Sony's Motion Controller Named, Nunchuk-like Attachment Showcased

GDC 2010 brings an official name to Sony's new attempt at motion control.

The name of Sony's motion controller has been speculated for some time now, with the name "Arc" being the forerunner for the most likely name for the piece of equipment.

As it turns out, the actual name is the PlayStation Move. According to Sony, the Move will be more precise than the competing Wii Remote and will feature an attachment similar to Nintendo's Nunchuk. The Sub-Controller will wirelessly connect to the Move and on it will be a thumbstick, D-Pad, and buttons. This attachment will also contain motion sensors, again, similar to Nintendo's Nunchuk.

The Move will require the PlayStation Eye in order to operate, and as such, will obviously be packaged with the new controller. Sony plans to sell the Move, Eye, and a game at a pricepoint of sub-$100 this fall. Those who already own the Eye will have the option to purchase a bundle without the peripheral for a discounted price.

Sony showed a number of games that will utilize the Move, including Sony's own SOCOM 4, which will be playable from beginning to end with the controller and sub-controller. Older games, like LittleBigPlanet, were demoed with the controller indicating that some already released titles will receive support.

A slew of other new titles, like Move Party will be made specifically for the new controller and will be available after its release.

Jason Ross Senior Editor

03/10/2010 at 10:54 PM

I saw an article over on Kotaku contrasting the controller from the Wii-Remote.

I don't mean to criticize, but basically, they said it's got different buttons, it can track when you point away from the Playstation Eye, and it's rechargeable. There were a few other points, but the message was it's really a lot the same, and most of the differences are negated when you add in the Motion Plus.

I haven't seen much in implementation, but hopefully Sony has some strong games lined-up to justify the purchase of it. I definitely have more faith in Move than I do in Natal, but it really looks like a case of "Mii too!"

Nick DiMola Director

03/11/2010 at 08:42 AM

I won't say much about my feelings on the controller, as I'm doing an opinion piece on it right now, but I have some mixed feelings about it. It most definitely is a rip of the Wii Remote, but I'm not particularly sure that's a bad thing.

Stanton Daries Staff Alumnus

03/11/2010 at 09:27 AM

I like how everyone keeps photo-shopping the glowing ball on top of that thing. Can you imagine how silly it would be if they actually did that for real!

03/11/2010 at 10:00 AM

There's also a difference between "lighting up according to what's on screen" and "lighting up to be detected best by the Playstation Eye."

Again, no hands on impressions, but most people seem to say the bulb glows to match something on screen, yet when they describe the color and why it's glowing that way, it's actually a color the PSEye can detect easiest, which makes a lot more sense. It's just too bad reports on the color feature have been as inconsistent as they are now.

PixlBit