Rumor: Sony's mysterious Afrika to use pressure pad

by Kevin Kelly on Aug 16th 2007 4:30PM

While it seems unlikely to be getting PlayStation rumors from a Nintendo site, Go Nintendo has a rumor roundup from the Japanese gaming magazine Game Lab, which drops the hint that Sony might be working on a pressure and touch sensitive mat to coincide with Afrika's eventual release.

We're not sure what happened to Afrika after it was shown off at last year's Sony presentation at TGS, but it managed to disappear faster than some endangered species. If they are working on a peripheral that facilitates some sort of innovative gameplay it could explain the long delay, but with no details out we have no idea how the game would actually work. Stomp your feet to cause a stampede? Run like a gazelle to escape the lions? Hopefully we'll know more soon, probably right before the game is released in 2012.

Source

Tags: Afrika, PlayStation 3, PS3

Reader Comments (84)

Wait, a touch pad that sits on the floor is an innovative gameplay device?

Someone get Bandai on the phone.

Wait, isn't nintendo coming out with some pressure sensitive controller for the wii.. what did they call it? Oh yeah. THE WII FIT BOARD!

Sony: copying our competitors and taking all the credit since 1995

2012? Just in time for Alan Wake then ;P

This one, Eight days and Getaway PS3, three games that seemed interesting and just vanished off the map. And no updates yet on the Cellius games, are they still working on those titles I wonder

How can you possibly say Afrika looks interesting? All Sony has shown of it is LITERALLY a few videos of animals and plants.
It seems more like a tech demo of what the PS3 can do than anything else (although as a Wii owner, I'm the last person who'll say you can't come up with a fun game from a tech demo)

Well it seemed different from the usual fare - good change from the nth iteration of Halo, PGR, Mario, MGS, GT, etc etc

somebody needs to make a baby drowning sim with that pressure pad. so long as it's not bloody they can probably get away with an M rating.

They could call it "Sim Postpartem Depression"

That was so hilariously inappropriate that you get a plus! Good work!

Instead of a baby why not replace the baby with George Bush or Jack Thompson? That would be helluva lot more fun for me. You could even have different Jack quotes as he gurgles them out as you drown him.

Or better yet - you get to use the Sony Eye to take photos of whomever you like!

Like your stupid bitch ex girlfriend! You hear that TARA I want to DROWN YOUR ASS!

...

...

I've never had a girlfriend.

But if I DID, and she was a BITCH, and we broke up..

...

...

Call me.

wtf?

Greatest Game EVAR!!! Eldee you are an insensitive prick and a genius.

The game I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to see if whatever the heck Team Ico is bringing. Ico, and Shadow were masterpieces of gaming.

"probably right before the game is released in 2012"
In fact I read news that Sony were trying hard to release this before wii fit. So should be sometime around 2008 at the latest.

Riiight. I heard nintendo copied the motion sensing technology too. Sony always has these great ideas and somehow always releases them right after somebody else..

isnt the world gonna end in 2012

Absolutely not.

That's when the Mayan calander ends.
A more likely target, however, is 2060-2065 when the 10th (now 9th) planet makes it return to the solar system.

Elaborate Samfish.

I have an inside tip thats all a bunch of crap ;)

No, but we will have an ice age.

I thought it was to...Hmmm...Lets start building that shelter

LegendarySyko...turn your search bar to Planet X or Nibiru.

Wow, planet X theories are screwy.

in preparation for motorstorm 2, sony has unvailed a revolutionary racing wheel shell that houses the ps3 controller for a more realistic racing experience

what the hell?

wiimote -> sixaxis
balance board -> pressure pad
mario -> wario

oh wait um, forget that last one

If Afrika is being made by SCEE then you wouldn't expect an update until Leipzig; as far as the other titles they probably are still in development or will be shown at Leipzig next month. Having a bunch of conferences around the globe requires that you spread out your announcements to justify the conference. As far that this balance board copying Wiifit, you do realize that Afrika was shown like two years ago and the concept (especially something like the control mechanism) is decided very early in the game development.

Isn't Leipzig next week?

Yes, Leipzig is next week.

I think DBX means TGS is next month.

Yeah, like how the wiimote was decided right away.

Look, nobody even knows what this game is about, much less how it controls. I would be shocked and suprised with sony had the idea for a pressure board all the way back when they first showed this game, because when they showed this game it was barely a tech demo. You going to tell me they had the sixaxis control scheme all figured out for the FFVII remake on PS3 ever since they showed the FFVII tech demo all those years ago.

Balogna!

If they made this into a sort of African animal sim, where for instance you played a lion and had to coordinate hunts with the pack in a hyper-realistic simulation of the veldt, this could actually be pretty interesting. From what little I've heard about it though, it sounds like it's going to be more of a safari sim where you just wander around looking at animals.

Which is ok, I guess, and will probably have its audience (like Endless Ocean on Wii), but it's not going to get me excited.

Will Sony do anything original?

How about blu-ray for games? 3 different memory card slots. Bluetooth controllers and peripherals. User created content on a console. Internet browser for a console. Realistic force feedback racing wheel that turns 1260 degrees just like a real car.

Will Sony do anything original.
Boy, don't you feel stupid.

Wow Free thinker your really stretching it...Browser for Consoles Dreamcast...Wireless controllers Xbox 360(But teh no they are teh Bluetooh) Yeah whatever they're wireless controllers...User created content hahahaha is called hacking people have been doin that forever your late as hell, and if you count XBLA MS has done that before Sony too....Sony's just makin it legal. The force feed back wheel has been out in Arcades forever and MS was also the first to make those wireless before you get your new Bluetooth facts together...And Im not even gonna reply to the memory card statement cuz that was dumb..

So get off off Sony's Cock
Don't you feel dumb

For the record Sony is awesome but they do take a lot of ideas but we all know that.

Users have been able to create content for some time. NES wrecking crew had a level editor, as did Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and exchangeable user created content has appeared, not on a home console, but on a handheld console (think Mario vs DK 2: March of the Minis), and probably a few others that i can't think of

Free thinker your a moron,
3 memory card slots, thats not original its just expensive. wii controller has blue tooth and accessories for its controller. internet browser, yeah not like pcs have had those for years now, force feedback racing wheel, the N64 had that ! A blu-ray player which can play disc with extra space.

very innovative

How about blu-ray for games?(Uh, ok a bigger disc)
3 different memory card slots.(My pc has a 7 Mem slot)
Bluetooth controllers and peripherals.(Wii)
User created content on a console.(PC since forever)
Internet browser for a console.(PSP)
Realistic force feedback racing wheel that turns 1260 degrees just like a real car.(Xbox 360)

Out of what you listed, blu-ray and intenet browsing are only on Sony consoles, but blu-ray is made by Sony and is banking on it to win so of course it is going to be in the PS3. And there are better ways to surf the net than with a sixaxis controller.

3 words.

For A Console.

how about non proprietary HDD and blu tooth devices (headsets).. oh yeah.. and eye toy, which in a way the wii ripped off with its wiimote, not to mention the camera for the 360.

I hope your still not on that Browser Crap CUZ THE DREAMCAST HAD IT FIRST....Have you seen anything else besides a Sony console...Remember the Dreamcast first online gaming and browser experience on a console...Do some homework

Yeah, let's have a discussion about whether Sony does anything original in an article that mentions Sony's development of a "pressure pad." You couldn't convince me with a 500 word essay that Sony's major contributions to gaming involve the word originality.

DVD for games -> DVD for games
Upright or Horizontal Console -> Upright or Horizontal Console
Standard wifi -> Standard wifi
Wii trying to duplicate the PS2's success? Yeah right.

Wait...I'm totally confused by your points...

1.) I actually don't have anything to say to that one...I guess you could say that, if you wanted too...
2.) I thought the Wii was pretty much always vertical? I've never seen it layed down before...
3.) Standard WiFi? I was not aware that the PS2 had standard Wifi...news to me...

When the hell did Sony get standard Wifi...And I thought Sega CD did the games to DVD thing first...or was that Saturn...Iono maybe I need to do my research. But you got the upright console thing right

PS3 has standard wifi. I was not under the impression that we were limited to 1 console.
As for the wheel, before the GT wheel, every single wheel for consoles (not arcades) had no forcefeedback. And the wheel turns a full 3 1/2 revolutions just like a real car.
Sony was the 1st company to use DVD as a medium and they were given flack for it. I remember many people saying that DVD was not needed and that standard CDroms were more than enough.

Basically different companies copy one another. Alot of them try to improve on an idea. Take for example the analog stick, Nintendo introduced it, Sony improved it. The rumble, again Nintendo introduced it, Sony again improved it.

Who cares who copies who, as long as we as gamers get better gaming experiences, I could care less who started it.

I was just feeding into some typical fanboy BS that boo hoo, Sony copied Nintendo again, whaaaaaah.

correction (were not limited to 1 console.)

strike that last correction. I had it right the 1st time. Stupid brain.

"Basically different companies copy one another. Alot of them try to improve on an idea. Take for example the analog stick, Nintendo introduced it, Sony improved it. The rumble, again Nintendo introduced it, Sony again improved it."

Sony didn't improve any of those. Nintendo still has the best analogue sticks and Microsoft made the best analogue layout. Sony just has loose and uncomfortably placed analogue sticks. Nintendo also has better rumble, pick up a gamecube controller sometime, that rumble is fuckin crisp. The thing the PS3 controller has right now over the other two is a decent d-pad with a good size (screw the mini dpad on the Wiimote and GC controller, the quarter dpad on Microsoft controlers). The best dpad still lies with the SNES, though.

"PS3 has standard wifi. I was not under the impression that we were limited to 1 console."

Two letters. DS.

Sony is a wholly unoriginal company. Their mainstay in the console industry was humbling Nintendo and pushing new disc formats.

Thank you KAzi and you said copying the PS2's success so when did the PS3 even come into play in that conversation....And like I aid Microsoft made the first wireless force feedback wheel for consoles....NOT SONY....(We're talkin first party here not third)...And if you check the awards and critical acclaim MS has improved the analog controller the most since they won numerous awards for it.

Stop being a Sony boy all I want is some innovation from Sony...Your doing exactly what they do see something take it and claim they made it.

P.S. The PS3 is a great system I honestly love it but we still cant cut no corners here

"And like I aid Microsoft made the first wireless force feedback wheel for consoles....NOT SONY....(We're talkin first party here not third0"

Um, get off your knees, whipe the stains away and actually READ what I wrote.

I said the 1st wheel that had forcefeedback and 1260 degrees of rotation. Not at anytiime did I say that the wheel was wireless.

And thank you Phranctoast, I cannot believe I forgot about that one.

The Playstation Eye is a significant improvement on the Eye Toy.

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Rumor: Sony's mysterious Afrika to use pressure pad

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