The PlayStation 3’s upcoming motion controller, arriving this summer with a healthy collection of games, may not only include the dildo-like wand. According to insider rumours, Sony’s answer to the Nintendo Wii may come with a complementary “nunchuck” controller.
Sony’s Arc/Gem/’the Wand,’ whatever you want to call it, is rumored to be arriving in two wireless parts: the glowing stick we’ve seen before and a “nunchuck” that will feature a number of buttons, including an analogue stick, Square, Circle and even L1 and R1. The rumor comes by the way of a NeoGAF forum user, who writes:
“Heard from Dev friend who has these at his work. Was initially given the PSWand with big pink blob, looks like sex toy. Last few weeks wireless nunchuck arrived!
“Has analog stick and square and circle on it and I think L1 and R1. I’ll have to check the proper details but looks like the nunchuk will happen. Wireless too, sweet.”
Though the poster’s reliability cannot be measured, they did have this word of reassurance:
“Just to confirm that this is fact I’ve heard from my friend on Saturday. He’s to be trusted (by me at least) and so I hope you guys trust me. I believe this is happening but if proven wrong I’m sure I’ll be banned or branded a k***head or something.
“I’ll speak to him later this week about the exact details of the buttons but he says that the nunchuk only arrived fairly recently and both have the mini-usb socket in the bottom.”
Said developer friend doesn’t work within Sony but works for a game developer who is interested in using the tech for their next PS3 game. So though you should take this with a bucket of salt, the rumor certainly isn’t out of the question and could signify the controller’s delay until summer 2010 instead of its previously announced spring release window.
Though the nunchuck accessory will be good news for hardcore gamers who are interested in the technology, it may not be a positive move for differentiating the technology from Nintendo’s Wii. The Wii isn’t going to go away any time soon, so fighting it on Nintendo’s terms may not be the best move. Microsoft’s differentiating “no controller” Project Natal is likely to sell to the imaginations of Wii’d out consumers more, even if its technology is not as accurate as Sony’s Wand and nunchuck…or what we’d like to call Wunchuck.