Playstation Controller – Is the Sony PS Move just a Crappy Wii Knockoff?

 11 May 2010 - By Omar Mariño+
 omar@myddnetwork.com


The Playstation Move seems like too little too late making Sony the Johnny come lately to the motion control party on next-gen systems.  Nintendo’s Wii seems to have made motion control gaming cool again—sort of—after a disastrous stint in the ‘90’s with products like the Sega Activator, however; with the launch of Microsoft’s much awaited Project Natal later this year do we really need another motion controller or will Sony’s addition be overkill?

First of all, calling Sony’s Move a motion controller is a little deceiving.  It’s really a handheld controller with a gaudy ball on the end of it that the Playstation Eye “sees” and relates into the virtual gaming world.  Meanwhile, the Wii uses accelerometers and infra-red signals to relay its position.  Natal on the other hand uses no controller—touting the gamer’s body as the controller.  In comparison, the Playstation device reminds seems kind of last gen.

PS Move Controller

PS Move Controllers look retro-futuristic (especillay upside down)

The controller devices will have three-axis gyroscopes, three-axis accelerometers, and some sort of magnetic field sensor so why did they need the light up ball in the first place?

That aside, the device shares some similarities to the Wii in that its controllers are actually two separate devices (one for each hand).  Thankfully they use BlueTooth rather than a physical cable to link them negating any “accidents” involving overactive gaming and ripped controller cables.

However, the smaller off-hand controller has a joystick, d-pad, and X and O buttons so you’re off-thumb is going to be pretty busy.

The list of games Sony has revealed leaves a lot to be desired.  Many of them seem like the “casual” games that got the Wii flamed on the internet shortly after launch.  In fact, the rise of this next gen motion controllers has some gamers postulating that the bottom will fall out of the market like back in ’85 when Atari sunk an entire industry by letting garbage games take over.

I doubt the Playstation Move will have such a big impact but until it launches you can check out the Canadian markets and laugh at the controllers—now on sale for $60 (Canadian).  Maybe the new toy will be “affordable” like we were promised.






Disclaimer - Category: Control, Gadget, Game