PlayStation Move: Sports Champions
A chat with producer Olivier Banal.
Move offers the most accurate simulation you can get. With the combination of the gyrometer, the accelerometer and the light tracking, you basically have motion tracking in a 3D environment. If you turn the bat to a certain angle then the physics engine identifies that, and adapts the trajectory of the ball like in accordance with the physics. So you can put in as much spin as you want and replicate what you'd do in real life.
The challenge for the team right now is to make sure that players get into the game and aren't frustrated after five minutes spent missing the ball. Once they're used to that you can move on to a more realistic setting, one which allows players to have more control and get closer to a realistic experience. That's something I believe we can achieve with Move.
There are three modes. The single-player is called Progression mode because it takes you through the different events, switching difficulty levels up when you complete them in one setting. So you start on easy, move to normal and then hard, which is basically full physics - nothing is forgiven, it's all about how accurate you are. The single-player experience is meant to educate you about the game mechanics.
Free Play is kind of a social mode. You can jump straight into an event, multiplayer if you want, and just play away. Challenge mode has mini-game variations on every event. For example, in table tennis, you'll have a robot hitting different balls to you, in archery there's moving target practice, things like that.
Sports Champions doesn't use the sub-controller, it uses one or two Move controllers. Some events you can play one after the other, like golf, so you can just share one controller and pass it along. Then you've got split-screen multiplayer for events like the gladiator duel and table tennis, where you're standing side-by-side and swinging away.
This is something I can't comment on. I've been told not to say anything about it. And I'm a very obedient employee, so I'll just obey and not say anything.
I saw a video a couple of days ago. I don't know a lot about it but I know kind of get the idea of how it works and how much of your body it maps, which is immensely different from what the motion controller does... So what do you want me to tell you about Natal?