PS3 Controller Gains Motion Sensing

Sony joins (and copies) Nintendo by adding motion sensing tech to final controller design.

The design of the PlayStation 3 has been common knowledge for a year already but things weren't quite so clear-cut for its controller. At the company's briefing ahead of this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Sony unveiled the final design and surprising new features for the controller.

The new controller drops the curved design so maligned over the past year for something more reminiscent of the current Dual Shock 2 controller. Apart from a new, raised button on the face (presumably the equivalent of the Xbox Guide button) and the lack of a lead on the Bluetooth, wireless controller, it looks almost identical. The real innovation, however, is inside.

Taking a page from Nintendo's Wii, the PlayStation 3's controller also has motion-sensing technology. Where Sony has a leg up on its rival is that the controller has the feature built right into it. This allows you to control games simply by tilting and moving the controller.

At the briefing, Sony showed off the controller's new feature in a demo for flight game Warhawk. In the demo, the game's lead developer showed how you can control an aircraft using just your own movement, without using the analog sticks at all.

The motion sensing abilities come at a price, though. Though it wasn't revealed at the briefing, Sony said in a press release that it would remove the rumble feature that has been in previous versions of the controller on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2.

Sony says the rumble feature has been dropped because it interferes with the motion sensors, but it's likely that the company's ongoing legal problems surrounding rumble technology played a role too.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games