Rumble for PS3, But Only in '08 for EU

Kaz Hirai confirms the DualShock 3, but not before having the announcement spoiled a few times.

As expected, Sony boss Kaz Hirai said on Thursday during his keynote at the Tokyo Game Show that rumble is coming back to the PlayStation.

The new DualShock 3 controller for the PlayStation 3 will be out in November in Japan, though Europeans and Americans will need to wait until next spring.

The controller is outwardly identical to the current Sixaxis controller and includes all of that pad's functionality.

Sony didn't give any reasons for the delayed Western released of the pad, suggesting that it is nothing more sinister than that the company can't crank them out of the factory fast enough.

Representatives from Sony refused to comment on the matter.

When it's released in Japan, the controller will only be available as a separate peripheral, keeping with the way the original DualShock was introduced for the PlayStation. Sony has not yet revealed a price.

The delay of the Western release is doubly frustrating to would-be adopters because there will be a fair number of games that support rumble out this year already.

Sony has released a list of more than 60 games that will either work right away or after a small download, a list that includes Heavenly Sword, Unreal Tournament 3 and the bulk of the launch games for the console.

The move is an about-face for Sony, which has in the past snubbed rumble as an archaic feature. The company has also said that it chose to leave it out of the controller because it could interfere with the tilt-sensors of the Sixaxis.

Many, however, presumed that Sony kept rumble out of the Sixaxis because of a drawn-out legal tussle with technology company Immersion, which sued Sony (and previously Microsoft too) for violating its patents related to rumble technology.

The announcement will come as no surprise to those who have been watching the news over the last week. The DualShock was first outed by 1Up last week and on Wednesday EA spoiled Sony's reveal by showing off a rumble-enabled demo of Burnout Paradise at an event in Japan earlier in the week.

You can see what Hirai had to say about the DualShock 3 and much more in our recent interview with the PlayStation boss.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo