Sony has alway been interested in eliciting emotional responses from their customers. The company even went so far as to name their Playstation 2 processor "the emotion engine."
Admittedly, a game that can force a person to feel a certain way does seem to be the most powerful experience possible, but how dedicated to this cause are the folks at Sony? Dedicated enough to want to cause gamers a bit of anguish as they play?
According to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves, yes:
"…there are six or seven…games, coming in the next 18 months, which are absolutely spectacular. There are some that are very emotional; one of the objectives we gave Phil Harrison is to make people cry. We know that in the middle and the back end of next year, these are going to come out and people will say, ‘I have never seen anything like that before.’"
So Sony wants to make us cry, and they’re sending the giant and hitman lookalike (at least inside of Home) Phil Harrison to do it. Well thanks, guys.
Seriously, though, the evocation of strong emotion is a key element of videogames, and I’m glad to see that as one of Sony’s creative goals.
