Actually, the starring creature kind of reminds us of Funzo from The Simpsons; so adorable, that even men of Lenny and Carl’s age must have one, even though it is, as the trailer seems to imply, aimed at children entirely without cynicism. With the PlayStation Eye not making the same impact that the EyeToy did last generation, this high-concept piece of software might be enough to jump-start sales of the PS3 camera.

It’s not a hard sell, offering children the opportunity to interact with a high-detail, virtual pet on-screen. EyePet will be heavy on mini-games, including flying the creature in an airplane, feeding it, X-raying it and blowing bubbles at the fluffy thing. Though many of the activities seem to be motion based, there was a section at the end of the trailer that implied some use of the controller – probably a good idea, given that the novelty of EyeToy wore off roughly five years ago, and that audiences will demand a bit more than a slew of gimmicky mini-games to justify buying the camera. We assume it’ll ship with the game later this year.

Though the design of the creature is, as you’d expect, a bit creepy, it does look like the kind of pet we’d look forward to seeing at home – this bodes well for Sony, given that we’re probably too old to messing with this kind of thing. That almost certainly means that kids will embrace it. As Sony has so obviously pointed out (though not in these terms), it won’t pooh, vomit or wee on your rug, which is an advantage for those children who leave real-life gerbils to suffocate in the smell of their own mess.