Gaming in Motion: Taking on the Wii
The Wii may seem like an unstoppable force but In2Games reckons it has the answer – bringing motion-sensitive gaming to PS2 this year and to PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2008. Next-Gen recently had a chance to play some of the games and chat to director Harry Holmwood about the Wii’s limitations and his company’s ambitious plans.
UK-based In2Games has been receiving a bit more press over the last few months than it’s used to. There’s a buzz beginning to build around the release of its RealPlay series of games, motion-sensing PlayStation 2 titles, largely sports-based, that have inevitably been compared to Wii Sports. So, first things first, how similar is the RealPlay PS2 tech to that of the Wii?
“Realplay uses tilt technology, an accelerometer, along the lines of the way the Wii works,” says In2Games director Holmwood. “With the Wii, if you’re not pointing the controller at the screen it has no idea where it is. We use a 5G accelerometer whereas Nintendo uses a 2G accelerometer, the difference being that you can move ours around a bit faster before it starts getting confused.”
A common consumer misconception seems to be that In2Games is aping Nintendo following the dramatic success of the platform holder’s Wii console, something that couldn’t be further from the truth. As Holmwood points out, In2Games has been developing its technology since 2000, and had the firm which begun so humbly had more cash in its early days it would have got more product to market a lot sooner.
A little company In2Games may have been, but thanks to some grovelling and the remortgaging of homes it still managed to get its wired Gametrak 3D motion-sensing controller to market in 2004, followed by a brace of Real World Golf games that shifted 300,000 units.
While Gametrak was launched on a minimal budget, In2Games this year managed to secure around £8 million ($16.3 million) from investment firm Ingenious Media Active Capital, funds that allowed the company "to step up a gear” and facilitated the development of its new wireless, motion-sensitive technology.
In the run-up to Christmas In2Games will release RealPlay Puzzlesphere, Racing and Pool in the UK, followed by RealPlay Bowling, Tennis and Golf early in 2008. Each title will come with its own signature controller and offer users wireless gaming on PS2 via a USB-based system.
Next-Gen recently had a chance to play-test RealPlay Racing, Pool and Puzzlesphere, each of which was fairly impressive in its own right.
Puzzlesphere, a game that involves manipulating a physical sphere around skyline mazes, stood out the most. The early levels sampled were immediately addictive, although whether it will offer great variety in its later stages or keep gamers interested after extended play is yet to be seen.
RealPlay Racing, an arcade-style racer, comes with a motion-sensing steering wheel. It was easy enough to pick up the controls and was enjoyable even for someone not known for their fondness of racing games.
Pool was similarly easy to get the hang of, perhaps a little too easy, but it came with a range of game types including snooker that should keep the discerning pool player happy for some time. It’s worth pointing out that the pool cue controller felt slightly short though.
Overall the graphics were fairly good, the controls were responsive and the games were pretty fun. Unfortunately the titles available were only playable from relatively stationary positions – with RealPlay Tennis not on show, there was no running around the room to see how the controls matched up to the likes of a frantic game of Wii Tennis.
Although Next-Gen played them only briefly, In2Games was keen to point out that the depth of each title and multiple game types would justify the RRP of £34.99 ($71) per title. US releases have yet to be confirmed.
To be fair, the games do what they say they do on the box – if you haven’t got a Wii but you have a PS2 and you want to know what all the fuss is about, buy a RealPlay title. You will have fun.
“There’s 12 million or so Wii’s on the market... but there’s 120 million PlayStation 2s so that’s… our target audience.”
But has the funding from Ingenious Media arrived a little too late to make a serious impact on the market? Has the advent of the Wii been a help or a hindrance, and what’s going to make gamers side with In2Games over Nintendo?
“Nintendo opened up the market. When we were first touting our early prototypes, before the likes of Guitar Hero and SingStar were about, people would look at us like we were mad and say, ‘Why would people want to stand up and play games?’ “I think if it wasn’t for Nintendo, bizarrely, we probably would have had more of an uphill struggle because people now know this works. No matter how much noise we were making about motion-sensing gaming, frankly it took someone much bigger and stronger than us to come along and persuade people.
“If you have a Wii you’re still going to enjoy playing our games but it’s fair to say we’re targeting the kind of people that would want to play the Wii. There’s 12 million or so Wii’s on the market which is an amazing number, but there’s 120 million PlayStation 2s so that’s 108 million people that haven’t got a Wii. That’s our target audience.”
It’s impossible to tell how successful the RealPlay series of games will prove on PS2. The titles might lack some of the Nintendo charm but, if they’re any indicator of where In2Games is headed, there’s certainly going to be some next-gen excitement in store. As Holmwood admitted, motion sensing gaming on PS3 and Xbox 360 via In2Games’ next-gen system Freedom, set for release next year, is where it’s really going to be at.
Freedom won’t only offer gamers freedom and choice - crucially it will enable developers and third parties to spread their wings also.
“Freedom is a much more advanced next-gen motion capture system, where as RealPlay and Wii are motion-sensing, so they sense your motion, translate it to an extent and do something fun with it. Freedom is a motion capture system that has 3D ultrasonic positioning, so basically what that means is it knows precisely to within about 2mm where it is in your living room and what you’re doing. It’s the kind of technology that’s used to make Hollywood movies.
“When you first start playing Wii Sports it’s enormous fun, you’re jumping around all over the place and making these huge movements, but after a couple of days you end up playing it like this [Holmwood expresses a lack of motion] because you know you can. You can put it on the floor and kick it and it still plays tennis. We’re not criticizing it but accelerometer technology can really only take you so far. It’s good for knowing that you’ve moved but it’s not really that good at knowing in detail what you’ve done and exactly where you are.
“So Freedom can do all the casual Wii-type stuff but it can also go a lot further. Our goal is not just to have throwaway party sports games but in-depth sports simulation games. We’d love to work with EA Sports and bring Tiger Woods to Freedom, we’d love to have Virtua Tennis. Those types of products are much more than knockabout party titles, there’s a lot of subtlety and depth to them.”
While the RealPlay series of game could prove to be a hit this Christmas, it is next year’s launch of Freedom that may become a real thorn in the Wii's side. As Holmwood says, the ambitious system won’t only offer gamers freedom and choice - crucially it will enable developers and third parties to spread their wings also.
“One of the things that developers tell us about the Wii controller is that a lot of the things that they thought they could do, they can’t do. It kind of limits you to the kind of games that are already out there which is perhaps one of the reasons why Wii sports is still selling so well. People aren’t going out and buying title after title because actually Wii Sports does everything you can do with the Wii.
“My feeling is that most of the good software for Wii will come from Nintendo, as it always does on their platforms, because other publishers just don’t seem to make enough money out of Nintendo to justify the spend. Once we can bring this technology cross-platform I think you’re going to see a wider variety of motion sensing games on the market generally. Freedom is really more of a platform than a controller, whether you’ve got a 360 or a PS3, and lots of people are talking to us about bringing their Wii games onto other formats also.”
“I don’t think motion sensing gaming is going to eliminate the joystick as joysticks are really good at some things. When Freedom launches the controller will have standard functionality as well as motion-sensing functionality. So for example, if you were playing Tomb Raider, you could play it using standard controller functionality, but if you ran out of bullets you could start punching people, or if you wanted to swim you could swim. We’ve set out to create the ultimate device so that no matter what you think of it can do it. We want to give the developers every option.
“The hardware’s done and ready to go. We’re just looking at when’s best to go from a software and market point of view. We’re penciling in Easter 2008.” The battle lines have been drawn.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7353&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0
_______
an interesting thing about a console war discussion, pre next gen console release, about nintendo always being tight lipped about their projects because their ideas always get stolen/used
i.e. rumble pack, analog stick, multi controller port support etc
The Wii may seem like an unstoppable force but In2Games reckons it has the answer – bringing motion-sensitive gaming to PS2 this year and to PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2008. Next-Gen recently had a chance to play some of the games and chat to director Harry Holmwood about the Wii’s limitations and his company’s ambitious plans.
UK-based In2Games has been receiving a bit more press over the last few months than it’s used to. There’s a buzz beginning to build around the release of its RealPlay series of games, motion-sensing PlayStation 2 titles, largely sports-based, that have inevitably been compared to Wii Sports. So, first things first, how similar is the RealPlay PS2 tech to that of the Wii?
“Realplay uses tilt technology, an accelerometer, along the lines of the way the Wii works,” says In2Games director Holmwood. “With the Wii, if you’re not pointing the controller at the screen it has no idea where it is. We use a 5G accelerometer whereas Nintendo uses a 2G accelerometer, the difference being that you can move ours around a bit faster before it starts getting confused.”
A common consumer misconception seems to be that In2Games is aping Nintendo following the dramatic success of the platform holder’s Wii console, something that couldn’t be further from the truth. As Holmwood points out, In2Games has been developing its technology since 2000, and had the firm which begun so humbly had more cash in its early days it would have got more product to market a lot sooner.
A little company In2Games may have been, but thanks to some grovelling and the remortgaging of homes it still managed to get its wired Gametrak 3D motion-sensing controller to market in 2004, followed by a brace of Real World Golf games that shifted 300,000 units.
While Gametrak was launched on a minimal budget, In2Games this year managed to secure around £8 million ($16.3 million) from investment firm Ingenious Media Active Capital, funds that allowed the company "to step up a gear” and facilitated the development of its new wireless, motion-sensitive technology.
In the run-up to Christmas In2Games will release RealPlay Puzzlesphere, Racing and Pool in the UK, followed by RealPlay Bowling, Tennis and Golf early in 2008. Each title will come with its own signature controller and offer users wireless gaming on PS2 via a USB-based system.
Next-Gen recently had a chance to play-test RealPlay Racing, Pool and Puzzlesphere, each of which was fairly impressive in its own right.
Puzzlesphere, a game that involves manipulating a physical sphere around skyline mazes, stood out the most. The early levels sampled were immediately addictive, although whether it will offer great variety in its later stages or keep gamers interested after extended play is yet to be seen.
RealPlay Racing, an arcade-style racer, comes with a motion-sensing steering wheel. It was easy enough to pick up the controls and was enjoyable even for someone not known for their fondness of racing games.
Pool was similarly easy to get the hang of, perhaps a little too easy, but it came with a range of game types including snooker that should keep the discerning pool player happy for some time. It’s worth pointing out that the pool cue controller felt slightly short though.
Overall the graphics were fairly good, the controls were responsive and the games were pretty fun. Unfortunately the titles available were only playable from relatively stationary positions – with RealPlay Tennis not on show, there was no running around the room to see how the controls matched up to the likes of a frantic game of Wii Tennis.
Although Next-Gen played them only briefly, In2Games was keen to point out that the depth of each title and multiple game types would justify the RRP of £34.99 ($71) per title. US releases have yet to be confirmed.
To be fair, the games do what they say they do on the box – if you haven’t got a Wii but you have a PS2 and you want to know what all the fuss is about, buy a RealPlay title. You will have fun.
“There’s 12 million or so Wii’s on the market... but there’s 120 million PlayStation 2s so that’s… our target audience.”
But has the funding from Ingenious Media arrived a little too late to make a serious impact on the market? Has the advent of the Wii been a help or a hindrance, and what’s going to make gamers side with In2Games over Nintendo?
“Nintendo opened up the market. When we were first touting our early prototypes, before the likes of Guitar Hero and SingStar were about, people would look at us like we were mad and say, ‘Why would people want to stand up and play games?’ “I think if it wasn’t for Nintendo, bizarrely, we probably would have had more of an uphill struggle because people now know this works. No matter how much noise we were making about motion-sensing gaming, frankly it took someone much bigger and stronger than us to come along and persuade people.
“If you have a Wii you’re still going to enjoy playing our games but it’s fair to say we’re targeting the kind of people that would want to play the Wii. There’s 12 million or so Wii’s on the market which is an amazing number, but there’s 120 million PlayStation 2s so that’s 108 million people that haven’t got a Wii. That’s our target audience.”
It’s impossible to tell how successful the RealPlay series of games will prove on PS2. The titles might lack some of the Nintendo charm but, if they’re any indicator of where In2Games is headed, there’s certainly going to be some next-gen excitement in store. As Holmwood admitted, motion sensing gaming on PS3 and Xbox 360 via In2Games’ next-gen system Freedom, set for release next year, is where it’s really going to be at.
Freedom won’t only offer gamers freedom and choice - crucially it will enable developers and third parties to spread their wings also.
“Freedom is a much more advanced next-gen motion capture system, where as RealPlay and Wii are motion-sensing, so they sense your motion, translate it to an extent and do something fun with it. Freedom is a motion capture system that has 3D ultrasonic positioning, so basically what that means is it knows precisely to within about 2mm where it is in your living room and what you’re doing. It’s the kind of technology that’s used to make Hollywood movies.
“When you first start playing Wii Sports it’s enormous fun, you’re jumping around all over the place and making these huge movements, but after a couple of days you end up playing it like this [Holmwood expresses a lack of motion] because you know you can. You can put it on the floor and kick it and it still plays tennis. We’re not criticizing it but accelerometer technology can really only take you so far. It’s good for knowing that you’ve moved but it’s not really that good at knowing in detail what you’ve done and exactly where you are.
“So Freedom can do all the casual Wii-type stuff but it can also go a lot further. Our goal is not just to have throwaway party sports games but in-depth sports simulation games. We’d love to work with EA Sports and bring Tiger Woods to Freedom, we’d love to have Virtua Tennis. Those types of products are much more than knockabout party titles, there’s a lot of subtlety and depth to them.”
While the RealPlay series of game could prove to be a hit this Christmas, it is next year’s launch of Freedom that may become a real thorn in the Wii's side. As Holmwood says, the ambitious system won’t only offer gamers freedom and choice - crucially it will enable developers and third parties to spread their wings also.
“One of the things that developers tell us about the Wii controller is that a lot of the things that they thought they could do, they can’t do. It kind of limits you to the kind of games that are already out there which is perhaps one of the reasons why Wii sports is still selling so well. People aren’t going out and buying title after title because actually Wii Sports does everything you can do with the Wii.
“My feeling is that most of the good software for Wii will come from Nintendo, as it always does on their platforms, because other publishers just don’t seem to make enough money out of Nintendo to justify the spend. Once we can bring this technology cross-platform I think you’re going to see a wider variety of motion sensing games on the market generally. Freedom is really more of a platform than a controller, whether you’ve got a 360 or a PS3, and lots of people are talking to us about bringing their Wii games onto other formats also.”
“I don’t think motion sensing gaming is going to eliminate the joystick as joysticks are really good at some things. When Freedom launches the controller will have standard functionality as well as motion-sensing functionality. So for example, if you were playing Tomb Raider, you could play it using standard controller functionality, but if you ran out of bullets you could start punching people, or if you wanted to swim you could swim. We’ve set out to create the ultimate device so that no matter what you think of it can do it. We want to give the developers every option.
“The hardware’s done and ready to go. We’re just looking at when’s best to go from a software and market point of view. We’re penciling in Easter 2008.” The battle lines have been drawn.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7353&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0
_______
an interesting thing about a console war discussion, pre next gen console release, about nintendo always being tight lipped about their projects because their ideas always get stolen/used
i.e. rumble pack, analog stick, multi controller port support etc