This year at E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo), the buzz was all about gestures and 3D. Nintendo released their new 3DS portable game system, while Sony debuted the new 3D technology to be added to the Playstation 3. Sony and Microsoft both released their new gesture-control accessories the Playstation Move and XBox Kinect, respectively. While none of these new products were a surprise, last week a video popped up that seemed to tease either the PS3’s 3D tech or even a new Playstation all together.
The video, seen below, starts with the text “S.C.E. Principal Scientific Research Laboratory, Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan”, where Sony does have an office. All the dialogue is in Japanese, but thanks to Kotaku, we have a translation. A camera comes to the door and woman tells him to cooperate.
As you can see, they rush to a room where a guy with glasses is on the floor holding a controller. They take the glasses off, and as they take the controller from his (I’m assuming it’s a him) hand, he begins to squeal then laugh. He looks somehow locked in that position, and his mouth is wide open. Creepy. You can see the TV in front of him has the PlayStation logo, and the title card at the end reads (in Japanese) “PS4 V3.1 – Please Wait A Moment”.
There is another, less creepy, similar video that actually claims that the PS4 is now testing. So, what gives? Well, Kotaku found out these were made by the same person, and they are not affiliated with Sony at all. It turns out they were made for a class by Han West, a 24 year-old student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Asia, who is working on Master of Fine Arts. The one we are featuring was made for only $20, the cost of the lab coat, whereas West spent $500 on the more-polished second video.
The real question is, why are these better than most ads made by Sony themselves?
Thanks to Matt for the heads up.