Phil Harrison talks Dual Shock 3
- Posted September 20th, 2007 at 15:18 EDT by
- 6,679 views
- 34 Comments
Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison has given some details into the Dual Shock 3, how it works, and why now.
In a chat with GameSpot, Harrison addressed several points that Kaz Hirai did not during his keynote earlier today. Firstly, he said that rumble was back due to popular demand: “A lot of people have been asking for it, and now we've done it”, he said. Well on behalf of said people, thank you very much.
Apparently, the rumble features in the Dual Shock 3 are the same as they were in the Dual Shock 2; this way, developers do not have to learn a new rumble system before shaking you about in their games. He even said they might update already released games with rumble sensitivity, which is definitely not a bad thing. Although, this does mean the 'immersive rumble' features – that is, rumble that is location specific on the pad - have either been shelved or forgotten about.
Some of you may remember during E3 '06 that a couple of reasons were given for why the SixAxis did not have rumble. The 'official' reason was that rumble was 'so last gen', while behind closed doors; Sony employees said that rumble would mess with the motion sensor. The rest of the world, however, thought that it was the lawsuit with Immersion. Apparently, the rumble actually does interfere with the motion sensing, and has needed “some very clever algorithms that filter out the effect of motion sensitivity” according to Mr Harrison.
It all sounds good so far. Unfortunately, western audiences will have to wait until early next year until they can get one, while Japanese PS3 users will be able to get their hands on them in November. So unless you want to risk Sony's law-ninjas by grey importing, patience will be needed.
Comments
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Mecha_Daddy |
mecha_daddy- 3:19pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 1
Very good of them to give us a further explanation.
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Kane |
walle- 3:43pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 5
Damn! That really disappoints me. Immersion had already developed a new NEXT-gen (this gen?) rumble system, that rumbled in different angles and everything. Touch Sense was it called, eh? Why do they use the OLD damn rumble system, it really sucks. It doesn't add anything to the gameplay. It just vibrates primitively. I'm really disappointed in Sony right now. Wrong choice, wrong choice.
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RagingStorm |
RagingStormX- 4:07pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 6
I will take any rumble feature over no rumble at all....so I am happy. And I couldn't care less about the real "reason" why it wasn't there at the start, its back now and thats all that matters =)
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Paranoimia |
Paranoimia- 5:11pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 9
Nice for those that want it, but I personally never missed rumble at all. For me, the only games that ever really had any benefit were the GT series - the feedback you got through the pad was great. So I MIGHT pick one up for GT5. As far as FPS games and others are concerned, though... makes no difference to me.
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The Cleaner
- 6:03pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 13
This is bogus - now we have the last gen rumble...not smart.
People like me who have already forked out money for extra non rumble controllers are obviously ticked off that rumble was not sorted out at the beginning. But seeing that I like rumble, I have to fork out more again - but what do I get for the expense? .... I get the basic bottom shelf type. This stinks
Sony offer a trade in please.
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Tha_Last_Romeo |
Tha_Last_Romeo- 6:12pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 14
Well people want there hands on a remake of FFVII... I guess Sony will have to give that to us too...
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Alpha2
- 8:27pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 18
yeah, I'm sure I'll be importing one.
But I agree, however slight the effect the vibration of a controller would display an effect in a motionseensing controller. imagine how pissed people would be if every time you got hit in Lair, your dragon did a 180 turn because the controller thought the vibration was you making the motion for it?
Also dont complain about the price. Do you understand how much money sony had to pay to give you the chance to even remotly have the function back? Don't pretend they dont have a right to ask for more money when you;ve been demanding the function be returned.
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oopsadoops |
hbears93- 9:41pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 20
im probably gonna but one eventually.
no rush for me.
when i see a game i want, that rumble would enhance,
then and then only, il hit up ebay
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y0j1mb0 |
k0wb0y-b33b0p- 10:15pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 23
That's a wonderful explanation for the Rumble not being there ( uh huh ) .. How about an explanation as to why in the states we have to wait till next year for it?!? I can see people picking these things up like hotcakes. Heck it could probably move some units too. If I were them I would do all I could to hit this mythical goal of 11 million by years end.
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y0j1mb0 |
k0wb0y-b33b0p- 10:19pm BST - September 20th, 2007
- 25
That's a wonderful explanation for the Rumble not being there ( uh huh ) .. How about an explanation as to why in the states we have to wait till next year for it?!? I can see people picking these things up like hotcakes. Heck it could probably move some units too. If I were them I would do all I could to hit this mythical goal of 11 million by years end.
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debamf
- 12:06am BST - September 21st, 2007
- 27
Aftter Sony saying that rumble was last-gen, they go and add last-gen rumble in the controller. Why not add the new next-gen rumble in the name of 'touchsense' from Immersion. But guess what they will in a years time so we all have to buy another controller.
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Alpha2
- 2:00am BST - September 21st, 2007
- 28
Imersion said they could figure out how to add rumble without it affecting tilt control. So apparently this (and battery life) was something they had to rectify before they could release it so now it wont be a factor. As for old rumbleless controllers, it'll probably cause them to drop the price on the old controllers. I would suspect Gamestop will probably offer a discount on DualShock3's if you trade in a sixaxis. sixaixs + 10 or 15 bucks = Dualshock 3. As for why they didnt add touchsense; read the freaking article, they said they dont want to force developers to have to learn a new rumble feature. As it is it's already hard enough getting them to include basic functions like voice chat when the code and the ability is already there and you want to make it even harder to make PS3 games equal to everyone elses when by all rights they should be better? You must be out of your mind. Maybe after the PS3 has regained a dominant position and can risk asking people to learn yet one more thing for the PS3 but untill then the last thing these developers need is another excuse to eff something up for us.
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Organic_Shadow |
OrganicShadow- 10:38am BST - September 21st, 2007
- 30
Actually, Phil didn't say the rumble hardware inside was the same. He said coding it into games was as easy as before, and you would just do it like you did last gen. Does that mean better ways of doing it aren't possible? No. Does that mean TS technology isn't inside? No.
In fact, Kaz Hirai said that they are still not finalized on what features are going into it, and that we will get more info later. They could still be deciding on weather or not to use TS, they could be thinking about adding other things, etc. But there is still no 100% confirmation that TS is not in the DS3.
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alchemyuser1 |
alchemyuser1- 8:28pm BST - September 21st, 2007
- 31
what happened to the boomerang controller huh?
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The Cleaner
- 1:33pm BST - September 22nd, 2007
- 32
Phil would like the rumble I suppose not that I have anything against homosexuals (each to their own) but I'd not want to pickup a controller he or Kaz have played with...
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InfernoReaper |
GrimDarkling- 10:54pm BST - September 22nd, 2007
- 33
If anything was last-gen, it was the primitive dual rumble devices. I think we just got s*** on by Sony. People said they wanted rumble, but that doesn't mean we want the simple last-gen. We waited this long already and companies are already having to learn the PS3 system coding. Why not give them "Touch Sense" or whatever it's called? I was really looking forward to buying 3 or 4 of your DualShock 3s. Well, you just lost my money. You can have it when you pull your head from your a** and gives us what is true next-gen. I'd be willing to wait longer and pay more if you try your "Touch Sense." What the f*** was the whole thing with Immersion for if your just going back to PS2 rumble?
C'mon Sony. Blu-ray, SixAxis, and you're going to skimp on the rumble people are demanding? You make me sick. Now, rather than having specific parts of the controller rumbling slighty, you have the whole damn thing going at once. That's what's going to mess up the motion sensing you f***tards. Let's see 2 large pieces rumbling full tilt or 1-2 rumbling small ones at the same time (all 4, or however many, in larger sequences), I wonder which would mess with motion more...
To recap for you Sony: F*** you. Put out the "immersion rumble" you got for so many millions you lost in that lawsuit. All that money and trust I put into your company and for what? Stuff we already had? A few more game delays and s*** like this and my money might start piling up for a 360 Elite. I've been a loyal follower of Sony since the first PlayStation, but this is just getting ridiculous.
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Dark Lord Revan
- 5:06am BST - September 24th, 2007
- 34
Tell me, what excatly did sony s*** us on? We demanded the rumble back, and they gave us the rumble back DESPITE lawsuit problems with immersion over it. They payed massive royalties to get it back. Immersion didnt sue sony for the new design of the rumble, they sued sony over the usuage of ANY form of rumble. You want them to pay more to get a better rumble? Well, maybe, but i somehow doubt that people will buy such an expensive controller, cuse at least some of that money is going to have to be recouped thru us customers.
Sony doesnt owe us rumble really, its not like the sixaxis has zero new features. We demanded rumble, and we got it. Now you want next-gen rumble? Well, i suppose then you'll have to complain about something else, like the price. Its the same as when ps3 was revealed in 2005. People complained that the ps3 had two hdmi ports and 8 usb, with boomerang controllers. So next year, they took out one of the hdmi, 4 usb and brought back the old dualshock design. And guess what....people complained about that too. Sony cant cater to everyone, if they give you something good, dont turn around and demand more while saying we got s*** from them. Some rumble is better than none, and seriously, some ppl dont bother with it anyway, do you think they'd appriciate a more complex one and willingly fork out the cash for it? i dont think so...
And anyway, how many new things do you want devs to deal with? PS3's already hard to develop for. We've got a new graphics design architechture from ps2, devs still arent familiar with it, hence 360 still has some games with better graphics. We've got the six-axis controls, and lair is a good example of how devs still havent gotten it right yet. Lair's controls arent totally horrible like some reviews make them out to be, but they still leave something to be desired. Other devs are still wary about it and only implement it in small gameplay ways. Now you want a new rumble too? Oh great. I can imagine devs being unfamiliar with it now producing games that throw me off entirely by rumbling the wrong way, while all the other problems havent been solved yet. Bad controls, bad graphics, now bad rumble...a formula for throwing games out your window. No, the old rumble was great already, devs are familiar with it, the price wont skyrocket, one less thing for ps3 to worry about. Sony didnt s*** on us at all, dont you think?
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