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by Serban Stokker |
5th October 2006 |
Four months ago, Sony claimed that adding rumble to the motion-sensing PS3 controller was "technically impossible".
Immersion disagreed immediately, and in less than a day, their engineers had already come up with three solutions (which they cleverly kept for themselves). Now, Sony admits that it can be done, but claims that doing so would make the controller far too expensive for consumers. Well, guess what: Immersion disagrees. Again.
Speaking to
GameDaily BIZ, Victor Viegas - CEO of haptic technology specialist Immersion Corporation - claims that they know how to include force feedback alongside motion sensing in the PlayStation 3 controller, without skyrocketing the console's overall price.
"We knew how to technically solve their problems and now we know how to do it without adding any incremental cost", he said.
Viegas' reaction was sparked by the following comments made by SCEA president Kaz Hirai in a recent
Kikizo video interview:
"The issue... is trying to isolate the vibration feature from the motion sensors. Is it technically feasible? Absolutely. But the balancing act that you need to do, is to be able to present the controller to the consumer at an affordable price.
If we have to come up with technology... to isolate the vibration from the sensing, but if that means that the controllers are going to be so expensive, then we're doing the consumer a huge disservice by coming up with a controller that is not very affordable. ... And we felt that ultimately, the vibration feature, which is a feedback feature, as compared to the motion sensing which is an input functionality, when you compare the two, we decided that the input device or methodology is a lot more important than feedback, and that has been a strategic decision that we've made."
In response, Viegas points out that Kaz Hirai makes not one, but two astounding mistakes. The first is to claim that integrating rumble feedback with tilt sensors can't be done cheaply. And the second one is to assume that most gamers would rather have a motion sensing controller, than a vibrating one (contrary to the results of a study conducted by Immersion). Immersion is still willing to work together with Sony on this issue, but by the looks of it the feeling is not even remotely mutual. And no wonder, since the two companies are still battling in court over Sony's violation of Immersion's patents, in the PS2 DualShock controller.
Unfortunately, the ones that are really losing here are the gamers. In the worst case scenario, Sony could even shut down all vibration commands from the PlayStation 3, effectively cutting out any third-party vibrating controller from companies such as eDimensional (who previously created the G-Pad Pro PS2 controller, that incorporates both motion sensing and vibration, for just $29.95).
Poor Sony. The last thing they needed right now was yet another bashing. And they got it.
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