But, said Sony's top marketing officer, they look down their nose at Nintendo's motion control, and that's why the PlayStation Move is on the scene - to make this kind of thing cool for the core.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Peter Dille acknowledged that "the Wii has been wildly successful but at the end of the day it's not a very precise experience."
Dille went on to explain that "hard-core gamers have looked down their nose at motion gaming: it's not particularly satisfying for them because it's not terribly precise or challenging, it's more social." Dille says Sony's technology ramps up the precision so, what's next, they'll make the experience more antisocial? Well, not really.
We'll have games that the whole family can play that are very social , but we'll also be able to do hard-core gamer games via a motion device that has never been done before. It's too early to say what the killer app or signature game is but we'll continue through the spring and late summer before we make a decision on which game is the poster child or the best one to move the Move.
Well, guess this answers back comments by Reggie Fils-Aime that Nintendo would be embarrassed if it were the one following another company's lead in motion control gaming.
But I think there's another reason the core's put off by motion control: It's an entirely new skill set. We've spent years gaming on twin analog controllers. There's a comfort zone. There's in some cases a personal style that's built up. And there's an intuition about what the face buttons usually mean in certain types of games. That's completely out the window with motion control. Maybe motion control's a success with the casual gamer is because that gamer is less invested in perfecting controller skills, and willing to dabble in more varieties?
Speaking for myself, I'm really not eager to go out and learn an entirely new skill set for a so-called "hardcore" game, in which I don't already know basic shooter survival technique: You know, here's how I look around, here's how I move, here's how I don't get shot, here's how I shoot. From what I've seen of the games so far, no one's yet made the case why I should.
PS3's Time is Now, says Sony [Financial Times]