Wii remote style PS3 controller on way in addition to Xbox 360 version?
By Dave Parrack
Love it or hate it the Nintendo Wii has been a huge success, and with the console derided by many for being worthless beating the PS3 and Xbox 360 for sales month on month, Sony and Microsoft are looking at their rival with envious eyes.
We’ve already heard about the Xbox 360 possibly getting a Wii remote style controller, and now it seems that the PS3 could also be getting one. Though the development is merely a rumour at this stage, it is based on a testing session for forthcoming new products.
Playstation Lifestyle is reporting that earlier this year a focus group of Playstation 3 owners was assembled in a mystery location, thought to be Foster City in California. This group, assembled by emails sent out, was paid $85 to supposedly test a new Playstation product currently in development.
The device turned out to be a Wii Remote style controller which is being referred to as either the PS3mote or Waggle. Using a tripod standing 12 inches high, the PS3motes worked in a very similar way to the Nintendo Wiimotes, allowing users to play mini-games based on tennis (I wonder where they got that idea), fencing and an intriguing sounding version of paint balling.
The PS3mote is said to be “incredibly responsive and accurate”, although that could be due to the tripod which as a method of motion sensing could be changed in the final version.
The emails for this focus group are thought to have gone out in January of this year, meaning development has been going on for quite a while now. It’s even possible that an announcement about the device could be made at this year’s E3 although that is pure speculation.
While this is but a rumour at the moment, I think Sony, along with Microsoft, who have both so far remained silent on the issue, would be mad to not be at least experimenting with more interactivity for their flagship consoles. Whether that means they can morally justify just stealing Nintendo’s ideas are another matter.
With the Wii dominating sales all over the world at this point, casual gamers are becoming a bigger concern to the profits and loss books of the gaming industry as a whole.
Related:
Stumble It!
Tips N4G
June 2nd, 2008
It’s because idiot moron people are buying the damn Wiis! THEY ARE NOT TRUE GAMERS!!!!!
June 2nd, 2008
Too bad you’re an idiot moron person who doesn’t know what a true gamer is.
June 2nd, 2008
The Wii isn’t a true next gen console so Sony and Microsoft haven’t got anything to worry about……………
June 2nd, 2008
I’m sorry, but I have to agree. I’ve been playing video games since I was knee high to a grass hopper, on the SNES. The Wii is the ONLY console that has held my attention for less than four hours. There’s one where I’m living right now, and even the kids hardly play it. It’s a joke. I laughed out loud when it was revealed MS was trying to follow suit, and now I have to go cry, because apparently Sony thinks it’s necessary too. Oh well. Stupid suits.
June 2nd, 2008
I hope Sony never make another controller Wiimote sucks is lame. I love my PlayStation controller is perfect. Wii is not even next gen is crap with bad graphics awful sound no good games terrible gaming service no hard drive and the worst gaming controller in gaming history. PS3 is perfect the way it is nothing will change i hope.
June 3rd, 2008
PS3 is perfect. It’s the console God would use.
I hope that when I’m an old man my grand kids will be playing the PS14 with the exact same controller that I used with the PS1. Go Sony !!!!
June 3rd, 2008
Doesn’t Sony or MS understand that the wii itself is a fraction of the cost of their consoles? The real reason why it has been flying off the shelves is it has a low cost machine with an easy to understand control. My mother bought one for crying out loud. BUT. It doesn’t actualy control well, though.. it’s easy to cheat and impossible to make small but precise movement. Sonys’ sixaxis has a very similar problem, so gamers always complain if a stick control is left out of final developement, Lair a case to point. The crappy graphics and ever escalating cost for every game, it seems, is getting old. In fact, in England an extra controller set is around 50 pounds, or 100 dollars. The Fit board is selling at 140 pounds on many sites, the lowest at the moment at £95.. 180 dollars!! The games cost as much as the PS3s ones.. I have spent more on my wii than I did at the ps3 launch, and I only have 3 games… I don’t want to go the same way with Sony. It’s bad enough the rumble controller isn’t here yet! Don’t do it Sony!!
June 3rd, 2008
the rumble controller is in north america, i expect it will be arriving on european shores soon, otherwise you could always import one. Anyways i hope sony drop the ps3 price for other people to join. The ps3mote wouldnt sel more consoles because the console price is so high anyways. If sony hope to match nintendo they have to lower the console price because (i assume) the ps3mote would be aimed towards a younger audience, but at £330, i dont know many, if any young people willing to spend that on a console when the wii is a fraction of the cost. as for people like me, its an added bonus, depends if it cost a lot to add on.
DAVE PARRACK
June 3rd, 2008
dualshock 3 controller, for UK at least:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Dualshock-Wireless-Controller-Black/dp/B0012ENSXE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1212505669&sr=8-1
June 3rd, 2008
@doober
Don’t do conversions like that, it doesn’t work that way. Wii in Canada = $99, which would equal 50 quid - but it doesn’t.
As for all this ‘wii owners are not real gamers’ you’re just retarded.
The wii has some great games that are not ‘casual’ MP3, Mario, Resi 4 (ok it was on cube and ps2 - but its way better on wii), etc.
Also this ‘not next gen’ thing… Sure you keep trying to split the wii from your precious 360 or PS3 if it makes you feel better that they’re getting utterly stomped by the Wii.
And yes I own a PS3 and use it more than my Wii.
June 3rd, 2008
Correction to previous post!
WiiFit = $99 in canada.
Proof reading for the win.
June 3rd, 2008
Auzzieland has DS3…I should know, I got one
June 4th, 2008
i think the success of the wii is partially because of the controller. The price helps, but the fact games are being made with the controller in mind, and mapped accordingly, has given ninty a fresh approach to gaming. However, 360 games are not being made specifically for a controller of this type and prolly won’t be very successful. Most 360 games are games, seemingly, meant to be played for lengthy times at one sitting (oblivion, Halo, Forza, etc, etc…) I can’t imagine twisting my wrists and flapping my arms for 6 hours during a halo marathon or an Endurance race in Forza.
i hate the idea ms is moving towards the “me too” philosophy. funny thing is; someone will buy this and swear it “roxxors”.
June 26th, 2008
MS has always adopted the “me too” philosophy. Nothing innovative from them that I can see.
OS X, years later Vista (Me too).
iPod, next= Zune (Me too).
PS2, next= xbox (Me too)
PS3, 360 (rushed to beat Sony, lot’s of RRoDs)
no offense, but I’ve owned all (except the zune), and I don’t see where MS hasn’t copied others.
July 31st, 2008
jon- the set the benchmark for online console gaming, they created the guide button on the controller, the introduced breakaway controller chords, it’s the first tri core console ever released, and it’s the first with the LLamasoft visualizer. there are others but you get the point, which is: you don’t know what you’re babbling about.
August 31st, 2008
copies? ps1 the original, was nothing more of a shadow of the super nintendo and was supposed to be a discontinued project, the controller technically is nintendo just doesn’t belong to them anymore, but grieving on that is like grieving on all companies using a D-pad.
as for “next gen”- i say the wii, because you can interact in a way you couldn’t before. you lose somethings that you couldn’t do before like…. well kinda hoping you could tell me that, but in the long run the wii can still do something the sixaxis can’t do- point and click, drag, rotate, rumble, and audio feedback all at the same time- hell the fact that the wiimote uses AA batteries isn’t a burden (like the 360 controller)- its a port! something that sony could do, but won’t do. but the whole idea of staying traditional is like a bird staying in a bird cage: sure its “safe”, but you’ll never really gain anything.
these consoles are nothing more than computers- really thats what they are, why can’t we just skip the middle man and just boot up halo 3 from our vista (yeah vista) laptop and play and enjoy a portable xbox999?