Sony Delays PS3 Motion Controller

From DailyTech: When the Nintendo Wii burst onto the market, it made headlines not for being the most powerful or graphically gifted console, but for its innovative controls. The Wii turned gaming from a sedentary activity into one that got gamers up from the couch and moving around.

The Wii spurred Sony and Microsoft to start looking at motion sensitive controls of their own. Microsoft announced an innovative and interesting motion control system dubbed Project Natal that uses a camera to turn the players motion into control of games without needing a controller or joystick. The PS3 has had motion controls for many games since it debuted, but few will argue that the execution of the motion controls from Sony was more of a "me too" move than something well thought out from the beginning of the PS3 project.

Sony has been talking about a new motion controller for the PS3 for a while now. The controller was widely expected to debut this spring. Reuters reports that Sony has now announced that it will be delaying the launch of the motion controller until the fall of 2010.

The controller is somewhat similar to the Project Natal tech from Microsoft in that it uses a camera. However, the Sony system needs a controller with a colored ball on the end to transfer the player's movements to that of the on-screen character. If Sony can stick to the fall time frame, it should still be able to get the motion controller into stores in time for the important holiday shopping season. Microsoft has stated that its motion control system will be in stores for the 2010 holiday season as well.

Sony reports that the delay in launching the motion sensing controller is to give software developers more time to get games ready to take advantage of the new controller. Sony also announced this week that it was delaying the previously discussed March launch fate of its highly anticipated Gran Turismo 5 title – a new launch date is unknown at this time.

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