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

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: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.

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.

Short comparsion with wiimote..

[Seth Kriticos]

Better:
+ lighter

Worse:
- less accurate and sluggish
- looks porn

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.

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.