Slashdot Mirror
PS3 Controller Officially Called 'Sixaxis'
morpheus83 writes "Sony has decided to call the PS3's wireless controller 'Sixaxis' as it has sensors which allow it to sense linear motion along six axes. The Bluetooth controller charges when connected via the USB cable, after a full charge it is good for 30 hours of gaming. It becomes a wired controller when charging so you can continue playing." The Next Generation article also offers some further details on PS3 accessories: "Sony will also sell a memory card adapter used to upload data from PS or PS2 memory cards to the PS3 hard drive. That peripheral will go for 1500 yen ($13) and will be available at launch as well. A Blu-ray/DVD movie controller will also be in the accessory mix, selling for 3600 yen ($31)."
Let's play word association: Sixaxis: The Axis of Evil Wiimote: Weeeeeeeeee! or Kirby!
Anyone else think the comments just weren't rendering right before they turned off ABP and saw ads?
...will the game launch with an RPG called "Dark Crystal"?
Linear motion along six axes? Height, Depth, Width, Time and what are the other two?
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
the sixaxis of evil.
Are the six axes not orthogonal or has Sony come up with some practical use for string theory? (If the latter, I can see why it's on the expensive side...)
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Worst. Name. Ever.
Great, so now when kids yank the controller in the direction they want to drive, they'll crash into a wall.
The Sex Axis? Does this mean Sony is promising German and Japanese hotties?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Or does the lower end PS3 look like it is on par with the value of the Xbox360?
With the exeption of Live(a pay service that Sony intends to compete with in the future) and a few "exclusive" game deals (on the Xbox exclusive tended to be more of a "head start") I don't think that buy buying a $500 PS3 you are giving anything up that the $400 360 has plus you get the blue ray drive... this has got to be cheaper than a 360 + HD-DVD thingy...
Anyway... just a thought... I'll wait till there are a few games out that I want to buy before I make a purchase. Dead Rising looks tempting... but I feel majorly cheeted by MS on the Xbox so I need more than that.
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
Wow, now I'll definatelly get one of those PS3's - no matter the cost - as I've always wanted to own something called "Sixaxis"!
If you are into archeology you will notice that it is even cooler than the coolest sounding Persian names, like Xerxes or Artaxerxes.
But I do hope the PS3 doesn't support six Sixaxis's...
GOOD! I was worried about that.
What, my blu-ray DVD player doesn't come with a stinkin' remote? Oh...it's a game console too you say? And here I thought I was just buyin' a blu-ray player without a remote!
Sony's been touting PS3 as the blu-ray machine from the beginning, and now they are charging an extra $30 for the remote to play movies? You don't buy a Media Center PC and buy the remote separately (unless the box comes with a wireless keyboard & mouse or something).
Sounds to me like someone at Sony decided to try to recover some of the loss of the manufacture of the console by selling a $6 remote for $30. Limited functionality anyone?
This has to be the first marketing droid to succeed in cramming not just one, but two extremely-desirable-for-some-unfathomable-reason letters X into a product name. Well done, Xony!
Sony Exec 1: Ok people, we're naming the controller "PooS". That's an infinity sign in the middle
SE2 through 12: Brilliant!
Everyone else on Earth: Poos?! Sony is retarded.
SE1: PooS didn't test well. We'll need a new name.
SE2: I still want the batman-style controller...
SE1: Shut up. Names, people.
SE7: Dual Shark?
SE4: Uhhh, "Weemote"?
SE9: Sticktwiddler.
SE10: Thumbtron!
SE12: iStick.
SE11: Guys....Sixaxis
SE1: Done!
Everyone else on Earth: Six asses?! Sony is retarded.
Oh, come on. How many people attend to Sony's board meetings? And not a single one had the guts to say "Sir, that's a terrible name"?
Ah well, perhaps this is their answer to the Nintendo Wii.
I mean, was "Triple Shock" was out of the question?
Given that it doesn't have vibration feedback, I'd say Triple Shock would be out of the question. This is really sad, because I really like the Dual Shock controller. I've found it to be the most intuitive controller of all the consoles. They took something that wasn't broke and tried to fix it.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
The only reason the name is sticking is because it's a palindrome and probably will have some nifty logo =)
Future ruler of a small Asian-Pacific island
That works for me as long as they promise that the next Final Fantasy only takes 30 hours to beat. I mean, what about the hardcore gamers that will go 400 hours straight to finish the latest GranTurismo. I think they need to add a charging base for additional battery packs so that I can rotate battery packs during hardcore gaming sessions.... and another thing. If I'm playing against someone and their controller runs out of batteries, will they be stating there spinning in circles like players whose mice die in CounterStrike? That's always ALWAYS funny!
Dissenter
"There is no knowledge that is not power."
Gentlemen, I present to you, a monkey with six axis.
+X, -X, +Y, -Y, +Z, -Z. Yea, bit of a stretch, but whatcha gonna do?
I'd like to see some of their rejected names, personally. That tack board must've been a testament to failure.
I know "old news" posts are annoying...but I think 3 weeks is enough to warrant pointing out. Snail mail puts that kind of travel time to shame.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153593
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1099177
To think you laughed at the name "Wii".
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Is this true? 'Cause normally things like this just use the charge cable to power the wireless...
(Fairly sure this is why you can't use an xbox 360 wireless controller in a pc even when connected by the charge cable.)
"No one is going to call it that. I feel silly saying "Wii," but "SixAxis" is just plain unpronouncable."
I can get you close. Think long and hard about Sony executives, then just say six asses. It just rolls off the tongue!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Most displacement-based structural finite element packages feature grid points that characterize motion with six parameters: X, Y, Z, RX, RY, RZ. This is because beam and plate elements are abstractions to reality that introduce the concept of "bending". Solid elements are "less" abstracted and often don't support the rotational degrees of freedom.
Just to say, using those six degrees of freedom at a point is a way to reproduce "reality" in a certain abstracted way.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
anybody else notice that? it's like that racecar thing, i forget what they're called
Scrolled down farther, figured out it's position and movement. Don't need the replies to clarify.
But at least they're dipshits who know that wireless [x] is always 3000x better when it can be used as a wired [x] as well (and with a standard USB cable, at that) [take that, Nintendo]. Not enough to make me buy your next console for $827.39, but maybe just enough to make me buy one of the new controllers.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Just a theory, but does "Six Axes" mean that it senses the 3 rotation directions and the 3 directions of motion?
Or it could mean 2 axes in motion sensing + two axes on each analogue stick...
Well, You can't get six axes, but you get six degree of freedom. Basically you need 6 axes to controller X,Y,Z translation and X,Y,Z rotation. I remember trying to play the original descent was quite hard becuase you had to control all 6 degrees of freedom, and most controllers only had at max 4 degrees of control.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Probably from rotation. The PS3 demos showed people rotating the controller to fly an airplane, not translating it.
At Sony they subscribe to String Theory and Brane theory. Space is not three dimensional.
Seriously. Here is it
Stick 1 - X, Y, Z(press the stick)
Stick 2 - X, Y, Z(again press the stick)
Motion sensor X, Y, Z (Assuming the sensor works in 3 dimensions.)
Theoreticly it could be Nineaxis instead of Sixaxis
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
Is there an engineer in the house? Six axis implies movement along X Y and Z as well as rotation about X Y and Z. The "shock" in "dualshock" refereed to the rumble feedback, seeing as there is no-longer any rumble feedback it'd be silly to still use the shock title (hence why many journalists started calling it "dual shake". Also sixaxis has the marketing benefit of reading the same when spelled backward, which plays along with the symmetry Sony seems to feel is terribly important with their controller designs.
Collector's Edition
To all the posters above talking about 6-axes etc etc - it's a name. A PR stunt, nothing more.
Let me give you an example. Here in the UK, expectant parents can now buy ultrasound scans of the child as videos. They are called '4D pictures' - which is of course sounds stupid to anyone that actually knows the 4th dimension is time. Sony's naming here is no different - they're probably just trying to equal the publicity Nintendo got when they named their next-gen console the Wii.
Don't you just hate it when people reply to your signature?
Sony isn't going to use force feedback vibration because of their suit with Immersion so calling it the anything-shock without changing the feedback to being an actual shock would be out of the question.
:)
:)
They also saw the buzz that Nintendo was creating with their accelerometer based revolution. So a quick implementation of this into their current controller designs gives them a new tout-able feature (ooh... the Sixaxis) and a lame excuse about why they can't implement vibration. Sorry, we had to remove vibration from the controller because it interferes with the motion sensor despite the fact that the Wii-mote will have both. Actually the Wii remote can rumble both sides giving it two vibration motors as opposed to just one in the Gamecube; maybe they should call it a "DualShockWiiMote"
Anyway, I'm glad that Sony was able to quickly implement accelerometers to make the Sixaxis controller. I would've hated to hear the alternatives coming from Sony's marketing department...
"Bundled with the Playstation 3 is the exclusive DodecaClick3 controller. It has a whopping twelve buttons which is much more than at least one of our competitors. Imagine the games that can be created tot take advantage of this."
Although now I kind of do like the idea of kids yelling "Mommy! Mommy! I want a DodecaClick!" Hold on a sec while I trademark that...
Explanation: one of their brighter marketdroids included sixaxis on a short list for a focus group. Other choices of names for the new six degree of freedom controller which were NOT picked: "six doof," "sixtoy," "axis six," "funxxy," "wiiconsiide."
[
If ignorant of the almighty
Sixaxis Creation Power,
then you are android dumb,
educated singularity stupid
and unworthy of existence -
with your death as positive.
Killing you is not immoral -
only unlawful by WiiMen.
(Yes, this is a Time Cube parody...)
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Is there a competition between Sony and Nintendo to make the worst name for game console hardware? First Wii now Sixaxis.
Microsoft should stay out of this one.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow
Who wants to bet that the logo for the controller will feature some kind of symmetry?
For the many people with thisth mild yet annoying sthpeach problem, a name like 'Thiksthakthisth' is a horrible prank to play on them.
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
The fourth dimension is not time! There is no specific fourth dimension just as there is no specific first, second, or third. Can you point along the axis of "first dimension" for me? No, you can't! Only if we agree ahead of time can we both know what each other mean by "the first dimension".
We might say that the first dimension is described by the axis running between my two feet, perpendicular to the hight of my body. But guess what, my body is in constant motion as the earth revolves and rotates, and as the solar system and even galaxy both move. There can be no specific, universally-accepted "first dimension".
Only in when talking about something localized can we intelligently say something like "the first dimension"--if we have agreed ahead of time what we mean by that. Say we both work at a box manufacturer and we use a piece of software to record the dimensions of boxes. We might be told to always enter the dimensions of the boxes from largest to smallest. Then we can say, "The first dimension of the box is 23 cm." or, "The length of the box is 23 cm." We have defined the first dimension to be "length".
When discussing relativity, it is often helpfull to have graphs to explain things. What is often done is that three dimensions of space are all represented by one dimension of the graph and time is represented as the other dimension of the graph. We do this because a piece of paper is best at showing two-dimensional graphs. If we were using a 3
D graph, we could show two dimensions of space and have the third one being time. All of these are illustrations however and don't mean that "time is the fourth dimenstion" or anything of the kind. But it is a usefull way of drawing things like light cones and explaining relativistic effects.
So the price will be $42, $2 more than the basic Wiimote? Interesting...
i always use the konami code to find out who had friends when they were a kid. i personally say "up up down down left right left right B A select start" only because everytime i played contra it would be with my friends. i have noticed a few others do the same thing.
2) Is the memory card reader bundled with the premium bundle of the PS3?
2a) If not, why not?
3) Does the movie controller require a special dongle?
4) Regardless of a special dongle, are the movie controllers IR or bluetooth?
5) If the controllers are IR controllers, can I use another controller (e.g. a universal remote, or a remote for my Sony receiver) for movie playback?
Unfortunately, my intuition is saying the following answers:
1) No
2) No
2a) Because "the demand is not there" for the long-run 3) Not for official the SonyTM remote, but possibly for Logitec, MadCatz, etc - Sony will be bluethooth, other companies are at their discretion
4) See Answer 3
5) We don't know, it's up to the dongle manufacturers
It makes sense when you consider that their own standalone Blu-Ray player (which does not play PS3 games, of course) costs twice as much as the cheap version of the PS3, which plays games and Blu-Ray movies...
What other costs would they have had to cut to put a $1000 Blu-Ray player into a console that would probably otherwise cost $300 - $400?
Also, why not let the game controller control the DVD? (Pardon my ignorance as I have never owned a PS2 or an XBox, so I don't know if those consoles let you use the game controller as a DVD remote.) Since the remote costs extra anyhow, why not let the controller do games and movie controls, and let people by the remote if they really want a normal remote? It already has those weird Triangle and Square icons on the buttons, may as well make those functionally equivalent to Play and Stop, etc.
The fourth dimension is not time! There is no specific fourth dimension just as there is no specific first, second, or third. Can you point along the axis of "first dimension" for me? No, you can't! Only if we agree ahead of time can we both know what each other mean by "the first dimension".
We might say that the first dimension is described by the axis running between my two feet, perpendicular to the hight of my body. But guess what, my body is in constant motion as the earth revolves and rotates, and as the solar system and even galaxy both move. There can be no specific, universally-accepted "first dimension".
Only in when talking about something localized can we intelligently say something like "the first dimension"--if we have agreed ahead of time what we mean by that. Say we both work at a box manufacturer and we use a piece of software to record the dimensions of boxes. We might be told to always enter the dimensions of the boxes from largest to smallest. Then we can say, "The first dimension of the box is 23 cm." or, "The length of the box is 23 cm." We have defined the first dimension to be "length".
When discussing relativity, it is often helpfull to have graphs to explain things. What is often done is that three dimensions of space* are all represented by one dimension of the graph and time is represented as the other dimension of the graph. We do this because a piece of paper is best at showing two-dimensional graphs. If we were using a 3D graph, we could show two dimensions of space and have the third one being time. These illustrations don't mean that "time is the fourth dimenstion" or anything of the kind. But it is a usefull way of drawing things like light cones and explaining relativistic effects.
Just like at the box manufacturer, it can be helpfull for people who are discussing relativity to talk about some sort of four dimensional space-time, with time as the fourth one of their dimensions. This doesn't make it any kind of "universal fourth dimension" at all. It only makes sense when they are talking amongst themselves because they have agreed to that terminology. Outside of that circle, saying "the fourth dimension is time" makes you look like you're simply trying to sound smart.
* Notice I didn't write "the three dimensions of space" since there are no-preset dimensions. Any three vectors (that are not linear combinations of eachother) can be used as the three axes that define your dimensions.
Yea, it's interesting since you can form a basis for the spatial dimensions with any 3 linearly independent vectors. Unfortunately "six axis" is an already used [misleading] term.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
In high school there was this lunch lady that was so fat she had two sets of belly rolls upon which her boobs sat. We called her SixTits. She should think about suing sony.
adventure-today.com
Sixaxis... Oh I had that back in high school. Got a shot.. cleared it right up baby.. you got nothing to worry about.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
It's a palinder... a palindah...
a puh... puhh...
pff, they spelled it backwards.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
And if they named it the 're-flip pilfer' it'd be too obvious that they were trying to run with Nintendo's idea.
+X, -X, +Y, -Y, +Z, -Z. Yea, bit of a stretch, but whatcha gonna do?
I was thinking something along these lines...
XYZ+-
pronounced: XYZ more or less
Gimbal lock isn't just a mathematical problem. It's a physical problem that affects mechanical devices. A simple software patch is not sufficient. Using quaternions is a mathematical solution that works fine for game physics, but I know of no mechanical "quarternion sensor" that would magically solve the problem.
Carefully placed accelerometers might be able to solve the problem through software integration, but it's certainly non-trivial.
On the other hand, 6-axis could also have meant x, y, and 4 throttles, which would actually be pretty useful for things like flight-sims. That could be used for two engines, elevator trim, and rudder trim.
Or they could have two analog sticks and two throttles: x,y, j,k, and 2 throttles and finally let us play that neat-o arcade tank game from the 80s.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
The nickname that we in internet meme land were throwing around was "DualShake."
+ %22dual+shake%22
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22dualshake%22+OR
I am wondering, why give it a name at all? Where people really saying "Hey, pass me the dualshock"? As for Nintendo, I can understand giving it's controllers a name to differenciate the 2 parts, but for sony, it is kinda useless.
Six axes for six degrees of freedom. Three are translational (X, Y, Z), and three are rotational (roll, pitch, yaw; some textbooks call them phi, theta, and psi). With these six coordinates, one can completely describe the position and orientation of an object in three-space. Oftentimes, the rotational axes will correspond to the translational axes, so that roll is rotation about X, pitch is about Z, and yaw is about Y, but it can become difficult, in the dynamics of moving bodies, to keep that consistent. Generally, the rotational axes are allowed to reorient relative to the translational axes, though they keep a common origin.
Or does the lower end PS3 look like it is on par with the value of the Xbox360?
Well not exactly - as you noted the lower end PS3 has a Blu-Ray drive, and also an HDMI connector which the 360 lacks. Not to mention free mtach play using the online service.
So it's really a bit better.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think they need to add a charging base for additional battery packs so that I can rotate battery packs during hardcore gaming sessions....
You must have missed the part where plugging it in means it's a charging wired controller.
Presumably there will be a warning if the controller gets low on power.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not enough to make me buy your next console for $827.39
Then what about $500 instead?
That's how much the base console is, which has a few more things than the premium 360 pack which is only $100 less. Even an HDMI connector.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you think Sony not including the Blu-Ray remote with a PS3 is crazy, how about the 360 - they forgot the whole DRIVE!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
X, Y, Z, Roll, Pitch, Yaw
...because "hacker" sounds way sexier than "code drone."
No one's going to call it anything but 'the controller' unless they're maybe talking to a clerk at Best Buy or somewhere. Having these bullshit product names is just dickhead marketing executive justifying their leeching off the corporate teat. "Dual Shock" etc etc. What crap. Hand me the controller for my PS2, I'm off. duh.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Winner!
What about X, Y, Z, pitch, roll, yaw (Nintendo Wiimote), or Control Stick X, Control Stick Y, C-Stick X, C-Stick Y, pitch, roll (Sony Sixaxis)?
The PS3's adapter can read PS2 and PS1 memory cards. How do I copy my N64 Controller Pak save files into Wii's Virtual Console?
Perhaps, but will it support the Game Cube? Wii does.
I actually feel the same way you do. I got the Xbox as a gift from my wife, but I played far more games on my PS2 than the Xbox. I should also let you know that I am supposedly biased for MS (see my profile, *grin*).
A lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm a huge fan of RPGs, particularly Japanese-style RPGs. With games like Disgaea, all the Xenosaga titles, and all the Final Fantasy games (just for starters) on the PS2, it's a no brainer which console I played more.
Despite that, though, I've been pleasantly surprised by the games on the 360 so far. While I didn't like previous Elder Scrolls games, I enjoyed Oblivion quite a bit. Thanks to the "evil" Live Marketplace, I downloaded two demos for Dead Rising and Saint's Row, and ended up buying them since they were so much fun. And they're quite excellent games. And then there's a ton of Live Arcade titles I've enjoyed as well. (I am eagerly awaiting Contra and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night).
What's most exciting is seeing some of the lineup that's coming up. Sure, there's Lost Planet and Gears of War, your typical action-type games (and not your normal FPS shooter!). And Bioshock has gotten rave reviews. But for this fan of J-RPGs, it's great to see games like Blue Dragon, Lost Oddysey, and Eternal Sonata. I can already say that there will be FAR more games I play on my 360 than on my Xbox. (And FYI, since you're a Gundam fan, there's also a Gundam game from Bandai coming to the 360)
Will I get a PS3? Certainly, since I'm still a sucker for almost anything Square-Enix (and they're also making a 360 game, called Project Slypheed, which looks pretty slick). But FFXIII isn't going to come out for at least a year, and none of the PS3 launch titles look remotely interesting. So after I beat Okami and FFXII, I plan on finally unplugging my PS2 and totally focusing on 360 titles. I can say without a doubt that my experience so far has been far beyond the "slim pickins" of the Xbox.
Now, I don't know if I'm a-typical because I'm supposedly biased (I try not to be a fanboi for anyone though), or if it's genuine interest. We'll find out in a few months, though, if I'm really alone or if there are others thinking the same way.
-- jchenx