EyeToy - History

History

The EyeToy was conceived by Richard Marks in 1999, after witnessing a demonstration of the PlayStation 2 at the 1999 Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. Marks's idea was to enable natural user interface and mixed reality video game applications using an inexpensive webcam, using the computational power of the PlayStation 2 to implement computer vision and gesture recognition technologies. He joined Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) that year, and worked on the technology as Special Projects Manager for Research and Development.

Marks's work drew the attention of Phil Harrison, then Vice President of Third Party Relations and Research and Development at SCEA. Soon after being promoted to Senior Vice President of Product Development at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) in 2000, Harrison brought Marks to the division's headquarters in London to demonstrate the technology to a number of developers. At the demonstration, Marks was joined with Ron Festejo of SCE Camden Studio (which would later merge to become SCE London Studio) to begin developing a software title using the technology, which would later become EyeToy: Play. Originally called the iToy (short for "interactive toy") by the London branch, the webcam was later renamed to the EyeToy by Harrison. It was first demonstrated to the public at the PlayStation Experience event in August 2002 with four minigames.

Already planned for release in Europe, the EyeToy was picked by SCE's Japanese and American branches after the successful showing at the PlayStation Experience. In 2003, EyeToy was released in a bundle with EyeToy: Play: in Europe on July 4, and North America on November 4. By the end of the year, the EyeToy sold over 2 million units in Europe and 400,000 units in the United States. On February 11, 2004, the EyeToy was released in Japan.