Tag Archives: sony wand

Sony has said that its motion controller is not called Gem, but it was an early prototype name for the product.

“The term ‘Gem’ was an early code name for the product,” SCEA bossman Patrick Seybold told Kotaku. “We haven’t announced final name at this point.”

This comes to light after John Riccitiello slipped up and blurted the name out yesterday at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.

Still, Gem is better than the Wand. Sounds less pornographic to us at any rate.

More through the links.

Pro Evolution Soccer’s Shingo Takatsuka has confirmed to IGN that Natal and Sony’s wand will be implemented in future editions of the series.

“Up until 2009 we believed all the platforms should have the same controls and features,” he told the site. “That’s no longer the case, because there are specific controllers for different machines, what with Natal and the PlayStation motion sensor system. I cannot say much, but I can say we are looking at integrating those devices into our games very aggressively.”

Konami’s development team also plans to continue listening to PES players, whose feedback helps refine the new iterations of the game.

Hit the link for the rest.

Sony head Shuhei Yoshida said during TGS that for now, the motion controller debuted at E3 is being dubbed the Wand Controller.

Until Sony can come up with a proper name, that is.

“There are several candidates for the name of the controller,” said Yoshida. “The SIXAXIS and the DualShock 3 — while great product names — are based on the actual tech. The name we pick for the Wand Controller maybe won’t be so techy.”

Sony is hoping to appeal to both the casual and core market with the controller, therefore Sony is eager to convey the image instead of the tech.

Rumors that Sony already has a Nunchuk peripheral in the design phase are floating about, but Yoshida refused to comment on it. Instead, he said that using the DualShock 3 as a Nunchuk was “the cheapest solution”.

More through Kotaku.

Photo credit: GameWatchImpress.

Sony bossman, Shuhei Yoshida, has told Eurogamer that the launch titles coming for the new PS3 motion controller only need one of the motion controller to be played.

“The ultimate goal or wish for us is if you have two controllers, like we demoed at E3, we can do something really amazing,” he said.

“It’s like putting your arms into the TV, like a gaming space, and you have total control of the 3D space in front of you, but because of cost-of-goods and, you know, people have to have the PlayStation Eye camera as well, we are approaching the launch by making sure that all games that we create can be played with one controller and the camera.

“We will also introduce options for if you happen to have more than one controller available. Experiences will be enhanced if you purchase a second.”

During E3, Sony mentioned during the demonstration that up to four wands could be used and recognized by PlayStation Eye at once.

More through the link.

Grasshopper Manufacture’s Goichi Suda, Level-5′s Akihiro Hino, and Q Entertainment’s Tetsuya Mizuguchi chat about E3 in the latest Famitsu, and all seem to agree that motion control stole the show.

“Hardware-wise, it was all about Project Natal,” Suda told the magazine. “It’s hard to really understand it unless you use it, and it remains to be seen what you can do with it, but I think it’ll be a huge device. We developed No More Heroes with the Wii remote in mind, but now I want to think about games with Natal in mind. I have to ask myself, as a game designer, what new games can be done with this, what can be an interesting experience and challenge, and I’m looking forward to that.”

“With new technology announcements like Natal and the [PS3] Motion Controller, it’s like I have a feel for the new generation, or that the door to the future has been opened,” said Tetsuya Mizuguchi. “It’s a wholly different impression of the future than we had before. It’s not a shift from 2D to 3D or in the number of polygons, but it’s games trying to open up an entirely new door. I thought it would take longer, but it’s happening faster than I expected.”

You can also get their views on what games were the most exciting to them at E3 via 1UP.

Sony has been showing off its new motion controller to devs and publishers lately, and apparently it can do all sorts of things.

For starters, it has force feedback rumble, works across all genres of titles, face and head tracking will be realized with the camera that it comes with, and it can track up to four motion controllers at one time.

Now we just need a damn name for it. Some reports are calling it the Sony Wand at the moment.

That just sounds a bit, well, naughty to us.

More over at Gamasutra.

Thanks, MaxConsole.