Sony announces downloadable gardening outing on PS3

  • Posted May 30th, 2008 at 09:20 EDT by Mike Harradence
  • 4,666 views
  • 29 Comments

Sony Computer Entertainment today announced Shikitei, a downloadable environmental simulation title for the PlayStation 3.

Unofficially known as “Four Season Garden,” Shikitei allows gamers to design their own garden by growing various plants and customizing the area with lights and other trinkets on offer.

The game will incorporate some impressive techniques via computer programme, such as differentiating growth between every tree in your garden as time moves on.

Seasons will also play a major part Shikitei. Winter time, for example, will bring snowfall that gradually adapts to surrounding elements in your garden, while spring time brings sakura trees blossoming in pink, which turn orange as autumn rolls by.

Shikitei features over 150 items, including animals, ranging from birds, cats and rabbits. As the player collects these items, they are added to an encyclopedia, which can be called upon at any time. Items themselves are obtained via special packs that will be released on the PlayStation Store following the game’s release.

Speaking in the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Producer Rie Nakamura emphasized that the title will not include any gaming elements, noting that although some were considered, the team at Premium Agency ultimately decided to omit them for the final release.

Shikitei is currently scheduled for release in Japan on June 26, priced at JPY 1500, with pricing for item packs yet to be determined. Two garden types will be available on launch day, namely Japanese and Western, with Nakamura expressing interest in releasing further styles in the future, such as Egypt and India.

Stay tuned.

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What are your thoughts?

  1. RuiyJR | Tseska_922

    • 9:27am BST - May 30th, 2008

    awesome lol my tree will grow longerrr 

  2. Emo-Mercenary | Clarky-132

    • 9:30am BST - May 30th, 2008

    Wow. It actually sounds cool. Very interesting, Sims-like. Looking forward to it.. Ohh no. No European/American release date? Another interesting title, stay's Japanese. =[

  3. Fiddlesworth

    • 9:49am BST - May 30th, 2008

     There's screenshots on the official site and it looks REALLY beautiful: http://www.jp.playstation.com/scej/title/shikitei/

  4. MMDs | MMDs

    • 9:57am BST - May 30th, 2008

     My fiance will love this as she is currently planting a real garden now, hopefully will be educational for her. Hopefully US/EU will get this too.

  5. Dorfdad | Dorfdad

    • 10:08am BST - May 30th, 2008

    Can we focus on GAMING, if I wanted a garden Id plant some POT trees in the back yeard.... Seems eveyone is trying to play Nintendo's game with Sims and craptastic simulators... MAKE GOOD GAMES /rant

     

     

  6. DreamsofAnarchy | DreamsofAnarchy

    • 10:40am BST - May 30th, 2008

    @dorfdad

    Actually there needs to be more games like this.  It reminds me of Viva Pinata w/o the pinata.  And to be exact Nintendo doesn't own the Sims franchise. 

  7. Fiddlesworth

    • 10:52am BST - May 30th, 2008

    I didn't realise that some of us enjoying stuff like this stopped you from enjoying games, Dorfdad.

    http://www.premiumagency.com/en/

    They have two games/products in development for PS3 - excellent!

    Update: These two new PS3 games are completely their own work but previously they've contributed (outsourcing) to: Killer 7, Forbidden Siren 2, Genji: Dawn of the Samurai, Genji: Days of the Blade, Folklore and best of all - Shadow of the Colossus!

  8. baker_44

    • 10:55am BST - May 30th, 2008

    wot th F*** is this piece of s***i want a f****** good game with great online play not sum fairy a*** bull*****

  9. Fiddlesworth

    • 10:58am BST - May 30th, 2008

    If you don't like this stuff, GTFO! Funny you have an anti-360 avatar yet you want every game to be a damn macho online game.

  10. bracomadar | bracomadar

    • 11:12am BST - May 30th, 2008

    Simpsons did it!  Remember the gardening simulator from the Simpsons?  :) 

  11. hush404 | hush404

    • 11:27am BST - May 30th, 2008

    Actually that sounds kinda kewl. It'd be awesome if they could intrgrate it into home eh? Immagine chilling in your friend's incredibly beautiful home grown garden? Kewl IMO.

  12. Aphexman

    • 11:30am BST - May 30th, 2008

    can i growth ganja?

  13. Marcelis | Marcelis

    • 11:42am BST - May 30th, 2008

    Hmm, you know, this'd be a really nice little addition to Home.

  14. TekkenLord | HitMan00

    • 12:05pm BST - May 30th, 2008

    WDR, first nintendo do the dog stuff now sony doing the garden stuff. what's next

  15. jfash007 | jfash007

    • 12:49pm BST - May 30th, 2008

    weed?

  16. DreamsofAnarchy | DreamsofAnarchy

    • 1:57pm BST - May 30th, 2008

    Seriously, I thought XBL had all the pot heads.  I guess illegal drugs don't discriminate.

  17. mauro125 | mauro125

    • 2:13pm BST - May 30th, 2008

    imagine user created content, i wanna grow some shrooms :p

  18. zbamf

    • 7:39pm BST - May 30th, 2008

    You can see there'e a file size of 640mb

  19. gingo | gingo

    • 10:39pm BST - May 30th, 2008

    psn id: gingo.... what a strange sounding game probably wont get it but at least they are expanding their market to um gardeners lol

  20. booyah | father__time420

    • 12:12am BST - May 31st, 2008

    Legalize it... (needed to be said) Although the game seems pointless as it has 0 gaming elements whatev... It should be free.  I'd peep it!

  21. pandaSmore

    • 1:31am BST - May 31st, 2008

    This sounds actually pretty interesting. Now all we need is a British Columbia Garden :D.

  22. lurkingshadow89 | DEATH555666

    • 3:02am BST - May 31st, 2008

    really cool idea i think. Hope fully there will be a wide range in flowers so i can make myself an emo garden.

  23. jphuff | jhuff

    • 6:00am BST - May 31st, 2008

     If you don't like these ideas, DON'T download them! While I'm not sure I'd be interested in this kind of thing long term, I applaud the effort of bringing different experiences to the PS3.  It only broadens the appeal.  Learn from the Wii, folks!  There's all kinds of tastes out there.....

  24. Muzikguy | Muzikguy

    • 8:54am BST - May 31st, 2008

    ^ HEY BAKER!!!

    Give it a rest and learn how to spell. (Yes, I really was YELLING)

    No, I'm not a pothead. Yes, the Playstation Network is full of them just like XBL. This doesn't sound too intriguing to me, but I still might check it out. Only because if it's in 1080P it sure would look nice on my tv. Plus, it's not like it will cost that much anyway. I'd love for them to focus more of their energy on making games, but I highly doubt any game of merit is going to come from Premium Agency anyway. If they prove me wrong in the future good for them.

  25. ThaoNguyen

    • 11:21am BST - May 31st, 2008

    hey your right simpsons did this

     

  26. Denali2 | NEJI64

    • 5:51pm BST - May 31st, 2008

    i think some of yall people type just to see you self type. this is a good game to have on the market.  a type of game you can play while waiting for the next wave of AAA games come out.  go out side and throw all ball around or get laid for once if you dont like games like this. stop beating games in a 24 hour time frame and getting fat yall would have games to play

  27. InfernoReaper | GrimDarkling

    • 2:19am BST - June 1st, 2008

    @ baker_44: Grow up man.  Why don't you act more mature and stop the unnecessary swearing here?  A gardening game isn't going to impact any of your games being released.  I have no interest in this either but it doesn't mean I have to tear it down for not being "manly."

    ---

    C'mon PSU, the insults are uncalled for.  We finally got most people to stop with the "first post" crap and we don't need immature comments wasting server space. 

    ---

    Like I said before, I have no interest in this game, but I'm curious to see how well it meets the market.

  28. MrFenwick | SirFenwick

    • 6:59pm BST - June 1st, 2008

    Fits well for the Japanese market, it will never make it to American soil.

    To bad though, would be nice. Interactive screensavers.

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