In Defense of Motion Controllers

So although Joe has an extreme dislike for the motion controllers, I personally have a neutral-to-hopeful outlook on the whole situation.

I too was extremely excited when I heard about the Wii and the motion sensing capabilities, and I was just as let down by the inability of the Wii to be a true motion sensor. There is one key difference between the Wii motion controller and the Sony motion controller:

As of E3 2009, there were working tech demos of different applications that the controller could be used for. Each and every one of them offered 1:1 control, something that Wii users still do not have.

Also, the Wii is very reliant on the sensor bar for the positioning of the controller and the cursor on the screen. From what I can tell, the PSEye may have some similar application, although it seems to have much more use than just a reference point for a faulty controller.

Another thing the PS3 has going for it over the Wii is the 1080p graphics. One of the biggest flaws (in my opinion at least) on the Wii is that the graphics are absolutely terrible. Usually I can bear to play some of the games, but a lot of them end up looking less like even Gamecube games, and much closer to N64 games.

If Sony can get this right, they may be able to target those Wii owners who may be considering getting a PS3 for the use of Blu-ray players, and tap into the same market that has single-handedly brought Nintendo up from the trench they got themselves into with the Gamecube.

So although I'm hesitant to trust another motion controller, everything I've seen so far out of the tech demos for the Arc seem to indicate that Sony will, in fact, be able to produce a quality product that will seemingly not fall by the wayside, and perhaps provide us with the next step towards immersing ourselves in games.

Below is the video. The action starts at about 3 minutes in, and the motion capture looks very smooth. Keep in mind that this is still a prototype version, and I hope that both motion controllers have some type of analogue stick to prevent some of the issues that the Wii has with turning.