PlayStation Move: All you need to know

As we predicted, Sony officially announced its final motion controller during its conference at GDC. Of course, we’re sure you’re already aware of that but we thought we’d bring you a round up of the controller that Sony calls PlayStation Move.

The Hardware

The glowing and phallic ping-ball topped controller was the sole instigator of the platform holder’s conference as they demonstrated its communication with the already released PlayStation Eye camera . The final stick features a number of buttons, with the rest included on the system’s sub-controller, which we revealed to be Move’s ‘nunchuck’ controller.

The system works by using the PSEye to detect the movement and 3D position of the controller’s glowing ball, alongside a number of motion sensors; a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a ‘terrestrial magnetic field sensor’.

From hands-on reports the controller has a number of advantages over the Wii’s infra-red system, providing more accuracy and cutting lag down to only one frame. The sphere also offers an accurate measure of the Z-axis, since its size lets the PSEye know how far the controller is from the screen.

As for the sub-controller, it’ll function wirelessly and as of yet doesn’t feature any motion sensors — something that Sony may change before the peripheral’s release this fall.

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The Software

The software shown at San Francisco has been accused by some to immitate Wii games, but it’s early days and the technology has the support of almost 40 third-party developers, including Activision, EA, Konami, Sega, Square Enix and Ubisoft. The company further promised over 20 games for Move’s launch.

With social and core gamers being covered, Sony showed off a number of new titles, including Sports Champions, Move Party, Motion Fighter, The Shoot, TV Superstars, Slider, EyePet and Brunswick Pro Bowling. Stretching from titles reminiscent of Wii Sports, we also have more core friendly titles involving street boxing, for example. Now we’ve included B-Roll footage of these games below, which means that this it’s unedited footage of the games and hardware, so don’t get cranky over the missing background music.

Developer Zipper Interactive also showed off SOCOM 4 with both the Move controller and the sub-controller. Using the technology’s tracking ball, the player could accurately control the on-screen character’s reticule without the dreaded waving of the arms that you might find in a Wii shooter.

A number of already released games will also be getting the Move treatment, with LittleBigPlanet (shown above) and Resident Evil 5 being the first that we know of. There are also rumours of Gran Turismo 5 supporting the controller, though we believe that Polyphony Digital’s game will just be using the PSEye for head tracking. Sony has further explained on the PlayStation Blog that adding Move support to released games isn’t too hard and won’t compromise graphical quality since  the technology has a low performance impact on the console.

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The Price

PlayStation Move will be arriving to stores in a number of bundles, including; a single controller for those with a PSEye; a full console pack with PS3, controller and camera; and a starter pack made up of controller, camera and a game priced at under $100. Hopefully costs won’t mount up too much if you want to buy extra controllers for multiplayer action

So what’s your opinion on Move? Do you think it looks stupid? Does the technology have anything unique? I’ll give you a little ditty of my personal opinion; it may look stupid, but the glowing sphere is actually what will be Move’s best marketing tool and secondly, its accuracy could create new gaming experiences, and with the PSEye camera in on the action augmented reality experiences could be a real selling point.

Enjoy a full gallery of all the PlayStation Move games right here.

Readers Comments (17)

  1. I’m personally looking forward to this.

  2. Personally I don’t think it’s worth $100. I probably won’t get Move until there’s a price drop and/or there is a sufficient amount of interesting games on the platform. It’d be awesome to get some third-party Wii titles on the PS3, although if that happens, I hope it doesn’t take away from Wii support. I know it will.

    Imagine: Madworld HD. o.O

  3. @1: yeah as am I. Hopefully SE, Konami (kojima productions…), and the rest of them can come out with some good games!

    and also, Temco/Koei: you better not end up making another game like that one Wii Samurai Warriors game!!

    hopefully the price for the bundle is 80! the nunchuck should be included in the bundle as well…i dont want another Wii thing where you have to buy the nunchuck AND the Move seperately….

  4. Patrick Steen March 14, 2010 @ 18:29

    The PSEye is worth around $40-50, and then you get a game ($50) and the controller…

  5. This really fall on the developers and how well they use the tools they have, the better developed game make PSM better. Socom 4 was developed with the move for about 6 weeks and they have made it smooth to play with and if other follow there example then we can see many game that are worthy of being PS3 exclusives.

  6. Think of it this way: You can get Move under a 100 bucks (That’s the wand, the PS eye AND a game), while a wii would cost you over 200 bucks when considering the extra accesories.

  7. Moocows111111 March 14, 2010 @ 19:37

    Its a good deal compared to the all ready best selling Wii. But however you only get the controller, not the “sub-controller” which will probably be another 30$ then you’d have to by another one since motion controllers are usually for playing with 1 more person.

  8. i still say the Wii is better since it comes with motion control built in while the move is an add on that is too expensive to get people who don’t own a ps3 interested. I’m mean just total up the price. The Wii with 2 nunchuck, 2 Wiimotes, 2 wii motion pluses and 2 games (Wii sports and Wii sports resort that has the 2 wii motion pluses bundled together) is about the same price as 1 PS3. The move just hasn’t got the right price to convince Wii only owners to buy a PS3.

    btw you forgot to mention in the report that almost universally the people who have had a hands on with the move have said something along the lines of “the lag was immense across all games”. However, i will reserve judgment for after i tried it, since it is still not released yet. No mater what, Wii will still have better motion control due to the amount of games based around it already, but if Sony is smart enough to make use of the move like Media molecule is, then i will definitely be getting the Move.

  9. good

  10. Sony HAS to bundle this with the PSEye…

  11. @Patrick Steen And the ps3eye is pretty useless on it’s own, but now is tied in with this controller. If the camera had an actual useful function with out these remotes it might be worth 50 bucks, but it doesn’t so really it should be sold with the remotes for no more than 70 USD anything more and it’s highway robbery.

  12. The PS MOVE looks like Wii on Steroids. The 3D is what interests me. I can’t wait to see games look like avatar but very interactive.

  13. Again, for me this all depends on the software. LittleBigPlanet was the only thing I found interesting when I was watching Sony show off the Move.

    My beef with this thing is that Sony refuses to be upfront with it. They should be saying “Hey, we see how well the Wii is doing, and we think we could do it better” rather than trying to sell it as landscape-changing technology.

  14. I’d rather get a PSP GO! 0_o

  15. Dont think i could currently affored it so doubt i will be able to then, looks gd and promising but will wait to the reaction and type of games that are released with it

  16. hacker13sacker April 3, 2010 @ 21:03

    i think 100 dollars is a great price for what your getting i cant wait….but luckily i already have the pseye so i will probably only have to get the controller/move which is i think 40 or 50 bucks…oh yea socom 4 ftw

  17. watch any video other than E3 and i think all will be impressed. you can literally move around in a 3d environment and actually push and pull objects. as far as lag goes anyone who has played a wii knows that even 10 frames would be a great improvement. But they boast a 1 frame lag rate. Say what you will but any core gamer will buy this.

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