Videogames in Motion

Sony announced earlier this week that they’ll be delaying the release of their motion controller for the PS3 (tentatively called the ‘Arc’) until late 2010. (The article I’ve linked to says Fall, but here in the real world, we call it Autumn…). I wonder if it’s anything to do with the difficulty of programming for the PS3 coupled with the added complexity of having to track the bizarre looking sex-toy controller?

Fig 1: How to look like a knob

Am I the only gamer that doesn’t really like the idea of motion control? I can’t be. The whole debate about replacing the controller has been done to death, so I won’t delve much further into it than to say that while I love playing Warioware: Smooth Moves with friends, I certainly don’t like flailing my arms about and acting like a twat when I’m on my own. I can only hope that developers don’t go overboard with unnecessary motion controls for games in the future, and only use them in games which suit them – First Person Shooters on the Wii being a prime example of what NOT to do. Had they simply allowed gamers to play the game using a dual-stick controller (of which there are two available for the Wii), the ridiculous arm cramps I suffiered* wouldn’t have been an issue and my Wii copy of Call of Duty 3 might have lasted a little while longer before being traded in for being infuriating to play.

Of course, the cynical among us might simply observe Microsoft’s Project Natal (bloody awful name) and Sony’s motion controller as a blatant attempt to cash in on the Wii’s undeniable success (65 million units sold at the time of writing), and who can blame them? My only concern with all this R&D is that it’s all for nought – not everybody owns all three current generation consoles.

Right now the market is saturated with the Wii (stop sniggering at the back), hence the recent slowdown in sales – something which some games journalists reacted to with shock, unbelievably. The credit crunch would’ve slowed things a little, but surely the journos would have figured out that Nintendo have reached the point where everyone who wants a Wii (stop it) probably has one by now?! Perhaps they didn’t. Perhaps they’re in the wrong jobs…

However, I could be completely wrong – maybe motion controllers are the future of videogames. Natal definitely looks interesting in that it does a bit more than just motion sensing (and doesn’t require you to hold a peripheral in order to track your movement), but is it just a glorified webcam? Peter Molyneux’s Milo and Kate tech demo at last year’s E3 would say that it’s capable of a lot more.

* – I’m exaggerating for effect here, but it was bloody annoying to play with a Wii remote and nunchuk…