With the recent release of "The Last of Us Part 2" on Playstation 4 by Sony Interactive Entertainment, another wink is made to the promising 'Interactive Movie' of the early ninetees. In fact it was Philips Interactive Media promoting the new possibilities of full motion digital video for the first time with the launch of CD-i's Digital Video. This was the first time 'full motion video' could be combined with game elements thanks to the CD-i hardware. According to Philips, adding the power of interactivity to movies would change the whole movie industry. Well, that didn't exactly happen. Most movies are still linear and games kept their focus on gameplay rather than an interactive movie, but some efforts come close. The Last of Us is a remarkable effort that makes the allusion to an interactive film again. It is very much story driven with many story scenes. In a way it has the same vision as what Philips POV developed in CD-i's Thunder in Paradise" Full motion video tells the story and the gameplay handles the shooting parts.
CD-i member Big Baloo: "Playing The Last of Us Part 2 and loving the fact that we can now participate in interactive films. Just a mear 27 years after we were promised this on the Philips CD-i. "
CD-i member Big Baloo: "Playing The Last of Us Part 2 and loving the fact that we can now participate in interactive films. Just a mear 27 years after we were promised this on the Philips CD-i. "
The CD-i release of "De Zaak van Sam" shows a true effort in interactive movies, it was released in 1997, exclusively on CD-i. Many other CD-i titles had story-driven full motion video elements in one way or another. We are curious to learn how the interactive movie will evolve over the next ten years. It's not exactly how Philips imagined it to be, but it's still a promising future for the movie industry.