Sony Corp.

According to a website called PlayStation Lifestyle, a small focus group has been in charge of testing out a Wii-like controller for the PS3. Apparently the device was mounted on a foot-tall mini-tripod, and was demoed with tennis, fencing, and paintball mini-games, as well as used to play Quake on a laptop. Now, of course, just because there is a focus group on hand, doesn’t mean there is an actual product that’s coming out, but with that in mind, many forget the fact that the PS3 is already equipped with motion control. Although it still baffles my mind that the Wii has only 3 sensors while the PS3 has 6 and yet developers (most) can’t put them to good use yet. Even so, I don’t think Sony really needs to introduce a Wii-like remote to be successful because it’s a very different machine.

The Wii is not successful because of the fact that it’s just a simple controller. It’s the fact that the device is cheap, the device is filled with colorful, large, toony characters, it’s kid-friendly and new older generation gaming adult friendly. Put all those factors and you have an attractive product to the family crowd and those who are not familiar with the gaming world, the so-called “casual gamers”. If Sony were to introduce such a controller, they still have to overcome the fact that their system is priced much higher, it has more buttons/ports on it and once you boot in, there are a lot more options (though I’m sure you can over come all this with a firmware that enables a easy setup mode or a more advanced mode, although the unit is already extremely user friendly imho). But we also have to take note that although with exceptions, 90% of titles that do well on the Wii are made from Nintendo, and not 3rd party. That means Sony would have to dedicate an entire new division to focus on Wii-like games while 3rd party developers attempt to catch up and create such content and they’re already behind enough as it is with the PS3.

So then what should Sony do? I think Sony needs to continue on its focus that it started with the PS2. One of the clear things that Sony has been offering with every new PlayStation is groundbreaking technology. They have always brought something new and something of the future to users. To me, going with the SoniiMote is not the way or with tradition. Instead, Sony should focus their attention to the PlayStation Eye, formerly, the EyeToy. The PS Eye offers everything that the WiiMote can, except with less hassle and more simplicity. With the PS Eye, Sony can go one step further and really bring the future to their users and they already have the technology in place and the developer house. But putting all that aside, one of the revolutions that’s coming to technology is touchscreen, thanks to the iPhone. With the iPhone, over 4 million users are now fluent with touchscreen technology, and that’s only growing with many knockoff iPhones, the new 3G iPhone and many new touch platforms that Sony is introducing, like the X1. How does the PlayStation Eye fit into all of this? Think Minority Report. Imagine the capability to boot up the PS3 and while sitting on the couch, as you wave your hand, pointed towards the screen from left to right, you beginning to scroll through the XMB. Once you stop on photos, you wave your hand, up or down to scroll through the photo section till you find the folder you want. With a slight wave or pushing forward gesture, the folder opens and you are again, able to scroll through more photos. Now, just like the iPhone offers the pinch option to zoom in and out of photos, why not the same with the PlayStation Eye? Once on an image, wave your hand to select/open it and as you expand your hands apart from each other, the photo also expands. Now this is all off course UI but the same core philosophy can be attributed to games and we have seen that to a lesser extent already.

The only obstacle Sony faces with this vision is a dedicated gaming engine, like the Unreal Engine for many FPS or the White Engine that SquareSoft Square-enix uses for their up coming Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Because once a power and functional engine aimed at the PlayStation Eye and motion control is built, Sony can then license this to other developers to help extend the reach of the PlayStation Eye. So if a real funding, marketing and functional engine are put behind this idea, the PlayStation Eye has the capability to far outshine any motion controller and really capture the imagination of developers and the public.

I have said this many times but I believe that the PlayStation has the capabilities to cater to many different segments while other consoles have a much narrower user base. This means that Sony also has to realize the potential of their machine because Sony already offers a free online community while competitors either charge or have a nonexistent service. With PSN, Sony has the capability to reach the entire PS3/PSP user base and offer them not only gaming content, but also media content. We must not forget that Sony also commands very powerful music (SonyBMG) and film divisions (Sony Pictures). That again means that every PS3/PSP user can be connected to all forms of digital media while the PS3 still boasts the best Blu-ray player out there. Furthermore, the PS3 is extremely flexible when it comes to media content and offering the capability to stream music/video/photos from both Macs and PC to it over a network. And of course, this means that the PlayStation Eye can be yet another branch of the PlayStation 3. Targeting the more casual gamers with something new, exciting and yet totally different and revolutionary while still being a powerful machine to live up to all those who are still the core gaming community. One device. Multiple audiences.

Call me old fashion but I don’t like kids. They keep demanding this and that. I remember the good ol days when we had a tire a stick (look it up). So as a new firmware is starting to loom towards a release date, so do rumors of In Game XMB and recently added trophies. Now, I have no problem with the Trophies rumors as that’s fairly new (Only sense 2.1 did these rumors start). But really? In Game XMB? That rumor has been around sense firmware .2. Plus its not like any other console out there has this and this has been promised for a long time and is always used as a comparison tool to show lacking capabilities that the PS3 could offer but has not yet offered. So with that in mind, lets start a new rumor shall we? How about DTS-HD Support?

As Always Hit the MagicButton for a teaser from Sony and a Word from me about the Image Header.

The year that keeps giving to Sony continues on a roll that in April alone, $10.9 million worth of Dual Shock 3 controllers were sold in the United States. This comes after a bitter lawsuit that Sony and Immersion went through where I guess after 10 years, Immersion remembered that they had some form of BS patent on the rumble (www.techdirt.com, a fantastic site to read about our broken patent system). Now many things can attribute to the sales numbers. The fact that the PS3 has been doing so well and beating out the 360 month to month can show why the Dual Shock numbers alone would be so high as more people pickup a PS3, usually an extra controller comes with it. But there is also the fact of those who were upgrading their current controller to get a little Rumble back in their lives. We can only assume these numbers are going to rise as the adoption rate of the PS3 raises but because the PS3 has many killer titles lined up for the year like Grand Turismo 5: Prologue and GTA4 (both launched) but many up coming titles as well like Metal Gear Solid 4, Bioshock, Socom, LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2 to name a few.