Immersion wants PS3 controllers to rumble

NewsPosted 19/05/2006 - 5:18pm GMT+1

The company behind controller rumble technology wants to solve Sony's problem.

One of the big announcements at E3 was the new controller for the PlayStation 3. The Dualshock-alike will feature motion control, but will lack the rumble technology that gave it its name. Sony claimed the reason was to do with the amount of technology needed in the controller to make the motion sensitive control work. It of course had nothing to do with an ongoing court battle with Immersion, the company behind the vibrating technology seen in many controllers today.

Speaking to US website Gamasutra, Victor Viegas, Immersion president, has said that he'd "offered them numerous solutions to the problem," and that he doesn't "believe it's a very difficult problem to solve... Immersion has experts that would be happy to solve that problem for them."

It won't be quite as simple as it sounds though. Sony would need to drop its appeal against the lawsuit that resulted in the company being ordered to pay Immersion USD 90 million in damages - something that Sony clearly isn't keen on doing.

Like many people, Viegas believes that the PlayStation 3 controller will disappoint gamers who now expect to feel feedback in game controllers. "To take vibration out of a driving game or a first person shooting game, I can't imagine how people will be able to view that as an advancement in gaming," commented Viegas.

It seems unlikely that Sony will back down, but we'll bring you any news if and when it breaks.

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danny swift

how many controllers can a ps3 have

Posted 21:25 on 19 October 2007

Wobble@ tobi

idk guys, rumble is cool, but this is sony. i know that they're full of pride, i myself wouldnt mind the rumble back, but still, a loss for a gain. you guys arent thinking of how the motion sensing is gonna work. dont get me wrong, Sony is being to arrogant not paying the suit and getting technology that could better ADD to the motion sensing and such, but if they dont want to, its up to them. Lets not forget, the ps3 is a great system in itself, sure the price is a lot, but its going to be a system that will last for 8 yearrs tops, maybe more. that is an investment. also, there ARE other games besides GTA and Halo. the playstation has proved for itself that it has the better games over and over, and with all these developers backing the ps3 up, it looks like the games are gonna be kick ass. not to mention that awesome graphics, im sticking with sony, they might make the right choice.....hopefully.

Posted 03:00 on 20 June 2006

Just a Gamer@ tobi

Believe it or not, that was the deal breaker for me. I was holding off getting a PS2 because there are definitely games I wanted to play on the PS2 and since the PS3 has REAL backwards compatibility....

What advantage is there now to getting a PS3 over a 360? Is HD DVD THAT good? I can't see myself shelling out $600 for an HD DVD player. I can wait. GTA, Halo and rumble? I'm sold.

Maybe I'll get a PS3 four or five years from now...who knows.

Posted 05:30 on 23 May 2006

auzdafluff

I really wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft had some involvement in this. Picture it; how much PR damage would it cause if like the "E3 2005 Sony conference in game footage fiasco" stepdown was repeated.

"We don't want to licence Immersion's because it means we have to pay out the fine, and x amount will go to Microsoft, plus admit we were wrong... again."

They've dug the hole... now we just have to wait for them to try to get out of it.

Posted 16:20 on 20 May 2006