At the on-going Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco, Sony Computer Entertainment revealed the much awaited Motion controller for PlayStation 3 console with the brand name - PlayStation Move.
The all-new PlayStation Move will also operate with another 'subcontroller' - both to be used with PlayStation Eye camera. Sony will sell the Move controller separately and also as a bundle including PlayStation eye camera, Move controller and a game would be made available.
New PlayStation Move controller is like wand that will remind you of Wii's Nunchuk but with a colored sphere on the top. It's this sphere that helps PlayStation Eye detect the whereabouts of Move controller. Sony will offer the Move controller with spheres in sky blue, yellow, light green, pink and while color options. Alongside that, Subcontroller with direction buttons, analog stick and home button will also be paired with the Move. This Subcontroller comes handy in shooting and action games like SOCOM 4.
Sony has dropped the word Arc for the Motion Controller that had been buzzing the web lately. Move controller is equipped with two high-precision motion sensors, three axis gyroscope (X plane, Y plane and Z plane), and three axis accelerometer. These components allow the eye camera to detect the presence as well as the precise movement and change in position of the Move controller. It's unlikely that the Subcontroller will come with any motion sensors. Both Move controller and Subcontroller use Bluetooth
interface to connect. The PS3 console can support only seven Bluetooth connections and hence four pairs of Move+Subcontroller cannot be used.
Sony clarified:
Four PlayStation Move controllers can connect to a PS3 at one time (or two PlayStation Move Controllers and 2 PlayStation Move sub-controllers).
Few Move controller friendly game demos were shown at the event. These demos include Sports Champions, Move Party, Dukes, TV Superstars, Slider and The Shoot. Of course, upcoming SOCOM 4 game was demonstrated using Move controller and Subcontroller. Sony had already announced a lineup of Move controller friendly games last year at the GDC 2009. About 36 game developing and publishing companies will support Move controller. As a result, 20 game titles, Move-centric or Move-supporting, would be announced in fiscal year of 2010-2011.
Microsoft's Project Natal, a gesture control system for Xbox 360, is due for arrival in Holiday season but by that time, Sony's Move controller would already be all over the place. It would be an interesting tug of war by the end of this year between - Nintendo Wii's MotionPlus + Nunchuks, Sony PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Project Natal.
Sony has confirmed that the recently unveiled PlayStation Move game controller can support up to four players with full configuration on PlayStation 3 console, as reported by Gizmodo. That means four Move controllers can be connected or two pairs of Move controller with Subcontroller can be connected to PS3. This means four players can enjoy the Move controller based or supporting titles at the same time.
A recent patent filing with FCC showed that Sony has been testing power emissions, radiation emissions and peak output levels for Bluetooth (2.0 with EDR) and WLAN (802.11 b/g) modules.
It's quite a possibility that new PS3 consoles with further enhanced Bluetooth feature are in making so that more Move controllers can be supported simultaneously. Or, these could be limited edition bundles. No concrete information is available on this as of now.