As we near a new console generation gamers will soon welcome an age where parity is the special of the day. No longer will consoles be unique devices — each will try to borrow from the other's lead, and vice versa.
Case in point: a recent claim from Sony that their motion camera, the PlayStation Eye, is capable of registering gestures not unlike the Kinect. In fact, gesture-based UI navigation could come to the PS4 in a later update.
Speaking at Tokyo Game Show 2013, Sony's Masayasu Ito revealed the PlayStation 4 camera's capabilities "could go deeper" if Sony was willing to push the peripheral. As it stands now, the PlayStation Eye supports voice navigation and facial recognition, but it could also support swipes and very basic hand gestures in the future.
For that matter, Sony has yet to detail just how advanced the facial recognition and voice navigation will be on the PS4, only that the peripheral will support the features at launch. Their presentations thus far have focused on PS4 dashboard's ease of use as well as its simple sharing capabilities, not on alternate forms of navigation.
Whether motion-controlled navigation is something Sony is interested in, however, is another question entirely. It's one thing to say the PlayStation Camera is capable of a feature, but to actually implement it, and to implement it well, will take some work. We will have to wait and see whether motion-controlled navigation reaches the PS4 in the months, or maybe years, following the release of the console on November 15th.
In other next-gen console news, we also have learned that the Xbox One will not block the PS4's signal through its HDMI input. Gamers will be able to patch their PS4 console right through the Xbox One and onto their TV without any trouble.
When asked point blank if the Xbox One would support the PS4 as an input device, Microsoft's Albert Penello dodged the question, at first. Obviously, Microsoft wants to keep any mention of the PS4 out of their Xbox One press conferences, so it would have been strange if Penello had simply said, "Yes."
But, later in his presentation Penello revealed that gamers would be able to play both Ryse and Killzone at the same time. Ryse, as most know, is a console exclusive for the Xbox One, whereas Killzone: Shadow Fall is a PS4 exclusive.
Just last week Sony revealed that the PS4 would support gameplay capture through external recording devices, something that was not available with the PS3 — at least not without some workarounds. Perhaps the ability to use the Xbox One as an HDMI pass-through has something to do with Sony's more device-friendly approach to output.
Do you think that the PS4 should eventually include some gesture-based navigation options? Do you think you will ever use your Xbox One as an input device for your PS4?
Sony's PlayStation 4 releases November 15, 2013.
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