• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Cancelled Wonderbook (PS3) prototypes appear

S

Shiggy

Member
Long before Sony released Wonderbook: Book of Spells, French game studio MKO Games (now closed) worked on Wonderbook prototypes together with Sony London. Work began after Microsoft cancelled The Little Prince/Le Petit Prince for Xbox 360. Unsurprisingly, a first Wonderbook prototype then revolved around The Little Prince.

Take a look at what MKO Games did between January and June 2010.
Prototype trailer: http://youtu.be/M3GyoJORb1Q

16_1e4uf8.jpg
16_29uujx.jpg
16_32pu4h.jpg
16_4qjum5.jpg
16_5eou6l.jpg



Dr Frankenstein
18_163uek.jpg
18_2aeuh8.jpg
18_35nu99.jpg
18_4qnugy.jpg
18_51auu2.jpg
18_67guom.jpg
18_67guom.jpg



Hansel & Gretel
17_17xulm.jpg
17_281uwa.jpg
17_3jduri.jpg
17_4k3uvd.jpg
17_5jtub1.jpg
17_6souta.jpg

http://youtu.be/2imRv19U3Fc


The Little Prince
19_11vu7p.jpg
19_2feuf5.jpg
19_330uxq.jpg
Click to expand...
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
The 'create your own book' concept could be pretty neat if it ever happened.

Maybe we'll get LittleBigPlanet: Wonderbook edition sometime.
 
S

Sylver

Banned
working on dead-born things is like a suicide.
And just thinking this "wonder-thing" was 75% of E3 sony conf showing near nothing about Vita games...
How can any Sony PR think that thing gonna sell well...
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
You know what is really funny about this all? Bunch of the Wonderbook staff (higher ups, such as Creative Director) are now working at Microsoft UK (Phil Harrison!).
 
S

StealthGoblin

Banned
Sylver said:
working on dead-born things is like a suicide.
And just thinking this "wonder-thing" was 75% of E3 sony conf showing near nothing about Vita games...
How can any Sony PR think that thing gonna sell well...
Click to expand...

Wait until you see the EU Xmas numbers. I've had parents in parents evenings tell me that they were buying Wonderbook for their children.
 
A

androvsky

Member
Sony actually marketed the game in Europe, right? My understanding is SCEA completely ignored it in the US. I pay attention to Playstation marketing in general and my wife was interested in Wonderbook, and I still managed to miss the launch in the US. Many of the comments on the blog post for the day it launched were complaining about the lack of marketing, and there was one person even asking for press materials.
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
Why bother this gen, anyway?

If they manage to release next gen PS4 with a controller with Move tech/breakable controller/next gen Move as a standard, they'd have a much easier job.

It's good tech and good concepts, they just need a fresh start
 
S

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
Sylver said:
working on dead-born things is like a suicide.
And just thinking this "wonder-thing" was 75% of E3 sony conf showing near nothing about Vita games...
How can any Sony PR think that thing gonna sell well...
Click to expand...

Wonderbook had/has a much better chance of being successful then Vita ever did/does.
 
R

Ravensmash

Member
I wish Wonderbook came out when I was a young Harry Potter fan - looks fantastic.

Kids today don't know how good they have it :[

Dr. Frankenstein looks like it could have been cool.
 
H

Hypereides

Member
Give me a MGS/Uncharted live action novel I'd probably toss some bucks into this thing.

Wonderbook still has alot of potential. It just has to be used/done right.
 
T

Tiamant

Member
Sylver said:
working on dead-born things is like a suicide.
And just thinking this "wonder-thing" was 75% of E3 sony conf showing near nothing about Vita games...
How can any Sony PR think that thing gonna sell well...
Click to expand...

I won't extrapolate to the rest of Europe, but here in spain is selling really well.
 
P

Psychotext

Member
Limanima said:
I think wonderbook is going to sell like hot cakes in xmas.
I got one for my children.
Click to expand...

Unless people are literally waiting until Christmas day to buy the thing it's not looking like it. I think it's pretty much just made one of the European top twenty charts and supposedly it sold something like 8k in the first couple of weeks in the US.

It's a cool idea (especially Diggs Nightcrawler), but they'll need to keep throwing massive marketing money at it if it's going to succeed.
 
S

Sylver

Banned
Limanima said:
I got one for my children.
Click to expand...
I think that's the problem, child/kids don't play child/kids games which usually mean "limited kids" games, they play good games, child oriented market is negligible, put a tablet near them a this thing disappear for them.
 
L

Limanima

Member
Sylver said:
I think that's the problem, child/kids don't play child/kids games which usually mean "limited kids" games, they play good games, child oriented market is negligible, put a tablet near them a this thing disappear for them.
Click to expand...

Children playing or not is not an issue here. Parents will get one anyways. I'm talking about 4-8 year olders.
 
Liamario

Liamario

Banned
Augmented reality is something that hasn't been fully exploited and the main turn off for me is the low resolution video image of the player on the screen; it completely destroys the immersion as far as I'm concerned.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Galvanise_ said:
Wait until you see the EU Xmas numbers. I've had parents in parents evenings tell me that they were buying Wonderbook for their children.
Click to expand...

Which wouldn't surprise me as our parents evening had a wonder book poster in the hall. I didn't realise they allowed advertising to children in schools these days :(
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
So what if it doesn't sell gangbusters? Surely it cant be that expensive to release these? It's Sony playing with tech again. I enjoy these little experiments they do with AR and cameras.
 
W

Whompa

Member
"Whoa this looks pretty good" -Every knee jerk reacting nerd on the internet who scoffed at the original pitch
 
P

Psychotext

Member
mrklaw said:
So what if it doesn't sell gangbusters? Surely it cant be that expensive to release these?
Click to expand...
The marketing will have cost them a fortune. I've seen it everywhere, billboards, bus shelters, TV, cinema. They'll be wanting a return on all that.
 
T

Takao

Banned
mrklaw said:
So what if it doesn't sell gangbusters? Surely it cant be that expensive to release these? It's Sony playing with tech again. I enjoy these little experiments they do with AR and cameras.
Click to expand...

I'd be very fearful for what may happen to Sony London if Wonderbook tanks.
 
M

MoonsaultSlayer

Member
I really hope this picks up some quality titles. It's such a neat idea and I would love to have a decent library of experiences lined up for my nearly 3 year old for when he's a little older.
 
T

test_account

XP-39C²
TheOddOne said:
You know what is really funny about this all? Bunch of the Wonderbook staff (higher ups, such as Creative Director) are now working at Microsoft UK (Phil Harrison!).
Click to expand...
Out of curiousity, who? Phil Harrison left Sony in 2008, so i dont think he had anything to do with Wonderbook.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

GTA III: behind the scenes of the game that propelled Rockstar to the top of the world
Analysis Retro Game Dev
47
8K
Uhtred replied
[GI.biz] Analysts offer predictions for 2023 in games
16
2K
Magic Carpet replied
Looking back at PlayStation's Camera-Based experiments
Analysis Hardware Platform
3
1K
JimboJones replied
FAKE SCREENSHOTS - [4Chan] - Velvet Veil - rumored FROMSoft PS5 exclusive screenshots and info from internal presentation
Clickbait Cringe 2
55
9K
Dabaus replied
A look back at the Ratchet & Clank series & Insomniac Games | Behind the scenes
Game Dev
7
3K
Kuranghi replied
Top Bottom