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Tuesday, August 26. 2008

Last Guy Imagery: Just Imagery

Remote Sensing

Patience pays off... I've been reading about The Last Guy a new Sony game for some time. The premise: you are the last person on earth and need to fend for yourself against monsters through desolate cities. The big deal for geo types: it uses real imagery. Now, I'd read it was Google Maps imagery, Google earth imagery with no confirmation from Sony. Now, Wired makes it clear, it's just some good aerial and satellite imagery. Oh, and the game is out August 28.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Remote Sensing at 08:17 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0) | Bookmark and Share

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Just curious. Where did you read that it was Google Maps imagery? While various gamers (or gamerz, if you're really hip) might have assumed it was a source they'd come to understand due to Google Earth's literal popularity in society -- the reality is, that game production houses have incorporated such imagery in their games in the past, and are more than familiar with the establishment of rights to use such imagery.

At least, I'd hope that I understand this -- I contributed my skills (or skillz) to two of the most well known games out there.

Anyhoo.
#1 Daniel (Link) on 2008-08-27 05:39 (Reply)
Daniel,

Lots of bloggers/gaming sites made the assertion, Here's sample:

"Where it really scores some originality points is in The Last Guy's use of real satellite views from Google Maps to provide the playing arena."
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/zombie-downloads-hit-ps3-in-the-last-guy-449027

"They sure weren't fooling around when they said it was using Google Maps, whose services you use to lead the survivors of a zombie apocalypse to designated "safe zones"."
http://kotaku.com/5027625/last-guy-looks-simple-sounds-fantastic

Adena
#1.1 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2008-08-27 06:30 (Reply)
I finally had an opportunity to follow-up.

I see then -- so, they're actually using Google Earth (the entire application) -- not just imagery in their own engine.

Now it's clear to me!

Wow! That's actually a significant 'thing', Adena -- using Google Earth itself to develop a gaming environment! Very cool and clever! Good on Sony!
#1.1.1 Daniel (Link) on 2008-08-31 13:32 (Reply)
Daniel,

I think you misread something.

Sony is NOT using Google Maps/Earth imagery. That's my point. It's "just" imagery they licensed; they've not so far as I know, said where they got it. The source of the Wired comment is this:

"Josh Miller replied on July 31, 2008 at 10:10 am
Sentry,
This is not Google Earth, just some very nice aerial/satellite photos of major cities around the world."
Josh Miller, US Producer, on the Playstation Blog
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/07/31/the-last-guy-is-here-to-rescue-you/
#1.1.1.1 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2008-08-31 14:35 (Reply)
Really? I misread the following page?

'Details are scant, but the top-down PS3 game has players use Google Earth to rescue large numbers of people by having them follow you to safe escape zones and avoiding gray matter eating zombies.'

http://kotaku.com/5023220/sony-combines-zombies-and-google-earth

I suppose we would have to receive a confirmation from both Sony and Google in this case, Adena.
#2 Daniel (Link) on 2008-09-04 00:31 (Reply)
Oh, scratch that -- you're talking about the Wired piece. I see what you're on about now.
#3 Daniel (Link) on 2008-09-04 00:32 (Reply)

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