Sony's Motion Sensing Still Lagging Behind?

Chris Kohler, over at Wired's Game|Life, had the chance to see an in-production PS3 game in action. He said that, for the most part everything looked great. The one thing that concerned him was the motion-sensing controller that Sony is pushing on developers. From the article: "The developers told us that although we'd be using real PS3 controllers, they didn't yet have the motion-sensing functionality built in. And not only that, although they referred to the build as 'feature-complete,' they did admit that the one feature that was not yet included was (wait for it) motion-sensing, although they did 'have some cool ideas.' There was plenty of speculation after Sony's E3 conference that the motion-sensing functionality was jammed into the controller at the last minute as a reaction to Nintendo's strategy. This was backed up by the Warhawk developers' offhand remarks that they'd implemented motion sensing 'in just a couple weeks'."

Comments

Kirby!

[AKAImBatman]

I think this says it all. :-/

Honestly, I *do* believe Sony that they had been considering the technology before this. What I don't believe is that they committed to it prior to Nintendo's announcement. I think that they originally considered whatever Nintendo was working on to be "gimmicks" (the exact word used by Ken Kutaragi at Sony E3), and that raw graphical technology would win the day. They only got worried once they saw the incredibly positive response to Nintendo's new controller.

In the end, I think this may end up harming Sony. Their Dual Shock controller was well liked in part because of its rumble technology. (Also "inspired by" Nintendo.) Now they've replaced this long-established feature with a simple sensor that they've had very little time to test. Which means that it may end up being useless to developers as not enough fore-thought went into it. The result will be a double-blow when the Wii introduces both usable motion sensing technology (powered by a network of sensors rather than just one!) AND rumble in their controllers.

Ouch, Sony. Ouch.

Re:Kirby!

[drinkypoo]

The result will be a double-blow when the Wii introduces both usable motion sensing technology (powered by a network of sensors rather than just one!) AND rumble in their controllers.

Well, I can do without vibration, except where games make it a part of play. The nicest thing I can say about it is that I usually don't turn it off. Vibration is probably spectacularly bad for your hands.

But what really destroys the whole concept for me is that having motion sensing built into a gamepad, depending on how it is used, is not necessarily going to be a benefit. It makes a lot more sense built into the Wii's controller, because of the form factor. I have one of the Microsoft gamepads with the tilt and the throttle, and using it sucks. It's way too hard to tilt accurately. Granted, the only thing I've ever tried to use it for was actual control axes, and maybe it would be more useful for something else - but I have a hard time figuring out what.

It's already a lost cause

[timster]

There's no point to the motion-sensing in the Dual Shake, as it's a two-handed controller. When holding a controller with both hands, making all but the simplest motions is unnatural because you can't use your wrists.

The only comfortable motion is to tilt the controller, which will basically limit its function to driving games.

Re:MGS

[Reapman]

You know, that might actually be a really great use. Touch Sensitive buttons kinda worked for peeking around a corner, but imagine just tilting it ever so slightly to take a quick look around the corner. That might be really cool.

Re:PS3 vs Wii

[DeadScreenSky]

The other however, is cool, down to earth and ready to have fun. Right now. And she's fine with just hangin' out.

Yeah, and she's also 12 years old. :(

(Kidding, kidding...)