Today Sony officially announced the successor to the Eye Toy for the PS2. The new (sans) Eye camera is scheduled to hit Europe this summer. No street date has been set for the rest of the world as of yet.

Some cool information about the new Eye camera:

• A sophisticated microphone with the ability to reduce background noise and focus on the spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition and transfer
• The ability to capture videos and audio clips directly to your PS3’s hard disk drive
• Engineered to perform well even in low-light conditions
• A range of different capturing modes, including slow motion and time-lapse
• Faster frame rate for improved tracking, responsiveness and smoothness
• Two position zoom lens for close-up and full body options
• A range of eye-catching visual effects to apply to photos and videos
• Bundled with EyeCreate™ editing software, which allows users to save and edit photos, video and audio clips

Sounds pretty cool to me. In front of my TV is getting pretty cluttered with gaming accessories, so I might pass on this one until there’s a good reason to get it. For now, I can plug my Vision camera into my PS3 for video chat.

[Update] It’s now been announced that the US version will be released this summer as well. No price point has been set.

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