Sony boss Kaz Hirai has said during his Tokyo Game Show keynote that he wants a role for emotions in videogames, it’s ”not fully developed” as a concept and we can do more.
The basic principle is to be able to ”express emotion” and right now it’s ”not possible to reflect” how you feel. Measuring things like heartbeat, body temp are some ways to do it.
”Emotional input is still not fully developed… I think the games industry can still develop even more. One of its unique characteristics is that as technology develops, the way you express things, the number of colours on the palette increases as technology develops,” said Hirai.
While your vitals could be captured as an input it’s ”not realistic to have sensors all over your body”, meaning he could be keeping tabs on Nintendo’s Vitality sensor due in 2010.
”The basic idea is to express emotion,” he said, reports Eurogamer. ”I’ve always felt that when you’re enjoying games, there may be a build-up of excitement or sadness or joy… But it’s not possible to reflect your emotions into the game… I think we haven’t really realised the potential yet.”
Heavy Rain is cited as drawing out emotional responses from players, and has been a big thing for Sony to promote with its ambitious creator at Quantic Dreams. Does emotion matter?