TGS: Sony Plays Up Markerless AR To Underline PS Vita's Power

Talking at the Gamasutra-attended Tokyo Game Show Forum on Thursday, a duo of Sony execs showcased the company's upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld - with interesting focus on markerless AR technology for Vita and Android-based PlayStation Suite SDKs for games across multiple PlayStation-certified devices. Sony SVP Kissei Matsumoto, kicking off the event, referenced the PlayStation Vita, recently revealed as debuting in Japan on December 17th, very specifically as an "interactive entertainment world" - not just as a game handheld. It's designed to be "used in your daily life" and to have daily interactions with other users. He further re-emphasized the intended 'Swiss army knife' set of features for the soon to debut PlayStation Portable follow-up, which combines the 5" OLED screen and dual analog sticks with a touchscreen and rear touchscreen pad, as well as motion sensing technology. Noting that the handheld will launch in North America and Europe early next year, with more information soon, Matsumoto specified that around 150 companies are confirmed for active PlayStation Vita development. Once again, English language promotion videos punctuated the Japanese language press conference, showing the importance of international success for the PS Vita. It was "social gaming revolution" that stood out, with Sony firstly promoting interacting with friends and other users - and implementing this throughout the OS for PS Vita. In terms of differentiating from regular smartphone games, a live demonstration from Yoshida of Resistance: Burning Skies clearly showed higher graphical fidelity than average iPhone or iPad titles, and more importantly, dual analog controls. Adding touchscreen elements for picking weapons and throwing grenades - and showcasing lots of social interactions - is the way Sony intends to differentiate for its higher-end titles. Augmented reality was also emphasized as a key part of PS Vita's future, with a demo showcasing multiple AR cards spawning virtual avatars on a large table. This was not in itself that standout, and is also available on Nintendo's 3DS and some smartphones. But a technology demo for 'markerless AR' was particularly impressive in theory. Although just a tech demo at this time, It showed the ability to move the camera to get the PlayStation Vita to recognize three dimensional space separately of any markers. You can then see characters (in this case, the Ape Escape apes) naturally placed in 'real life', thanks to the camera and gyroscope correctly understanding the nature of the 3D space. Yoshida noted that they were still developing this feature for the PS Vita operating system and were working with developers to decide the best way to complete it. Other features such as Remote Play between the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita were promoted strongly by Sony during the event, with Yoshida showing a PS Vita using Torne, a TV/DVR program that launched in Japan in PlayStation 3. The demo showcased allowed remote TV programming and the ability to watch TV shows in a different room from from the PS3 (which recorded the show in the first place). Next, Yoshida then showed Killzone 3 streaming over WiFi from the PlayStation 3 to PlayStation Vita - true 'cloud gaming' over a network. He did note that some buttons are missing on Vita versus PS3. But some adaptions such as 'back touch to zoom' for shooters may be made - presumably via a patch - to allow the ability to play a PS3 game on PS Vita, using the processing power of a PS3. The demonstration juddered a little bit in a couple of places, but overall showed the proof of concept satisfactorily. WIth the rise of services like Netflix and Hulu in the U.S., and many more available TV sets in the average Western home to play higher-resolution games, it's unclear whether this functionality will be completely apposite for non-Japanese audiences. But it's nonetheless something Sony feels strongly about. A penultimate demonstration involved LittleBitPlanet 2, with a 'King Kong'-style level having one player on PlayStation 3 being aided by another player on PlayStation Vita using a touchscreen to control a plane - another example of Sony's 'network'-based approach. Finally, Matsumoto went on to detail the PlayStation Suite SDK, which allows specially coded Android-based games to appear via PlayStation Network on PlayStation Vita, and has an SDK debuting in November. Onstage demonstrators showcased a simple shooting game which is running on both Xperia Play - the Sony Ericsson cellphone - and PlayStation Vita simultaneously, using a version of Android. In addition, a Sony tablet was shown using the PlayStation Suite SDK to showcase some of the elements of this SDK, which is intended to have a low barrier of entry for anyone, even users, to make basic applications that can then be applied across Sony tablets, PlayStation Vita and the Xperia Play. As summarized by Matsumoto, the list of PlayStation Certified devices includes devices like the Sony tablet series S series and P series, as well as the Xperia Play - and the PlayStation Vita. Sony is clearly keen to allow less graphically complex, lower barrier to entry titles and thereby expand the Sony brand and versions of the PlayStation Store across many different devices. But the 'Rolls Royce' of on-the-go gaming is still intended to be the Vita, and it was Sony's signature next-generation handheld that got the majority of the attention in this high-profile Tokyo Game Show setting.