Hot off the heels of Microsoft’s announcement of Project Natal, Sony recently demonstrated their own motion controller at E3. It seems that both Microsoft and Sony are grasping for a wider audience, and are even trying to capitalise on the 'causual gamer' that may usually be drawn to Nintendo's Wii. Both companies have adopted a different approach to try to implement real-time motion control onto their consoles.
From Microsoft’s offering, Joystiq’s hands-on with Natal showed us that it is very good at doing what they wanted to demonstrate – simulate driving. It also revealed flaws in the full-body tracking method, such as having to always remain standing. As good as it may be at driving control, I don’t know how many people would use it for Formula One racing – or any game of length, for that matter.
Sony on the other hand are using an optical solution, with the PS3 Eye and a PS3mote (if they call it that, I’ll expect a cheque in the mail), and unlike Natal, buttons for which to access menus, issue commands and pull triggers. What catches the eye (excuse the pun) with the Playstation Motion Control, other than its mouthful of a name, is that it offers true 1:1 tracking in a 3D environment. This sort of accuracy is crucial to doing things ranging from drawing with variable pressure, to flicking an enemy’s chin with the tip of your sword. Although, being an optical solution, PSB really have to see how well it works in other lighting conditions outside of the demonstration room to see if it will always remain so accurate.
Being that the Playstation Motion Controller is still in development (and hopefully soon to be rebranded), it's too early to say what draw it will actually have. What PSB have seen so far has been impressive, though. However, much like the now rarely mentioned Sixaxis motion control, it'll only ever be of any worth if the games developers make good use of it.
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