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Sony's Kaz Hirai Says "Motion & Rumble" Cost Prohibitive; Immersion Responds PDF Print E-mail
Written by Rivithed   
Thursday, 05 October 2006
By now, if you've kept up with the various stories on the PS3's controller (now known as the "SIXAXIS"), you'll know it is missing something that has become a standard in gaming controllers over the past few years. If you have not heard, the PS3's controller will not feature force feedback (that rumbling sensation from your gaming pad). It was previously thought that Sony could not combine motion sensing and force feedback. A PS2/PC controller developed by eDimensional, using Immersion's rumble technology, proved that it can be done.

In today's GameDaily report, Kaz Hirai says it is really not a question if it is possible to do, but rather, that a motion sensitive controller with a rumble feature would be doing "a huge disservice by coming up with a controller that is not very affordable." Makes you wonder since when has Sony been so concerned about being very affordable to the consumer, considering the PS3 will be the highest priced gaming console on the market (base 20 gig model will be $499, and 60 gig model will be $599).

GameDaily also had the opportunity to hear from Immersion's CEO, Victor Viegas. "I was really surprised when they initially said it wasn't technically possible and I'm probably even more surprised now... [Kaz Hirai's] really saying two things. One is that it's technically possible but that the cost is prohibitive—which again I find astounding—and the second thing he's saying is that they're making a decision to go with this tilt control in place of rumble because they think that's what consumers will appreciate in their gameplay," said Viegas.

To put the pricing into perspective, two controllers that use both rumble and motion sensing technology:

The G-Pad Pro, from eDimensional, a PS2 and PC controller that features force feedback and motion sensing runs for $29.99.

The Wii's controller will cost $40 and the Nunchuk add-on will be $20 (although both are not required for every game as Infendo's report says).

So would saving $10-$20 make a significant difference in having the rumble feature on your PS3 games? Which feature would you prefer to keep if you had to choose one? Read a study sponsored by Immersion here.

Read GameDaily's interview with Kaz Hirai here.

Read GameDaily's interview with Immersion's CEO.

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Comments
PS3 Grumbler
Written by Guest on 2006-10-30 22:05:44
Originally I was pretty excited about the PS3. I was absolutely drooling about it, and then the unthinkable happened. The PS3 lost its rumble. The only thing that may have been worse was the loss of backward compatability. Originally I was going to wait about six months after the console release to purchase it to work out bugs. But now I think that I will wait for a price drop on the Xbox 360 and purchase it. Some time down the road (a year or two possibly I may also purchase the PS3) Any title offered for both consoles I will purchase the Xbox 360 game because it will have the rumble feature. Now you might think that this might be overly sensitive, but one of the most exciting features when I first purchased the PS2 was the rumble.(I originally had an old Atari immediatelly before it). I have played many of my games with and without the rumble for comparison. There is no comparison between the two experiences. The Sony president says that input is better than response. I think if you gave somebody a kiss and they responded to your input like a piece of stone it would be a quite unsatisfying experience and so will the PS3 without rumble. Sony is making a mistake of Biblical proportions. They will lose way more money in lost revenue from people like me who will purchase Xbox 360 titles instead of PS3 titles when if they sucked up their pride and paid the lawsuit they would never had lost any money to the Xbox 360, because I would have been a captive audience never to try the forbidden fruit of the dark side. Don't tell Gamers how indispensible a feature is, then treat them like idiots telling them it really was never that important.

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