Fumito Ueda, the lead designer of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, bought an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to study it, he told Edge Online.
When asked what he's been playing lately, Ueda said he's been playing a bunch of games compatible with Oculus VR's virtual reality headset.
"I also bought myself an Oculus Rift, so I've been playing games compatible with that," Ueda said. "This is, of course, for the sake of study!"
According to Ueda, video games have an immersive advantage over other forms of entertainment, and virtual reality headsets have the potential to play on that advantage. It's an idea he's been interested in for more than a decade.
"Speaking in terms of mechanics, I think, rather than playing as a character that can move around freely, it is best suited to a character with movement that is somehow limited," he said. "As soon as Ico was finished, I told my boss at the time that I'd like to make a game that uses a head-mounted display, so now I'd like to research doing that. Also, this may be surprising, but one day I'd like to make a game on the theme of zombies. I'd like to try making a low-threshold game for hardware that is based around a touchpad. That's if I can come up with a well-suited idea, of course. There are many other things, too, but they're secret."
When asked what's left to try, given the proliferation of zombies in games, Ueda spoke of using the undead differently.
"With a zombie motif, in terms of AI and motion technology and the operability of the player character, there are many elements that interest me and that are suited to in-game expression. Especially if there is a way to use [zombies] not just as a convenient enemy for the player to shoot at, but in a way that allows me to express a character in a lyrical way. There are always possibilities."