control action with their body movements in one of 12 custom PlayStation 2 games.
"We wanted to broaden the audience base that we have with the PlayStation 2, expanding beyond the people who were turned off by joysticks," said Richard Marks, Sony Computer Entertainment America research and development manager. "We weren't trying to create a better interface for Quake. We wanted something like Minority Report, where people could flip through information using their hands."
The EyeToy, which won't hit American stores until October, is part of a new push to build game peripherals that operate differently than the joysticks and game pads of the past. The reason: Publishers fear that casual gamers may be scared off by the ever-increasing complexity of controllers.
Companies are looking for ways to attract players intimidated by the multibutton, multidirectional pad devices, according to IDC analyst Schelley Olhava. It's an uphill battle because the most loyal gamers are accustomed to the boomerang-shaped controllers. Tinkering with that format could upset the core customer base.
"The market for the traditional peripherals continues to hum along," Olhava said. "There are occasionally changes that bring incremental sales, but there hasn't been a revolutionary change in some time that has galvanized the industry."
Despite the dearth of innovation, the peripheral market brought in $1.2 billion in 2002, according to the NPD Group.
Instead of creating one controller for everyone, companies now are looking to create customized devices that cater to varying experience levels. Microsoft, for instance, soon will release its Music Mixer software, which transforms the powerful Xbox game console into a karaoke machine. Players can create their own sing-along mixes by using the software to strip out vocal tracks from their favorite CDs, and then belt out those songs using a microphone that comes with the software.
But the customized game controller market isn't limited to casual players.
The Cymouse, for instance, is headgear akin to a miner's light. Developed by Maui Innovative Peripherals, the device sends light impulses to a sensor tower that is attached to the PC, letting the player's head movements direct on-screen action. It doesn't replace the keyboard and mouse; instead, it gives players another way to control characters.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,59808,00.html
The sight of a man knocking digital characters askew stopped more than a few people at San Diego's Comic-Con last week. The blend of real and computer images smashed together on a game screen was too much for most to pass up. The furor was fueled by a new game peripheral from Sony called the EyeToy, a Universal Serial Bus camera with motion-tracking technology that places gamers' images on the screen and allows players to control action with their body movements in one of 12 custom PlayStation 2 games.
"We wanted to broaden the audience base that we have with the PlayStation 2, expanding beyond the people who were turned off by joysticks," said Richard Marks, Sony Computer Entertainment America research and development manager. "We weren't trying to create a better interface for Quake. We wanted something like Minority Report, where people could flip through information using their hands."
The EyeToy, which won't hit American stores until October, is part of a new push to build game peripherals that operate differently than the joysticks and game pads of the past. The reason: Publishers fear that casual gamers may be scared off by the ever-increasing complexity of controllers.
Companies are looking for ways to attract players intimidated by the multibutton, multidirectional pad devices, according to IDC analyst Schelley Olhava. It's an uphill battle because the most loyal gamers are accustomed to the boomerang-shaped controllers. Tinkering with that format could upset the core customer base.
"The market for the traditional peripherals continues to hum along," Olhava said. "There are occasionally changes that bring incremental sales, but there hasn't been a revolutionary change in some time that has galvanized the industry."
Despite the dearth of innovation, the peripheral market brought in $1.2 billion in 2002, according to the NPD Group.
Instead of creating one controller for everyone, companies now are looking to create customized devices that cater to varying experience levels. Microsoft, for instance, soon will release its Music Mixer software, which transforms the powerful Xbox game console into a karaoke machine. Players can create their own sing-along mixes by using the software to strip out vocal tracks from their favorite CDs, and then belt out those songs using a microphone that comes with the software.
But the customized game controller market isn't limited to casual players.
The Cymouse, for instance, is headgear akin to a miner's light. Developed by Maui Innovative Peripherals, the device sends light impulses to a sensor tower that is attached to the PC, letting the player's head movements direct on-screen action. It doesn't replace the keyboard and mouse; instead, it gives players another way to control characters.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,59808,00.html