Don't expect the same flood of "motion controller smashed my TV" pictures when the PlayStation Move controller hits households this fall. Its axe handle-like grip and glowing sphere are more than just mere design -- these two points of interest might save a few TVs from cobwebby doom.
"If you fling it at your TV -- you should be wearing a wrist strap -- but if you do happen to hit it with the top-end, the TV should win." Anton Mikhailov, a software engineer in research & development at SCE tells me last afternoon.
"One feature is that the sphere is soft -- you can squish it. What that's for, first and foremost, is safety. So when you hit somebody or drop the device -- if you were to make this out of plastic a lot of people were worried that the ball would just snap off. That did actually happen. One of the first prototypes we made, we made it out of plastic. People would drop it and it would just break in half. Now it passes a drop test and stuff."
I'm squishing the ball in Boston while Mikhailov answers my silly question. The ball is soft, but not cotton candy soft. It feels like a slightly underdone hardboiled egg. I can flatten it with a bit of effort.
"The other nice thing is also the shape of the controller. Naturally, it gets larger towards the bottom. You might have seen this in a hammer or an axe handle. What that's for, even without the wrist strap, it's less likely to fling out. Your hand would have to go past this fat part. It's much more comfortable and stable in your hand.
"Also for a smaller hand, you would naturally move up this smaller part and you would get closer to the buttons whereas a bigger hand would rest farther back. So also for ergonomics, we put a lot of thought into the design of the shape."
Mikhailov tells me he spent a "year or so" nailing this part of the controller and it does show. One thing I didn't consider when fiddling with the controller weeks ago during a SOCOM 4 demo was how the controller felt. Now I know: it feels like a natural extension of my hand, just like any good hammer or butcher knife.
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Contest:
6:18 AM on 03.26.2010 | 
In b4 creationist's arguments that this is a ripoff of God's design for the penis. But then a very expensive one!
Killer Instinct
Games? What games.
I feel oddly stimulated by this description. Thank you. It does seem to be well designed, however. Hope Sony invests in some proper Pony games.
But if you hit an LCD TV with anything, even soft, you'll most likely still damage it. There's nothing protecting LCD screens aside from a thin coating. So you may not put a hole in a TV, but you can still kill a good chunk of pixels.
And how anyone managed to put a Wii remote through a CRT TV, I'll never know.
But as a toy - I love this thing. It's a squishy ball that glows. I love squishy color changing foam balls. I want the top part made stand-alone, mass produced and sold at toys-are-us for $15 a pop. Magic ball, tye-dye ball, rainbow ball, I don't care what it's called but I want that toy out by Christmas for my cousins, I want it at volleyball size without any stick attachments or connection to the PS3, and I want to play dodgeball with that kind of thing the day after Chirstmas. My cousins will love it, it won't break anything, and frankly, it's a much better idea than sticking the toy part on top of a black wii-mote.
Incidently, if anyone knows were I can get that king of think, speak up. I'm all for early Christmas/birthday shopping.
Yeah, it's an accurate Wii Remote for your PS3. First party games will be great.
Hasn't anyone gotten tired of it? The waggle features in even first party Wiimote games are nearly non-existent unless it features WiiMotion+.
It's too late for Move. It's going to be a novelty like the Eyetoy was, because it costs too much for the average consumer (the people who'd buy into this) to really want.
Maybe it's just skepticism or being tired of this shit on the Wii, but I'm not buying unless it drops. A lot.
I'm still very excited for controllers like this, though - affording a console player a greater degree of accuracy than a controller could lead to FPSes finally getting more fast-paced. Less Halo, more Quake. Hopefully, anyway.
So you consider great games: 1 confirmed FPS, an uncofirmed FPS to use this as long as it hasn't bombed by release date, one with tacked on Move functionality, a minigame collection (you are actually excited about minigame compilations?!?), one game that is basically Wii Sports Boxing/Punch-Out in HD and needs TWO of the Move controllers (assuming that there is no such bundle it means more $) and a chair racing game and a fighting game?, Man! and you have the balls to criticize casual gamers? seriously.
More games please.
Little Big Planet is probably the best shout for good Move integration, the game fits the market that they seem to be shooting for. It a fun, youngster friendly game that will suit the mechanics of the move to the ground. I would go for this providing it doesn't make the platforming in that game even MORE frustrating.
Socom could be good for those who are into the series. I still fear that people will stick to controllers for the most part. No other games look like they will really be anything worth considering for a while.
The rest is Shovelware meant to show off how the Move works more than anything else.