Sneak Peak of Playstation’s Move Motion controller
Today I had the chance to get a sneak peak at Sony’s new Move Motion control system for the Playstation 3.
Similar to the Nintendo Wii’s Wiimote, it’s a wireless controller that you use to control various types of videogames. Today, we got to play beach volleyball.
Unlike the Wii though, the Playstation controller also incorporates a camera that sits atop your tv that adds an additional level of accuracy to gameplay. This level of precision is what sets the Move control system apart from Nintendo’s offering, albeit a few years after the Wii system debuted.
Getting the chance to play with the Move system early is one thing, but getting to play beach volleyball against a professional volleyball player, Leah Allinger, who will be competing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London is another. She completely killed me on the court but it was a lot of fun to try the game against someone like her, who seemed to really appreciate the simulation aspects of the game. The game experience was also a great workout…everyone that tried it worked up a sweat in no time.
We also played around with Start the Party which is a mini-game collection. What impressed me was the precision of the Move controller and combined with the camera, allowed for some pretty stunning augmented reality usage of the controller as you can see in this short clip:
Also unlike the Wiimote, the Move controller is completely cordless so you have more freedom to use the control that the cabled Nunchuk on the Wii.
I don’t own a Playstation 3 but I’d certainly consider the Move system if I did as it seems to add a level of gameplay not currently found on the Playstation 3. It, like many videogame accessories, will be interesting to see what third party developers create to take advantage of the system. This may be where Nintendo has the advantage (aside from being first in the motion control space) as the cost of the hardware is included in their console (albeit not as precise) but costs as much as $99 to add the camera and motion controller to a PS3. It will also be interesting to see how things play out with Microsoft’s upcoming Kinect camera control system that requires you to get off the couch as there is no handheld controller at all.
Thanks to Future Shop for hosting the preview.
Good write up John. I’d love to see how this compares to Kinect! Haven’t tried the Move yet. I’ve played Kinect already and it’s a lot of fun, but it would be interesting to actually compare it side by side!
The Wii had an upgrade last year with the addition of a “MotionPlus” attachment to the controller, which provides another gyro and makes it extremely precise. I’m curious to see how the Move and the MotionPlus end up comparing, though I’ll probably stick with the Wii since I can Jailbreak it.