When I bought my PS4 last year I didn’t think twice and got the PS4 camera with it. I was excited by the kinect-like possibilities, and I seem to recall the Playroom trailers, or whatever it was at the time, convinced me the camera would be a great accessory for the PS4.

Unfortunately, unless I’m wrong, there aren’t that many innovative games making use of the PS4 camera yet (Edit: check our list of PS4 Camera Games), one year later. Except maybe for Playroom, the series of “tech demos” that comes for free to every PS4 camera owner. Yeah, ok, somebody told me that “Just Dance” uses the PS4 camera. I’ll pass for now. (Update: turns out Just Dance is actually pretty fun on the PS4, and the 2014 version is 52% off on amazon right now!)

Ok, I’ll be honest, this is the kind of stuff I was actually looking forward to: a remake (or sequel) to Wonderbook:

 

 

One year after the PS4 was released, no such thing has been announced yet. In the meantime, a few games are announcing gimmick features (possibility to scan your own face in NBA?), but nothing really “relying” on the PS4 camera.

However, Playroom has been receiving surprisingly regular updates: The funny”My Alien buddy” game, Ninja bots, and more recently Playroom AR. None of these are things hardcore gamers would consider as “games”, and I am thinking that the Playroom AR feature, which seems to target people who want to add some customization to their broadcast experience, might not reach its actual target audience.

 

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But I’ll have to say this: as the father of a 3 year old, Playroom is probably the application that has had the most gameplay time on our PS4. The tiny games are made in a way that kids will not find frustrating: You can’t lose in Ninja bots (you just get less gold coins at the end of the game), “My alien Buddy” is pure, crazy fun; and Playstation AR… well, let’s just say it’s been impossible to get my son to stop playing it for the past week, since I showed it to him.

The Playroom might just be a tech experiment from Sony’s perspective, but the controls (be it with the camera, the controllers, the tablet…) are extremely intuitive and fun for a young kid. Although he is not broadcasting, my son is having a lot of creative fun drawing pictures and sending them to the screen. He also insists that we play with him, making for an interesting father-son bonding event. Last week, we created halloween masks and he loved it.

Maybe more importantly, Playroom is interactive and creative enough that my wife does not become angry at me for playing it with our very young kid!

At that point, thanks to playroom, our PS4 camera has had enough gameplay time that it has been well worth the 60 bucks I spent on it (It can be purchased for $49.99 now – Update: Amazon have it at $44.99 for a limited period of time during the holiday. Great deal for that price!).

I’m still waiting for the Wonderbook sequel, and other interesting, creative, maybe educational (why not?) games that can come up with this. But in the meantime, thanks to Playroom and its regular updates, I can say I totally recommend the PS4 camera if you have young kids. It’s totally worth it for young gamer parents. Other gamers on the other hand, except maybe for the broadcast/streaming options, might want to wait another 6 months, in the hope for more “actual” games to be (maybe?) announced for the device.

(Also, those of you who like to tinker with their gadgets – yeah, that might be a few people reading this blog 🙂 – might want to have a look at PS4Eye, tools that aim at using the PS4 camera on a computer)