Kotaku gets ahold of some Sony motion control details

[Queasy]

Link

The PlayStation 3's second motion control push is slated to launch in Spring 2010, Sony Computer Entertainment reiterated to developers today, arriving with a "range of first-party and third-party content." SCE pitched the new controller as capable of functioning "with any games across all genres from casual to core."

On the technical side, SCE says that the PlayStation Eye accessory will come equipped with force feedback rumble. Sony boasts that the "face-tracking and head-tracking capability already in the PS3 SDK" will offer developers "powerful tools for new types of user interaction."

Sony says its new controller will also work in tandem with the Eye's built-in microphone array for voice input and voice recognition. Up to four of the new motion controllers can be tracked at once by the PlayStation Eye.

Adding the wand controller to games comes at a horsepower cost, Sony notes, writing that the "motion-tracking library has some SPU overhead and has an impact on memory as well, although these will be minimized."

The developer targeted communication also indicates that Sony is "currently looking into the possibility" of combining motion control wand and stock PS3 controller functions, offering the example of "the motion controller as a sword and use DualShock 3 as a shield."

Sony did not express a price, firm launch date or plans to bundle the PlayStation Eye motion control accessory.

The DualShock is a shield bit seems weird. Especially since during the E3 presentation they showed a demo of the guy using one wand as a sword and the other as a shield...

I'm also wondering what games they have in the pipeline for a Spring 2010 launch. First party I can see but this would be a relatively quick turn-around for third-party. And since nothing was really leaked for the motion control prior to E3, I'm assuming that the tech hasn't been in the hands of third-parties.

 

[arod]

Personally I think most 3rd party devs will adopt natal over this..... just a ton of more hype around natal and the dev kit probably will be far better.

They do have the advantage of being able to shoehorn wii and ps3 control systems together which could help get quantities of games out there. It is kinda funny how they are hinting at being able to do some of the same stuff natal can. Will be interesting to see if it actually can do it as well as natal promises (the voice and facial recognition). Based off the current eye stuff Im not putting too much faith in it though unless they can do some firmware/software updates.

One thing they have to copy and have it from day 1 is the ability to move through the menus using gestures. That instantly makes it seem more valuable to consumers.

 

[zerogear]

Facial and voice are software based, as long as it has a video camera and voice, it'll work as long as the software is designed properly. Though the motion sensing thing, Sony has been doing it since the PS3 eye, although not to the extent to use full body control, their motion control through video camera looks a lot more mature than XBox's natal.

 

[tatteredpotato]

The nice thing about natal is that it (allegedly) does most of it's own processing.