14 DAY TRIAL // Sony might now be doing too well as a company this year but the company has quite big plans for the future and says that in the next 10 years players will be able to enjoy virtual experiences that, in a lot of ways, cannot be distinguished from real world ones.
Speaking at the Gamescom 2011 trade show Shuhei Yoshida, who is the leader of the Sony Worldwide Studios, has said, “I think what people want in games in ten years is the perfect human being in digital form, where you can’t tell the difference if it’s real or digital. In your reality it’s a human.”
Mick Hocking, who is the head of the 3D gaming development effort at Sony, added, “In 10 years, are we going to be able to interact with characters in the games? Will we have AI that allows us to truly interact with a character, talk to a character, show the character objects and it can recognize them?”.
Both executives have said that some virtual experiences are possible even now, using nothing more than an EyeToy, a PlayStation 3 and a television set that supports the 3D tech from Sony.
The company is also investing more each year into Research & Development linked to 3D and to virtual spaces and creating complex worlds that immerse the player will likely be one of the big features of the next home console from Sony.
Sony has not talked about its plans for a new home console and has emphasized that the PlayStation 3 has a 10 year long life cycle.
A number of analysts have suggested that an announcement about the PlayStation 4 might be made at E3 during 2012 with a launch date set for 2013.
At the Gamescom 2011 press conference Sony also announced that it will cut the price of the PS3 to 249 dollars.