Sony's PS3 Motion Controller Gets Demoed and Named

itwbennett writes "In a 45-minute press conference at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sony announced its motion controller, officially named the Playstation Move. The Move consists of the Eye Toy (a camera pointed at the player) and a wand-like controller with a lighted ball at the end and a range of buttons on the shaft, writes blogger Peter Smith. 'Alternatively games can use two of the wands, or one wand and one "sub-controller" that has an analog stick (the camera is always required),' says Smith. 'If this is sounding very much like the Wii's Remote and Nunchuk well, you aren't far off (though at least there's no cable between the two parts to smack you in the face when things get heated).' Here are Smith's thoughts on the demo: 'All in all, the demos seemed OK, but I, at least, wasn't really blown away by any of them. That said, it's always hard to tell how well these systems work without actually trying them for yourself. You need to feel the connection (or lack thereof) between what your hands are doing and what's going on on-screen in order to be sure. For example, in the boxing demo the player did a quick spin move that led to a roundhouse punch. It's hard to say if his motion triggered a pre-set action (a 'combo') or if the system was able to track the controller that accurately, and was able to 'connect the dots' from when his body briefly occluded the wand to when it reappeared.'"

Comments

Is the controller hard to use?

[elrous0]

a wand-like controller with a lighted ball at the end and a range of buttons on the shaft

I think I speak for all /.ers when I say that I can't wait to get my hands on this shaft. Does it require an especially tight grip? If there's a danger I can wear out my arm manipulating it, should I switch to my left hand occasionally? Are the balls just decorative or do they serve a function? And how am I rewarded at the end of the game?

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Anonymous Coward]

Playing with the balls is markedly different than playing with your Wii.

There's more cupping and less stroking motions.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Bearhouse]

a wand-like controller with a lighted ball at the end and a range of buttons on the shaft

...And how am I rewarded at the end of the game?

Uh, with blindness?

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[DIplomatic]

Terrific! I can't wait to hurl my controller across the room-- Wait, there's a pop-up message on the loading screen to my video game.

"Warning: Controller is to be HELD and NOT THROWN! Do not chuck, toss, lob, or pitch device at any person or object!"

Whew! That was a close one! Thanks Annoying Warning Because Someone Did Something Stupid And Sued! What would I do without you?

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[binarylarry]

Achtung! Don't not throw controller at PS3's remaining good eye!

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Dorkmaster Flek]

You may know perfectly well that you're not supposed to throw it, but do they have a solid wrist strap on the wand like the Wiimote? If not, you're going to have a hard time, despite your best intentions...

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[xtracto]

It kind of gives a new meaning to "my wand is totally out of juice".

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Nested]

It also makes Jesus cry.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh come now, this is nothing new, Sega's had this for quite some time now; http://sega.istheshit.net/

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good!
That "friend" owes me big time after i got him out of that mess a while back.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Lumpy]

I love that myth.

Honestly, the FIRST thing I did was remove the useless wrist straps. I have had a LOT of Wii players at the house and never had a Wiimote go flying.

Honestly, just because a few people had kids that needed to calm down and were swinging their arms as hard as they can does not mean the other 98% of people out there have that problem. I even got rid of the ugly and ooky feeling squishy silicone head protectors off our wii plus motion enhancers. I dont have head wounded people everywhere.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Well that's great for you personally, but lots of people have trouble holding on to a small remote while waving their arms around. I don't think it's unreasonable to have a wrist strap on it.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[0100010001010011]

Kitten genocide.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[kaizokuace]

as a natural reaction in an attempt to increase grip you will develop hairy palms.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[negRo_slim]

Well that's great for you personally, but lots of people have trouble holding on to a small remote while waving their arms around. I don't think it's unreasonable to have a wrist strap on it.

And not only that just because it has yet to occur does not mean it will not occur! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure as they say.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[danieltdp]

MNmm. How strong is the rumble feature on this thing?

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[An ominous Cow art]

Your comment reminded me of this.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[nacturation]

Come on Slashdot... this is old news. The PlayStation Move was demonstrated a while back.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, I've never been involved in a car accident, but I still wear my safety belt.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[LordVader717]

That's what I used to think but you'd be surprised how undescribably clumsy and respectless a certain percentage of the adult population really are. Like they're little kids who start to overreact when they're frustrated.

Re:Is the controller hard to use?

[KDR_11k]

Yeah, I should probably do that too, the only reason I even wear the wrist strap is because it's really annoying when it flaps around while you use the controller.

Two-wand play

[liquiddark]

Dibs on calling my wands Hurt and Burn!

Re:Two-wand play

[asjk]

How about Burn and Hurtie

Jim Henson won't mind.

Hopefully this drops the Eye-Toy price

[Anonymous Coward]

The Move, consists of the Eye Toy (a camera pointed at the player) and a wand-like controller with a lighted ball at the end and a range of buttons on the shaft, writes blogger Peter Smith

Hopefully this drives down the price on the Eye Toy. The PS3 Eye is a bad-ass camera; it can do like 120 fps. Great for diy multitouch apps.

The Eye Toy is back

[drinkypoo]

I have the Eye Toy for the PS2, some of the games are not totally worthless. It's actually tolerably good at recognizing one person's outline. I'd like to see someone do this with SONAR or LIDAR so that it didn't matter if your clothes were the same color as the background. I know the modern stuff is better but it's still not great.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[bluesatin]

This has more in common with the Wii controller, a better comparison would be between Microsoft's Project Natal and the Eye Toy.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[Sockatume]

This system was designed to address exactly the problem you mention with picking out things in low contrast, funnily enough.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[Anonymous Coward]

Its actually called the Playstation Eye, Eye Toy was the last gen camera. Lower resolution and FPS capture rate.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[somersault]

Except, the whole system uses the Eye Toy instead of an IR camera.. did you even read the summary?

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[drinkypoo]

Since you said that, I looked it up on Wikipedia. That's keen, it's sort of a monocular bat peripheral.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[Xest]

"I'd like to see someone do this with SONAR or LIDAR so that it didn't matter if your clothes were the same color as the background."

Sounds like Natal is what you're looking for then as that's one of the problems it solves.

Whether it'll be any good in practice we'll have to wait and see. I'm guessing E3 will be the best bet for decent news on Natal and for more on this.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[negRo_slim]

Yeah the standard webcam on the 360 works pretty good especially when you hang up say a sheet behind yourself. Looks a little worse than what the local weatherman can get done but still pretty interesting and dare I say, occasionally fun.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[negRo_slim]

IR Projector with a monochrome CMOS sensor.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[bluesatin]

I meant that the Eye-toy tracked your body, which is what Project Natal does. While Sony's motion tracks your hands and what they're doing, which is what the Wii controller does.

Re:The Eye Toy is back

[somersault]

But the system uses a camera, and so can still track your body as PS2 eye-toy games did - it doesn't have to be limited to purely monitoring the hand controllers. I think this is the way forward at the moment because you can have the best of both worlds.

I know Sony don't publicly have a system with pseudo-3D motion capture from 2D video yet, but they have been doing motion games for years and so far Natal is just a bunch of ideas and promises rather than proven tech. I think for Natal to work with games it is really going to need handheld accessories to make things feel right anyway. Not having any buttons to press at all just wouldn't work for a lot of games..

Wii cable

[VickiM]

there's no cable between the two parts to smack you in the face when things get heated

Smacking myself in the face with the cable is how I keep myself humble.

Re:Wii cable

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

there's no cable between the two parts to smack you in the face when things get heated

Smacking myself in the face with the cable is how I keep myself humble.

Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. Dona eis requiem sempiternam. THWAP

And if you think this is a biblical reference, please don't mod this.

Innuendo

[Luthair]

Its almost like they're trying:

• Here, hold my wand/shaft
• Could you press some buttons on my... shaft

Re:Innuendo

[KDR_11k]

If you keep that up I'll be forced to point out that your shaft only has one ball.

A better name

[RemoWilliams84]

How about the "Vibrating Orb of Pleasure". If you think there were a lot of vibrating "massage" mini games on XBL Arcade, just think of what you would get with this thing. A vibrating controller with a big(lubable, not sure that's a word) plastic head on it. Lot of ugly emo girls with eye cameras are just waiting to take this thing into Playstation Home.

Re:A better name

[Anonymous Coward]

PROTIP: The girls in Playstation Home are not really girls.

Re:A better name

[adolf]

Dedicated vibrating Playstation widgets are so 2004.

Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Say what you will about MS and the Xbox, but personally Project Natal looks a hell of a lot more interesting to me.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[Reapman]

So hard to say.. when the Wii came out it went from wtf is Nintendo smoking, to ZOMG the games will be amazing to... somewhere in between. It really comes down to the games, right now I'm not going to go out and buy either the Move or Natal until I see the games and how they make use of it. If it actually add's to the fun and isn't a gimmick i'll go for it.

Right now I haven't seen anything demo'ed with Natal that makes me go must buy. Amazingly cool tech yes, but still waiting for the "killer app". Same with the Move.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Oh I agree, I was just saying that it looks a lot more interesting at this point in time to me. I think motion-based control is really good for certain types of games. Case in point: I just finished Heavy Rain recently (I thought it was excellent and very interesting, despite its flaws). Adding motion-based controls to a game like that would be really cool, and take the immersion to the next level.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[tzhuge]

It looks worse than the Wiimote and Nunchuck in some ways... that off-hand controller looks like ergonomics hell. The Nunchuck has the stick and buttons all comfortably accessible, the Sony equivalent has tiny buttons and a d-pad below the analog stick... and it's less contoured, looks like it could mess up your hand badly. Kind of makes me wonder what is really driving the controller design... they might be trying to make this work with existing games (or at least slightly modified versions), and I think we've seen from the Wii that that doesn't really work.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[OdoylesRule]

Games being equal, I think Natal will crush it... if for no other reason than you don't need anything but your body. No wands, blowing balls, etc.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[timeOday]

At least, unlike the Wii, this tracks actual positions in space, so it can tell the difference between a flick of the wrist and a full-on karate chop.

With Natal, the whole question is: will it work. Having full-body tracking of an articulated skeleton without any special tracking target (like a wand) is obviously the ideal - if it works.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[DrXym]

Technically it is more interesting but in practice I think it will suck. Recognizing full or partial body motion and doing so with an acceptable level of accuracy on a low powered box in realtime would be hideously difficult in the best of circumstances let alone the average person's home with furniture, lighting, clothes, other people, skin colour and other factors thrown in.

The live demos so far suggest latency and exaggerated motions are going to feature quite prominently, especially now MS are saying much of the processing is moving out onto the CPU.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[negRo_slim]

Granted it's not cutting edge but a tri core power pc chip running at 3.2ghz doesn't seem to qualify as a "low powered box" to me.

And what do you mean by moving out onto the CPU? MS moved all the processing onto the Xbox really early on with Natal to bring retail costs down when and if this ever hits the shelves.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[Anonymous Coward]

At least, unlike the Wii, this tracks actual positions in space, so it can tell the difference between a flick of the wrist and a full-on karate chop.

Kind of like the Wii MotionPlus.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[Anonymous Coward]

You're talking about the same people who put the Dual Shock's analog sticks in such a position as to strain the thumbs if used regularly, and whose TV remotes have always had the worst layout of any major CE manufacturer. Aesthetics, not ergonomics, are the traditional rule at Sony.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen. Though, bizarrely, some people actually prefer to have the analog sticks in the wrong location.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[Zerth]

But unlike the Wii, if you'd rather just sit down and waggle the controller, you can't.

And if you happen to be missing a hand, you are probably out of luck. Well, unless it is a pirate game.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[Red Flayer]

Though, bizarrely, some people actually prefer to have the analog sticks in the wrong location.

Unfortunately, I cannot count my wife among those.

Ba-zing!

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[DrXym]

Granted it's not cutting edge but a tri core power pc chip running at 3.2ghz doesn't seem to qualify as a "low powered box" to me.

It is by modern computing standards, especially when the CPU is meant to be busy doing what the console is meant for which is playing games. If one core or one hardware thread is occupied 100% processing images and making sense of them, it obviously impacts on game performance.

And what do you mean by moving out onto the CPU? MS moved all the processing onto the Xbox really early on with Natal to bring retail costs down when and if this ever hits the shelves.

Exactly what I said. The original vision, the one Microsoft officially announced and stuck with for some time stated that the image and the resulting model would be produced in the device. That's quite an elegant solution and certainly minimizes on memory & CPU consumption. Now all the raw data must be transferred to the CPU which has an significant impact on accuracy, resolution, latency, sample frequency, memory and CPU availability.

At a stroke it completely changes what sort of recognition and games are viable. Natal has become a glorified EyeToy from this change. In some sense that isn't a bad thing, but I doubt it means you will see anything which is very sophisticated. In its favour Natal is obviously a cheaper and simpler solution than the Wand by a large margin and therefore it could be far more successful, or at least profitable. But from a gaming standpoint I have no doubt that the results will be pretty insipid by comparison.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[timeOday]

But unlike the Wii, if you'd rather just sit down and waggle the controller, you can't.

I consider that an advantage. Having the choice of just waggling your wrist instead of moving your whole body is like having a "god mode", it ruins the game because you feel silly actually doing it when it isn't necessary.

And it totally destroys the motion tracker for online gaming, since the person just sitting there twiddling his fingers would have a huge advantage.

Don't get me wrong, traditional games using traditional controllers should and will continue to be released. But motion tracking games should not have the option of using a traditional controller.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[grumbel]

The Nunchuck has the stick and buttons all comfortably accessible,

So does the Move Subcontroller, it however has additional buttons instead of just the two on the Nintendo Nunchuk. I consider that a serious improvement, as the Wiimote/Nunchuk combination had a serious lack of buttons, forcing the use of +, -, 1 and 2 for core gameplay functions.

What however boggles my mind is that the Subcontroller does not have motion detection and that they are demoning dual-wild games with two Move controllers at the same time. So it seems they want you to get two Moves, a Subcontroller and a classic Dualshock, just for single player gaming.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[jensen404]

Why didn't Sony put an LED ball on the subcontroller? That would even allow for some simpler 2-player games to be played with just one set of controllers.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[grumbel]

Most likely cost I assume, as its not just a ball, the full motion detection also consists of gyros and a magnetic sensor. However, I consider that decision to be extremely stupid, as its drastically limits what you can do with the controller.

Another way to look at the issue is, why didn't they put an analogstick on the Move controller? One would assume that Sony has learned by now that a second analogstick is a really useful thing to have (see PSP camera problems in half the games) and it would have also allowed to have the controller act as a full Dualshock replacement, instead of just being an additional controller.

Re:Looks like an enhanced Wiimote

[OdoylesRule]

I actually own an Xbox and a PS3... so whatever bias I may or may not have is based on informed usage and opinions (unlike your post).

The "Move"

[clone53421]

And I thought “Wii” was a stupid name.

Re:The "Move"

[somersault]

Wiimove your pweconceptions.

Knowing Sony...

[Yuioup]

It'll have a rootkit ...

lol

[Pojut]

Thing totally looks like a dildo. There better be some vibraty downloadables on the PSN...otherwise, they are missing out on a HUGE market for this product.

Re:lol

[Anonymous Coward]

They'll be missing out on MY huge market ;)

Should be able to "connect the dots"

[91degrees]

"or if the system was able to track the controller that accurately, and was able to 'connect the dots' from when his body briefly occluded the wand to when it reappeared."

Honestly, if it can't do this to some degree then it's a pretty rubbish system. You'll need some form of motion prediction just to get stable tracking in a computer vision system. It may have been a preset combo still but this sort of tracking is pretty well understood and Sony do have some bright guys doing computer vision.

Where have I seen that before...?

[pelrun]

Looks like Sony ripped off the open-source Atlas Gloves (http://atlasgloves.org/) so they could get gesture control without bumping into Nintendo's patents.

Wii on steroids?

[DunderXIII]

The difference is the power of the console. Now you can get Wii-like games that actually look good. And the extra power allows a potentially much better interpretation of the inputs. That said though Sony isn't necessarily the best provider of tools and the hardware may or may not be on par. If the price of the PS3 can potentially go down and reach the level of "affordability" of the Wii, and developpers get enough support from Sony to use the interface efficiently this can be a kick ass combo.

Re:Wii on steroids?

[Locke2005]

The PS3 has much higher resolution graphics; it is never going to match the price point of the Wii. Perhaps with the next iteration of the Wii Nintendo will include a better graphics chip, and then the PS3 and Wii will directly compete. (Disclaimer: I own a Wii, but not an XBox or PS3, because I'm cheap. Hardware costs less, games cost less. 'Nuff said.)

Re:Wii on steroids?

[negRo_slim]

The power of the console eh? The PS3 is basically a one core Xenon as found in the 360 but with the equivalent of an Aegia Physics card or two's worth of SPEs under it's control. And seeing as how we're already deep into the 7th console generation it would seem to me from a hardware standpoint the PS3 is a failure as a gaming device :P

But I get your point... I just fail to see how HD graphics with motion control games would bring anything new and worthwhile to the table.

Re:Wii on steroids?

[Little_Professor]

The PS3 has much higher resolution graphics; it is never going to match the price point of the Wii.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. The PS3 has been steadily dropping in price since release, while Nintendo have stubbornly refused to cut the RRP for the Wii, just as they did with the Gamecube. It's likely the PS3 will end up costing less than the Wii late in its lifespan, just like you can pick up a PS2 for $99 from Best Buy these days.

Re:Wii on steroids?

[Locke2005]

Wii manufacturing costs originally estimated at $158 now down 40% to $95. PS3 manufacturing costs originally estimated at over $800, now down 70% to $240. Sure, Sony is doing cost reduction faster, and a system-in-a-chip solution like that of the slimline PS2 would drive cost down even farther. But right now, each PS3 costs 2.5 times as much to build -- it would be easy for Nintendo to undercut any Sony price reduction without losing money on each unit like Sony was doing when first shipped.

It will never be big

[Godai]

No significant add-on every does well for a console for a very simple reason: if its not built-in to the core system, game designers are very leery of designing around it.

You just have to look at the history of the market. The best example is controllers. There were 4+ controller add-ons for the NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Genesis -- all relegated to the fringes of profitability. Why spend development time making a 4-player mode when there probably wasn't going to be more than 10% of the market who could even had the capability? And what fraction of that will buy your game? It was just plain 'ol 'bad return on investment'.

Flash forward to the N64; 4 controllers! What happens? Practically every game has 4-player modes, because you *know* the system has the capability. Sony & Microsoft saw it was a good idea and followed suit. Ironic, given what we're talking about -- more history repeating itself ;)

That isn't to say its not worth making add-ons like this. The fact that they keep making them suggests to me that enough money is being made to make them worthwhile. But I've yet to see an after-market add-on that more than a fraction of games on that system supported.

I assume Sony knows this, so they're probably just putting a toe in the water to see if its worth building this into their next-gen system. They'll probably make some money off this, but there's no way in hell this is going to steal much market share from the Wii -- there simply won't be many decent games. If the Wii has taught as anything, its that shoehorning motion control into a game doesn't really work; to work right the game needs to really be designed with motion control in mind. Unfortunately, I suspect that's what we'll see of most PS3 Move games: it will be an afterthought.

Re:It will never be big

[Mordac]

No significant add-on every does well for a console for a very simple reason: if its not built-in to the core system, game designers are very leery of designing around it.

Wii Fit seems to be doing excellent. Guitar Hero and its ilk (even though you can only use the accessory for the same style game.)

So even though the old style accessories never took off, these modern ones have done rather well. But they also had an excellent bundled product, making them worthwhile.

Re:It will never be big

[CronoCloud]

I remember reading about SCEfoo testing a wand controller with the PS2 eyetoy, never went beyond prototype though.

Also there are two coontrol addons that I know of that became very very popular: the PS2 eyetoy (that thing sold more than the Network Adapter!), and the original PSone Dual Shock. We have to separate controller add-ons, which sometimes succeed, vs other add-ons, which mostly don't.

Re:It will never be big

[Xest]

So how did the Guitar Hero and Rockband series manage to pull off being some of the top selling titles ever then? Even the Wii Balance board has done well.

The problem is, most aftersales addons are just complete afterthoughts. Well designed, fun addons do just fine.

Re:It will never be big

[enderwig]

I agree. There have only been a few peripherals that I can think of that have succeeded.

Dual Shock - became standard equipment for the later PS1's
Dual Shock 3 - became standard equipment for later PS3's
Guitar Hero guitar
maybe the Rock Band stuff.

I like my GunCon and Street Fighter TE Fightstick, but I'd be hesitant to call them truly successful. Both are pretty much niche controllers and probably are/were profitable.

The Move controller has a high barrier to entry since it requires an Eye and the ball controller that comes in a $100 start pack. The "nunchuk" is sold separately, or you can use your existing DS3/6-Axis as a stand-in. I don't think this will be more than a niche and may not be profitable.

Re:It will never be big

[brkello]

Yes, you should me modded up and GP down. What they said was true 6 years ago but not for this gen.

Re:It will never be big

[Anonymous Coward]

Flash forward to the N64; 4 controllers! What happens? Practically every game has 4-player modes, because you *know* the system has the capability.

I'm still waiting for 7 player support for games on my PS3.

Re:It will never be big

[DrXym]

I assume Sony knows this, so they're probably just putting a toe in the water to see if its worth building this into their next-gen system. They'll probably make some money off this, but there's no way in hell this is going to steal much market share from the Wii -- there simply won't be many decent games. If the Wii has taught as anything, its that shoehorning motion control into a game doesn't really work; to work right the game needs to really be designed with motion control in mind. Unfortunately, I suspect that's what we'll see of most PS3 Move games: it will be an afterthought.

I think you're right. Lots of early PS3 games made rather pointless use of the sixaxis, for example Rainbow 6 Vegas used tilt for the snakecam and it was ludicrously bad. Fortunately there are some games that use the motion sensing in reasonable ways but it has to be used judiciously and where it makes sense.

If the Move is to be successful it too must also be used judiciously and where it is used it has to be treated as a 1st class peer of the sixaxis. For example Sony is talking of using it in Socom 4. That's great but if people using the Move get their ass handed to them by people using controllers, it will suck hard. The Move has amazing potential thanks to its precision but it has to be pushed by Sony and made easy for 3rd parties too.

In terms of market share, I can well see Sony bundling up the PS3 and games with the Move. They've done it with the PS Eye and wireless headsets after all and often for quite reasonable sums. It's never going to beat out the sixaxis but they could certainly build up a large enough user base to make it worthwhile. After all, the likes of Guitar Hero, Buzz, Singstar, Wii Fit et al demonstrate you can sell millions of peripherals that only work with one game franchise so why not a controller which works with a range? Also, just the fact of offering such bundles may make some of the casual potential customers of the Wii waiver choose a PS3 instead which can hardly hurt the bottom line.

Re:It will never be big

[flitty]

But they also had an excellent bundled product, making them worthwhile.

Which is why I think this will fail. I mean, Guitar Hero wasn't really A "periphreal" game, it was a game that was only minorly more expensive and came with a guitar controller. It happened to be a really popular game, which then other games were made to be compatable with the controller (eventually). Wii Fit has the same approach. It's a game first, and a controller second. Sony's approach is totally backwards for a Non-standard controller. All of the games are called "Sports Champions" and "Shooter" and "Shovelware", which does not bode well for a REASON to buy this controller. You must create a game that makes a reason for your controller to exist, not vice versa when you're controller isn't packaged with your system.

Re:It will never be big

[soupd]

No significant add-on every does well for a console for a very simple reason: if its not built-in to the core system, game designers are very leery of designing around it.

The PlayStation launched with a controller that only had the standard d-pad for directional movement, yet the Dual Analogue Controller introduced in 1997 was both popular and well supported.

EyeToy?

[benjymous]

"EyeToy" was the PS2 camera. PS2/Move use the "Playstation Eye"

Re:EyeToy?

[Rivak]

Mod parent up. This is a common mistake, and will only get worse now that the PlayStation Move has been officially announced. The Move does not use a PS2 peripheral as most people are reporting, It uses the Eye, which originally(?) shipped with Eye of Judgment card game -- although most people I know who own an Eye use it to video conference on the PS3.

Bringing Gaming to My Media Center

[swanzilla]

The Dualshock 3 functions terrificaly as an interface to fire up Netflix, Pandora, and Blu-ray discs...can't say I've used it as a game controller very much, however.

I think the Wii tainted me...the whole dual analog setup is pretty tough for me to get back into. Maybe the Move will be able to merge graphics and play-abiliy, and make PS3 gamers out of guys like me.

Re:Bringing Gaming to My Media Center

[negRo_slim]

Maybe the Move will be able to merge graphics and play-abiliy, and make PS3 gamers out of guys like me.

If your having trouble with just the joysticks on the controller, I don't think anything is going to make you much of a gamer bro.

Simpsons DID IT...SIMPSONS DID IT..

[zcold]

I mean, *ahem* Nintendo did it! revolution in motion gaming, sha right, and monkeys might fly outta my butt... I want a pink one!

No way

[foo fighter]

Sorry, but I refuse to play video games with a controller that looks like the most popular "personal massager" of all time.

I see "look and feel" lawsuit from Hitachi coming.

Sounds terrible

[MobyDisk]

This sounds terrible. Sony already has the EyeToy. When it was originally created, it was a big thing, and they hired someone from NASA who was working on remote control of rovers using the human body. And it was some big high-tech thing. It turned out to be a cheap webcam and some simple software to see if there was motion at that point. They put absolutely zero effort into it. The Eyetoy was silly gimmick.

If this is sounding very much like the Wii's Remote and Nunchuk well, you aren't far off (

Really? It sounds totally different to me. An eyetoy is a cheap webcam with a limited frame rate and resolution. The Wii controllers can accurately determine position in 3 dimensions. There is good reason that this stuff has not been done with cameras. Cameras are limited - they need lots of light, the frame rate limits the responsiveness and accuracy, they can't handle things in the way, they can get easily confused. Accelerometers suffer from none of these flaws. Heck - at GDC there are tons of companies demonstrating motion-capture systems, and you can see the trade-off between quality and price by looking at the camera-based systems compared with the more custom solutions.

Image processing has come a long way in just a few years. But I don't think an EyeToy can even come close to what a Wii offers.

I suspect that Microsoft's Natal is using dual IR cameras or something, so at least they will have decent depth information. I'm skeptical that this can compete with the Wii either, but at least it looks like Microsoft is trying.

Re:Sounds terrible

[CronoCloud]

The PS3 Eye is not the same as the PS2's Eyetoy. SCEfoo did test out a wand controller prototype with the PS2 Eyetoy, but it never went beyond that, probably for the reasons you state. But the PS3 Eye is a better camera than the Eyetoy, so maybe they can pull it off now.

Re:Sounds terrible

[danieltdp]

You should suspect that wii uses cameras too... Think about it. How can you position something on space? You have to receive some signal from it. Witch kind of signal? MMM.. probably some electromagnetic radiation...

Re:Sounds terrible

[MobyDisk]

Yes, but the Wii doesn't use just the sensor bar. The accelerometers are a key feature.

Re:Sounds terrible

[danieltdp]

From http://www.slashgear.com/sony-ps3-motion-controller-coming-spring-2010-2457935/

should meet the “stringent” demands of hardcore gamers, thanks to its combination of two motion sensors, three axes gyroscope and three axes accelerometer.

Also, check out how the image keeps the same orientation as the controller on this video

Re:Sounds terrible

[MobyDisk]

Yeah, the eurogamer article on the Move also claims that there are accelerometers.

This just establishes that the original post was making a lot of assumptions. There was very little information at that point since all they had the was GDC announcement speech to go on. If it really were an EyeToy + a glowy controller, this would be awful.

Does anyone want this? Seriously?

[metamatic]

I have a PS3, I play it all the time, and I have a Wii as well so I'm not averse to motion controls... but really, does anyone want this?

Re:Does anyone want this? Seriously?

[Locke2005]

I would like a console that combines the graphics of the PS3 with a more precise version of the Wiimote (like having a Wii MotionPlus as standard with every controller.) Having played with an eyetoy on a PS2, I'm not convinced this motion detection system has that capability. I want a true 6-axis controller; a single eyetoy can only give you 2D control. Having a separate wireless controller for each hand would also be a plus; the Wii nunchuck cord is shorter than six feet and my arms are long enough that the cord actually limits my range of motion -- I have to be careful to not break the cord. And of course, it needs USB ports and an internal or external flash memory or disk drive to store downloadable content on. Do all that at a $300 price point and I'll definitely buy one. More than $500, probably not.

Re:Does anyone want this? Seriously?

[negRo_slim]

More than $500, defiantly not.

DualShock

[HalAtWork]

Sony's DualShock for the PSX and DualShock3 for PS3 are two accessories that have done very well for the main platform and eventually replaced the original controllers. They've been able to put enough marketing force behind the accessories to make them mainstream, so the Move at least has a good shot at becoming popular.

Personally, I can't wait to play RE5 with the Move, the way it was meant to be played. Before I heard it would be supported, I was wishing the game came out on Wii instead.

Pictures

[Locke2005]

here Yes, it looks like a vibrator and it does in fact vibrate. But it appears to have less precise control than a Wiimote, and anybody that wants a vibrator should simply buy a vibrator. I don't see them selling a lot of these.

Re:Pictures

[BillCable]

How can you conclude this "appears to have less precise control than a Wiimote"? I own a Wii and the precision of controls is pretty awful. In the Move demo yesterday the controls looked far more accurate. Plus it senses rotation, which I don't think is the case with the Wii. The Move boxing game wasn't great, but the Wii game is just horrible. The Move looks far, far better, IMO.

Re:Pictures

[Locke2005]

I agree, I have a Wiimote and it is very disappointing as a pointing device. I don't have personal experience with the Move, but if you follow the link I included, it states We hate to say this about "pre-alpha" software, but we're feeling lag. An on-rails shooter we tried out, dubbed The Shoot, was discernibly inferior to shooting experiences we've had on the Wii, both in precision and refresh rate of the aiming cursor. That may be a software flaw, but I believe it is more likely due to the limitations of using a single cheap web cam for motion detection.

Re:Pictures

[BillCable]

The Webcam isn't the only detection device. The Move also has some sort of SixAxis motion sensing, otherwise the rotation seen in the LittleBigPlanet demo wouldn't be possible.

Re:Pictures

[tedgyz]

Egads! Can any self-respecting man play with that thing without feeling like a total creep? Is Sony going after the ladies?

Re:Pictures

[grumbel]

This seems to be an issue with the game The Shoot, not with the controller itself. As others have reported that it feels noticably more accurate then the Wiimote in SOCOM.

Sony's Next 'Innovation'?

[Stick32]

Judging from the successful product that Sony's 'Move' will surely be. Sony's next move will be to introduce the 'new' and 'innovative' Sony 'Step.' A new and innovative platform that you can sit and stand on and by balancing on this boar.. I mean platform one can control in-game actions [/sarcasm]

Re:Sony's Next 'Innovation'?

[xtracto]

I've heard Sony is preparing to launch new technology for the next version of the PSP:

"The PSP Contact" adding innovating touch screen technology. Some of my sources even said the device may even have more than one screen... can you believe that!

It blinded me...

[Anonymous Coward]

...with science!

Short comparsion with wiimote..

[Seth Kriticos]

Better:
+ lighter

Worse:
- less accurate and sluggish
- looks porn

Re:Short comparsion with wiimote..

[feepness]

Worse: - less accurate and sluggish

Try more accurate, and the sluggish is only related to the game. Check the E3 live demos.

Looking forward to this

[Anonymous Coward]

I have the Eye Toy for the PS2 and Kinetic and love it. It's not perfect but it is pretty damn good for the $30 I paid for it. I modified the lighting in my living room so it works better and I use it to work out every day. I also have the Wii (including Wii Fit) and am more impressed by the Eye Toy/Kinetic.

I'm really looking forward to the PS Move, might have to buy a PS3 now.

Better than...

[AmazingRuss]

...the Movement, at least.