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PlayStation Move: Sports Champions

A chat with producer Olivier Banal.

EurogamerWhat do you think of it? When you saw the video did you think, 'Wow, that's really exciting,' or, 'Wow, I want one,' or, 'Wow, that's not as good as my magical electronic ping pong ball?'
Olivier Banal

It's brave to expand the whole motion control idea to mapping your whole body and then working from there. You can see that it could be good for adding another dimension to the traditional controls. I'm not a designer so I can't think of any ideas off the top of my head, but yeah, it's something that could just add a few more opportunities for smoke and mirrors in games.

In terms of pure motion control, I think it's probably not as accurate as Move is. But then maybe it lets you do more, so I don't know. It's very early days. It will be interesting to see what all the developers do with these technologies.

As far as Move is concerned I'm confident that with the level of accuracy we've got, the new control system will be a definite plus for gamers - whether they're hardcore or not.

EurogamerYou mentioned that you read Eurogamer earlier. I don't know if that includes the reader comments...
Olivier Banal

That's half the fun of Eurogamer!

EurogamerOne topic which crops up a lot when motion control is under discussion is the longevity of the Wii. Readers often say they bought one, had a bit of fun at first, but are now watching their machine gather dust. They have come to the conclusion that as hardcore gamers, motion control isn't for them. What would you say to convince them they're wrong?
Olivier Banal

I don't think it's my role to have a go at Nintendo...

EurogamerOh go on.
Olivier Banal

They may have set a precedent here. For some people, the only experience they've got of motion control is with the Wii, so when they first play a Move game they're not really moving around, they're not aware of exactly how much fidelity there is. That's something which needs to be communicated. The best way is to have a hands-on demonstration - grab a controller, see how it behaves and learn what you can get out of it.

For the more hardcore players, it's about the lack of games. Outside of Zelda and a few other titles... Games like No More Heroes bombed commercially.

EurogamerDoesn't that worry you? Sports Champions looks like a relatively hardcore game when compared to most of the Wii games out there. Is there an appetite for it?
Olivier Banal

A first step to signifying there is something for hardcore gamers here is by enhancing some of the franchises we've got with the motion controller, like SOCOM. By adding motion control you really change the way the game is played, and it works well.

But the Move is so accurate there will also be more depth to games that are built for Move from the ground-up. So it's kind of the best of both worlds.

The Eurogamer readers will probably make a fist out of anything I say anyway, so I'll just leave it there. I've got great expectations about the comments on this. We'll see what they say.

Olivier Banal is the European producer for PS3 exclusive Sports Champions. A release date for the game is yet to be announced.

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