Platform and distribution Essay

The origins of the Sony corporation can be traced back to the end of World War II.  Physicist Akio Morita and engineer Masaru Ibuka founded the company itself in 1946.  Masaru Ibuka started a repair shop for radio’s at the end of the war, he later joined Akio Morita to form a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. the company responsible for creating the first tape recorder in Japan, known as the Type-G. Being men of vision, the pair wanted to expand their company across international boarders. This was realised by Ibuka who travelled to the United States in the early 50’s in an attempt to expand. Ibuka discovered a company named Bell Labs and manufactured a deal with them to license their transistors to them allowing TKK to use it for communications as opposed to military use which is what most companies were researching the use of transistors for, this became a commercial success.

In 1995 TKK manufactured two transistors that became successful in not just Japan but also Germany and other areas of the globe, it was around this time that TTK chose to iterate their company name. Another Company was already using the initials TKK and Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was hard to pronounce for some international countries. Ibuka and Morita came up with Sony which is an amalgamation of the Latin word sonus (meaning sonic or sound) and sonny, an American term used for boy. In 1956 Sony made another commercial hit when they produced the TR-6 a device that rivalled portable tube radios in terms of sound quality.

TR-6

Sony later had a rival with JVC considering videotape formats. Sony had developed the Betamax whereas JVC was marketing the VHS. JVC would be deemed the winner as Betamax died out and VHS went on for many years as the successful format.

One of the most notable successes of Sony’s time was the creation of the Sony Walkman which later went on to introduce the use of CD’s. This success would go on to blossom the way the world stores data. These days the Walkman has adapted to utilise MP3 and MP4.

One of the more recent triumph of the Sony company was the creation the Sony Blu-ray DVD players, the victor over the similar Toshiba HD DVD. At the end of 2007 Blu-ray had roped in the backing from most major studios excluding Paramount, DreamWorks and Universal. In recent years more and more older films are being released in the Blu-ray format with revitalised graphics and never before seen extras to heighten to viewers experience, theses include special features that would have not been previously featured on the films DVD release.

Sony have had many breakthroughs and numerous successes throughout there time and are one of the most successful corporations ever, this is however a brief overview of what they have achieved.

The First Walkman

In 1994 Sony had another success story and arguably their biggest when they broke into the gaming industry with their answer to the Nintendo and Sega gaming consoles, the aptly named Playstation. From the mind of Ken Kutaragi, Sony’s console came about after collaboration with Nintendo fell through when Nintendo went behind Sony’s back and released there console without the agreed use of Sony’s CD drive.

Ken Kutaragi pushed for Sony to release their own console and eventually Sony agreed and the Playstation was released to compete alongside the Sega system and the N64. The Playstation proved itself to be a formidable competitor to the more seasoned iteration of Nintendo’s consoles and it became a huge success. It showed capabilities of utilizing greater level graphics then the other consoles as well as the ability to save data via the use of memory cards, which went on to change the video gaming landscape.

Sony would go on to release 2 very successful sequels to the Playstation as well as two handheld gaming consoles one with relative success the other is yet to be determined the extent of its success.

In 2000 the first sequel to the Playstation was released, the Playstation 2. It proved to be a colossal success and became the best selling console of all time, selling over 150 million units. The Playstation 2 generation of competitors were the Nintendo Gamecube and Microsoft’s Xbox, nether of which could compete with the PS2 sales. Following the Nintendo method, Sony brought some of the franchises from the Playstation onto the new consoles; these included Crash Bandicoot, Tekken, Spyro and many more. Towards the end of the consoles life the sequel to God of War showed just how far the PS2’s graphical capabilities could be pushed, this being the perfect swan song to the PS2.

A new generation of consoles came about and in 2006 Sony released the PS3 to compete alongside Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. This Iteration introduced Higher Graphical capabilities as well as a Blu-ray DVD player and Enhanced Networking capabilities and other added benefits.

Like Sony’s Consoles, its controllers have iterated over time as well. Sony’s controller has been the least iterated of the 3 console companies where Nintendo’s have changed dramatically as well as tweaking to the size and layout of Microsoft’s controllers.

In the world of fighting games, the most favoured controller other than a fight stick is the Playstation design, the reason being that it is the most comfortable and the dual analogue sticks feature a better grip when compared to the Xbox 360’s that have a tendency to wear over time. The PS3 alongside Nintendo and Xbox, introduced wireless controllers allowing the players to sit or stand larger distances from the console then ever before.

Recently Microsoft and Sony have released their answer to motion controls; the kinect and Playstation Move respectively. Although Nintendo have been greeted by great success with their foray into motion control gaming, Sony and Microsoft have not been greeted with the same success. Nintendo success can be chalked up to many things but the two that seem the most prominent seem to be the audience and the accessibility of the Nintendo Wii.

The marketing of the Nintendo Wii is almost always aimed at families, and there games are mostly aimed at a broad age range. Most of the franchises games such as Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong have been adapted to feature a drop in drop out game mechanic to encourage the inclusion of others in a previously single player experience. Due to the large target audience, the games have to be accessible to all; therefore flagship games such as Wii sports have an extremely simple manner of playing.

Kinect as opted for a different route, where Nintendo’s is used to emulate physical activities in groups such as bowling or tennis; Xbox is using the Kinect to actually encourage physical activity through kinect. By this I mean that Microsoft are using kinect as a workout scheme, utilizing various franchises such as Zumba and UFC for workout regimes. This approach at the minute is proving to be fruitful but not critically successful.

The Playstation Move is using a more rounded approach with a more recent advert featuring sporting gaming as well as more traditional action gaming (swords and violence ect)

Whatever the result Motion and peripheral gaming is intended and believed by some to be the future of gaming, some believe that kinect is a step in the right direction by losing the controller all together. Despite this I believe that nothing will truly take the place of a controller as I personally am a lazy gamer, I intend my use of a gaming console to be one of a stress reliever at the end of a long day, more of an escape. At this present time, I don’t believe that motion controls have captured the same sense of immersion that the complexity of a controller has. That being said there are some interesting routes that motion controls can travel down and should attempt to if they are indeed the next step in gaming.

Sony has recently released the Move.Me, an add on to the Playstation 3 and iteration of the Playstation Move. Using the Playstation Move setup and a PC, You are able to effectively use the Move as input device for whatever you can conjure, making it a development kit ideal for indie developers. Sony’s website list the Move.Me potential for being used in children’s physical fitness, physical therapy, fitness training, music, creative arts and much more.

My problem with the Move.Me is that it doesn’t really know what it is yet, intended for so much yet it doesn’t really have a use yet until the developers get a hold of it and start to push it in a particular route. My experience with the Move.Me proved unfruitful, as I was unable to do much with the software other than play with a sword peripheral. I found the Move itself responsive and surely a joy to toy around with unfortunately as I have no coding experience I was unable to put the Move.me to proper use. I followed some general coding instructions provided with the Move.me but was still unable to produce anything of worth. This problem could maybe be addressed with the induction of an online series of tutorials introducing the public to the basics of using the Move.me. 

As I said earlier that the Move.Me isn’t sure what it is yet, I further extend this comment by saying that it’s cutting its audience to fine. Firstly you need a PS3 and Move, this is expected but then you also need a reasonable powerful computer if it is intended for use with 3d software. This is really limiting the audience to only indie developers as only a small minority of the public have coding knowledge.

Unfortunately I only got an afternoon with the Move.Me and being an artist with very limited knowledge of coding I was hindered, I would very much like to get together with someone who is familiar with the Move.Me and attempt to bring some of my Art to life, possibly create some mini-games out of something I have created, in this respect the Move.me has potential for me in the future.

In terms of where to take the Move.Me, I like the idea of it being used in the real world as opposed to living rooms, if Sony could introduce the Move.Me for educational purposes I can see it being very effective especially in terms of special needs and physiotherapy situations. If the Motion Controls and the Moves camera can be utilised fully then a possibility of motion capture could pave the way for amateur animators to make their start in the industry.

There is a good possibility of it being utilised in the music industry, possibly in the same vein as the Theremin where the placement of hands on the instrument effect pitch and tone of the sound produced, Move could further improve this by having the distance from the camera effect the sound essentially bring musical conducting to life. Further utilisation of the camera could include bringing colour to the music and the users movements, making it truly new musical experience, this with added audio editing software could open the market up to Indie music artists.

Emma Coolidge is a character from the show heroes who can see sound as colours.
This is medically known as synesthesia. if this could be emulated into a real time App/game then the results could be mesmerizing. 

  

In conclusion I believe there is possibility for Move.Me to flourish but it’s not going to find it’s place in video gaming culture or find an audience in general without some prompting from a third party professional developer who can bring some sort of software or accessible interface to help along the creativity.

I think if Sony were to release a few software applications to go with the Move.Me that would allow the user to have some sort of objective with there creativity, such as a music editor or creator then the Move.Me would seem much more attractive to a wider audience.

Article: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/history.html [accessed February 26 2012]

Article: http://www.sony.co.uk/article/id/1060176719725[accessed February 26 2012]

Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony[accessed February 26 2012]

Article: http://us.playstation.com/ps3/playstation-move/move-me/[accessed February 26 2012]

TR-6 image : http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3114/3134686010_a15eede3b4_z.jpg [accessed February 26 2012]

Sony Walkman image : http://www.gadgetroad.com/wp-content/uploads/Image/2007/February/Multimedia/new-sony-walkman/Sony-walkman-2.jpg [accessed February 26 2012]

PS1 image: http://www.gamesplusus.com/product_images/h/584/ps1__84654.jpg [accessed February 26 2012]

PS2 Image: http://www.allconsolerepairs.co.uk/ps2-repair.jpg [accessed February 26 2012]

Move Image: http://www.pspgweber.com/images/PSPNews/PS3-PlayStation_Move-Game-Titles.jpg [accessed February 26 2012]

Heroes Character image: http://cymatica.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Emmasynesthesia406.jpg [accessed February 26 2012]