Playstation Move in depth

Yesterday a trademark office in Europe leaked the trademark “Playstation Move.” Yeah, they shouldn’t have done that. Sony was looking to surprise everyone at their GDC press conference later in the day. It’s not much of a surprise but it had us speculating for a couple hours. And of course it’s the new name for Sony’s previously called “Arc” controller and not some wacky treadmill add-on, ’cause that would be crazy.

In this article, I’ll dive deep into what the Sony Move experience is all about.

At heart, “Move” is Sony’s stab at the Wii causal market. To make things even more interesting, they choose to stab at the Wii market with Nintendo’s own product. Sure, it’s a different color and there are slight differences, but it’s still a Wiimote and Nunchuck, right? Well, yes and no. There are some game changing differences to take into account.

The technology is more advanced than anything Nintendo has pumped out within the last four years. Early reports from GDC indicate that playing a third-person shooter like SOCOM 4 is far more enjoyable than playing a similar title on the Wii.

The Wii uses a sensor bar to detect movement the same way your TV detects if your remote is facing toward it or not. If your pointer strays from the area on the screen, you are greeted with an “Unable to detect Wii remote” message. As a gamer that gets the occasional hand/arm cramp and need to set my Wiimote down while I pop my knuckles, this gets bothersome.

The Move uses an Eyetoy a Playstation Eye camera to detect controller movement. This offers a much broader range of controller connectivity. The PS3 doesn’t lose track of the controller no matter how many times you set it down or someone walks in front of it.

You have to use a Playstation Eye camera on top of your TV. How they expect us to balance a webcam on top of our thin LCD HD-TV’s is beyond me. I guess we can always use what I use for my Wii sensor bar, duct-tape. The camera detects movement via the sensor in the ball.

The button layout is much more streamlined than the Wiimote. Instead of twelve buttons, you get seven. A Home (main menu) button, five face buttons, and a trigger on the underside. It makes things smooth and sexy, like a dildo awaiting its first thrusting.

The balls on top of the Move controllers change color depending on in-game situations. It’s all up to the game developers, honestly. The possibilities are somewhat endless. An example would be a racing game where red, green, and yellow symbolize their stop-light counterparts.

Move runs on rechargeable and un-changeable batteries much like its old fashioned controller brethren. The move and the sub-controller (I’ll get into that later) are rechargeable via mini-USB. Since Sony were too cheap to bundle a cable with their console or controllers, don’t expect to get one with the Move. You’ll have to settle for using your digital cameras USB cord.

Above: Not the Move. The controllers are completely wireless.

The sub-controller is their name for Move’s “Nunchuck.” It’s a smaller ball-less version of the Move controller. It has one analog stick, two action buttons, a four-way directional pad, trigger, and Home button.

While you’re pointing at the screen with the Move controller, you can walk and do less waggle-intensive tasks with the sub-controller. Whoever named these controllers needs to be fired, I know.

Unlike the Wii’s Nunchuck, the sub-controller does not have a motion sensor. It’s strictly non-waggle.

But what about the games, you ask? There will be plenty Move-only titles coming out. From chicken hunting to bowling to sword fighting. If you’ve seen it on the Wii, it’ll be on the PS3.

Above: Sony’s Move.

The following list of companies are currently developing for the Playstation Move:

(List copy and pasted via Kotaku)

Now lets look at one of the first announced titles, “Sports Champions.”

In a nutshell, it’s Wii Sports but prettier. Sony is going balls out with their shameless ripping off of Nintendo, I know.

Sports Champions is Wii Sony Sports. Five or so casual sports games that can be played with one or two controllers in hand. That’s right. If you want to duel-wield light-up dildos, you have to buy another.

The games include Golf, Archery, Table Tennis, Frisbee, and Gladiator.

Gladiator is a prettied up version of “hit your enemy with a stick” that was introduced in Wii Sports Resort. You basically swing controller-A as your sword and block with controller-B as your shield. I’m not sure how that would work without an extra Move controller.

Playstation Move will hit stores this fall for $100. It will be bundled with one Move controller and Playstation Eye camera. No controller-only option has been announced for those of us who already purchased a Playstation Eye. As for the sub-controller, Sony are currently treating it as an optional accessory that will be sold separately. It has yet to be priced at the time of this post.