Sony reflects back on 8 years of augmented reality, excited for NGP

Think the Nintendo 3DS’s cute AR card games is the first video game system to take advantage of augmented reality? Better think again. Sony made a video reminding everyone that it’s the pioneer of augmented reality games, starting back in 2003 with the PlayStation 2′s EyeToy. Since then, Sony’s evolved the EyeToy into the PlayStation Eye for the PlayStation 3, expanded its usage with the PlayStation Move and even built a camera for the PlayStation Portable.

I have to admit, while I’ve toyed with augmented reality games before on these PlayStation platforms, they’ve never really struck a fancy with me. The cameras do a nice trick of turning reality into a sandbox for gaming, but it’s mighty lonely if you’re playing by yourself. More than ever, I strongly feel that augmented reality games work best when played with company. Sure, Invizimals is a nice Pokemon-like game that encourages you to “search” for monsters with the PSP’s camera attachment, but its gameplay becomes rather repetitive. I’ve yet to see anything truly immersive in scale using AR. With the NGP’s built in camera, hopefully Sony will be able to bring gamers an AR game that isn’t gimmicky. Click on to take a look back at eight years of AR gaming on Sony’s gaming consoles.