Sony began as a very small company known as the 'Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo' (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company) founded by genius's Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita in 1946. After World War 2, in crippled Japan, Ibuka and Morita began they're own business repairing communication radios and producing voltmeters in hopes to push Japan's future in technology, where new electronics could be imagined and introduced. It was with that motivation and ambition, that the pair first developed the new innovative 'Rice Cooker' and although limited to stock due to supplies, was a growing success. It was then with their achievement they knew they had to become a bigger corporation and expand their knowledge across the world. Pairing with other countries such as the United Kingdom and America to fulfill materials and recruits, it was then when TTK was owned by a new corporation that it took the name of SONY. Derived from the latin word 'Sonus' meaning sound and the American English word 'Sonny boy' which suited the general atmosphere of the business at the time, with young, enthusiastic and motivated people, who thrived to make a difference in the world of technology. Although the name wasn't officially changed until 1958, Sony produced it's first recording tape in 1950, that was constructed with a magnetite-coated paper base. This was known as the G-Type. From their success, Sony were offered the licensing to use transistors in their productions in 1954, and it was then when the TR-55 Transistor radio was born in 1955.
Sony's PlayStation 1 first came into development in 1988 during the decade of the almighty CD-ROM. With Sony leading the technological future of entertainment, it joined a Dutch company named 'Philips' at producing the CD-ROM/XA, an addition to the CD-ROM format that compressed audio and video information together with the use of extra work from computers. From this advancement, Sony's passion for innovation made them hungry for something bigger, something better.
In 1988 Nintendo were dominating the Video game universe with the NES and not with much competition either. It was then Sony decided to partner with Nintendo to create a CD-ROM advancement for the Super NES to be released in 1989. It was Sony's chance to join this new world and create something new and who else better than with the world's leading Video game company, the almighty Nintendo. However, with such control of the contract, Sony had a tight grip over the regulations made between themselves and Nintendo. With that, the lead Nintendo President 'Hiroshi Yamauchi' cancelled the contract and developed a new partnership with 'Philips' and made the the CD-1.
It was then Sony took the technology they had developed with Nintendo and decided to make their own gaming machine. The Sony PlayStation was primarily supposed to be a multi format machine, capable of playing both CD-ROM and Nintendo cartridges. However, with the CD-ROM format controlling the future of technological entertainment, the idea was ditched so that the 'PlayStation' could be a more dedicated gaming machine, pushing the boundaries of it's format into a new realm of video entertainment. Sony knew how competitive the gaming market was in terms of successful software titles, so it was an imminent decision to partner up with various other parts of the business, such as Sony Music and Columbia Pictures to develop ideas where games could evolve. Using advanced software with the strong R3000 processor and CPU hardware in the PlayStation, Sony began visualizing the future of gaming to be a machine aimed for older, more serious gamers. It was with that thought, that 3-Dimensional gaming took the reins and thus pushed Sony to form partnerships with third party video game developers. Such company's as NAMCO, Williams and Konami (resulting to the powerful Tekken, Mortal Kombat III and Ridge Racer) proved perfect in order to gain recognition and proof that Sony were serious with their new product. Using the powerful new hardware of the PlayStation, boasting to the companies that they're games would change forever.
The Sony PlayStation 2 was first announced in 1999, boasting new technology and advancements. Although up against it's competitors such as Nintendo's 'Gamecube' and Sega's 'Dreamcast', the PlayStation 2 had more to offer it's loyal consumers. The inclusion of the 'Emotion' engine allowed the machine to be backwards compatible with it's successors software titles. It also included a full DVD player which was the first for any gaming console, making the PS2 a multimedia entertainment system. Alongside that feature, the PS2 introduced a new hardware 'Texture Interpolation' to anti-alias the edges of the graphics, making the visual quality of it's games outstanding.
Then came the PlayStation 3, released November 11th, 2006 alongside its competitors the Nintendo 'Wii' and Microsoft's 'Xbox 360' in their fight to be the console to succeed in the 7th generation of gaming. With the success of the PlayStation 2 multimedia element, the PS3 kept those important assets. Introducing the new Blu-Ray player capable of playing incredible high definition audio and visual graphics.
Sony's Move.me is a piece of software that allows players to experiment with coding technology using the Move 3D motion controls. It seems evident from this piece of software that Sony are encouraging a broader audience to use the software, not necessarily gaming coders. I am assuming similar to that of the technologies behind Microsoft Xbox 360's Kinect motion camera sensor that is also used for other things than gaming. The Kinect camera is used in medical, military and educational purposes to make life more efficient in certain job roles. I believe Sony are aiming to do something similar with the Move.me software, enabling anyone to be able to make anything they want from it.
This sort of control could be used more beneficially for it's accuracy than the Kinect. Although Kinect has done exceeding well outside of the gaming market, it still isn't precise enough for certain job roles. The Move controls have that ability to control and manipulate a scene more precisely, making it ideal for such jobs in the Military, Medicine and can be used to improve teaching facilities. There are many ways in which the Move.me software and controls can be used to be beneficial outside of it's usual gaming target. The potential for innovation is massive here, giving your audience something they can make they're own ideas out of, sells incredibly well.
People like to be given the freedom to make their own ideas come to life and be creative. It has become increasingly popular over the last 5 years, different platforms of media are giving their consumers freedom to produce and make their ideas reality. In gaming titles such as 'Little Big Planet' where players have the freedom to create their own interactive levels using the tools in the Editing mode. It is also evident in application software such as Microsoft's Indie marketplace on Xbox live, or the iOS software for the iPhone. It is becoming increasingly popular to give your audience the freedom to be able to create whatever they wish to, I think this is what Sony are aiming for with the Move.me technology. Instead of making it primarily suitable with games, give it to the audience to make what they want of it.
I was actually able to play test the Sony Move.me software with a small group of fellow students at my University. I actually rented the equipment for a total 4 hours, but found our testing was done in the first half hour. My experience of the Move.me was pretty disappointing and not necessarily based around the software potential. I have no doubt the Move.me product can do exceedingly well, however from my experience there is a lot that can be changed to improve this. My initial reaction to the play test was the use of the Move controls and the preset 'tools' we were able to use. The primary controller would represent that of an animated, 3D sword that does react very well to the motion sensor. However, that's where the excitement ceased. After 5 minutes of testing the depth of field with the control and animated object, moving it around and testing it's boundaries, my group began to feel this is all we could do with the software, which of course wasn't true. However, the problem lay with the fact that the Move software is controlled through coding in the top left hand side of the screen. All of us in the group admitted that the aesthetic appeal of the coding, didn't look so good even before we played on it. Through time of actually using the software, it became obvious that if you didn't understand code, this would feel confusing and pointless.
I made an attempt to rectify this problem and researched on a computer, different applications of code that could be put into the Move.me software, so we could perhaps use different animated objects or even get to play a small game. With much scanning of online PlayStation Forums and topic discussions, I found a few links to sites that including coding in which I could input into the Move.me software and use. Once I found this, I became convinced we could get some solid play testing underway. However, with the lack of coding knowledge and with no way to connect the computer to the PlayStation, it became impossible to transfer any code to the console. Even if I managed to find a way, I would've never known how to import it. I tried first transferring the data through a flash drive, then through Ethernet and USB to USB, but could not find out in any way how to input the codes. I began thinking if we needed a keyboard and had to do it manually, but the length of the coding on the play tests I found, meant we would've spent more time inputting the actual data than playing the game.
How I think the Move.me can be improved:
. Making the Move.me software more accessible to anyone no matter what their specific skills. It is evident with the software that you need to have some understanding of coding in order to benefit from the program. With someone such as myself and my play test group lacked, we were unable to get anything out of the system, which left us feeling really disappointed. Although admittedly there are people who that can do incredible things with coding and that element should still be featured. I think it's important to make it easier or more simplistic for people with little knowledge of coding, to be able to get the software functioning accordingly. As previously mentioned, gamers have managed to produce outstanding things withing customizable software tools based on their simplicity.
. Instead of making it assume you're inputting code, make it more simple by including the codes in downloadable documents. Such as downloading a pack of features that automatically inputs the data into the system, instead of the consumer having to read pages of code and trying to figure out how to import it. The technology can still be there for the high tech types, but is easy enough for people to navigate through it. I think it's also important to make the software more documented/narrated, so that consumers can understand how to use the software. It was quite off putting and baffling to see lines of code covering half the television screen. If needed entirely it should be represented in a more efficient way, perhaps in a tool bar?
. Give the consumer more to play with. Although I understand this is a play test of the software, I couldn't help but think waving a sword around was a substantial feature of how powerful this product can be. Giving more for your audience to play with, build with will increase the understand of the controls and how the motion sensors manipulate those tools. It is with making the experience more simplistic and inviting that will encourage a broader audience to try it out.
Overall I believe the best move for Sony with this software is it make it less coding based and more simplistic so that other audiences can navigate through it. I also think the inclusion of a visible tool bar when downloadable codes can be immediately transferred through to the system via WiFi, flash drive or any other device. I strongly believe the software should follow in the footsteps or similar methods the iOS devices use. The Applications store is the most successful and reliable place to find out or do pretty much anything you want to. If the Move.me software adopted this technique and made it more community based, it has the potential to be hugely successful. Making apps as downloadable code, encouraging others to work together to make new and innovative things. Making the Move.me accessible to anyone and everyone, means a broader audience can let their imaginations work with it. It's with that trust in your audience you will begin to see incredible new innovations and ideas unfold. Instead of being concerned of what to make for it, let the consumers make what they want of it and it's from there a trusted community can be born, working and playing together to make the Move technology succeed. It has so much potential, it just needs to focus more on making it easily accessible for EVERYONE.
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