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?

[binarylarry]

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

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]

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..

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

[adolf]

Dedicated vibrating Playstation widgets are so 2004.

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:The "Move"

[somersault]

Wiimove your pweconceptions.

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.

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

[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.

EyeToy?

[benjymous]

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

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.

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!

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: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: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: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.