Yesterday, we ran a story in which SCEA head Kaz Hirai said it was a strategic choice not to include the rumble feedback. Moreover, he said it was that it was "technically feasible" but would cost the consumer a pretty penny. Not so, says Immersion Victor Viegas. He states:

Sony's] making a decision on behalf of their customer that they're going to decide which features they're going to include and to blame the cost of vibration does not seem to be a genuine statement and I don't think it's in favor of the gamers who obviously like this technology... If you remember, the day after they announced they were going to take vibration out of their controller I said that we'd be happy to work with them to solve the technical problem, and our engineers in less than a day had come up with three solutions... We knew how to technically solve their problems and now we know how to do it without adding any incremental cost.

Oh snap! And Viegas points to the third party PS2 controller that is able to incorporate motion sensing and rumble. Moreover, he cites studies that say the majority of gamers prefer rumble to motion sensing. Double snap!! Meanwhile, the Immersion suit against Sony continues to drag out in the courts, and Sony seems unwilling to work with Immersion. Ugh. Brian Ashcraft

Rumble Is Possible Says Immersion [GameDaily]