Wasib
09-12-2010, 18:42
Long but a great read!
Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-case-for-playstation-move-article?page=1
The location: Stanford University. Sony's R&D mastermind Dr Richard Marks is once again showcasing motion control technology with a variety of ingenious technical demos very much along the lines of those recently seen (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-future-of-playstation-move-article) by Digital Foundry. The difference this time is that the date is January 21, 2004 (http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/040121.html) and the host console for the impressive tech is... PlayStation 2.
Marks has been waiting a long time to bring depth-sensitive "3D" motion control to the mass market. Even longer than you might think. His original camera-driven demos for the PS2 have been carbon-dated to before the turn of the century, with his original swords-and-sorcery style demo actually receiving a public outing at the summer ECTS Show at the Islington Design Centre in 2000.
There's even coverage of his work in the launch issue of Future Publishing's Official PlayStation 2 Magazine. Rare's Nick Burton recently talked (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-27-rare-on-kinect-sports-interview) about their prototype Kinect demo called "seagull" where you flapped your arms and flew around the environment. In that self-same issue of the Official PS2 Mag, you can see pictures of a very similar demo put together by Marks' team using the prototype camera that would one day become EyeToy.
The Stanford University lecture in its 75-minute entirety can be streamed directly (http://lang.stanford.edu/courses/ee380/2003-2004/040121-ee380-100.wmv), and while the final PlayStation Move hardware is immeasurably more precise, accurate and user-friendly, the precursor to the new motion controller available to PS3 gamers later this month clearly has much in common with the final design.
Back then though, there was no actual motion controller as such - just a series of props, including a long wand-like object with a familiar-looking sphere on the top. The camera and the PS2 does most of the hard work, but curiously there are many echoes from today's Move.
For a start, calibration is required. Back in the day this was achieved by taking the sphere and filling an on-screen circle displayed by the PS2. Voila: now the device can track the inanimate object in 3D space. While the implementation is undeniably primitive compared to the final rendition in PlayStation Move, crucially it works rather well.
Augmented reality (or "enhanced reality" as it was known a gaming generation ago) is also covered off with the same style of super-imposed 3D objects overlaid onto the webcam video. By the time of Marks' 2004 presentation, he was already experimenting with 60FPS video, satisfied that the doubling of temporal resolution helps to make the device far more precise and responsive. Clearly, many of the thought processes behind PlayStation Move have been a long time brewing.
Nintendo may well have been first to market with the mainstream-friendly Wii, but the Sony R&D team run by Marks has been consistently ahead of the curve. The combination of motion controller and camera was the subject of a patent that dates to the time of the Stanford talk. And there's more.
In the self-same 2004 presentation (around the 58-minute mark), you can also see Marks' direct experimentation with what is then known as the "z-cam" from Israeli company 3DV: a depth-sensitive 3D camera that can map the human body. Over five years before Microsoft announced Project Natal (latterly Kinect) and acquired 3DV's tech, Sony R&D team was already evaluating the sensor, and Marks is clearly fully aware of the potential for gaming.
The reality of the situation must be rather sobering for Sony. It could have owned motion control gaming, but instead Nintendo embraced the concept and left its rivals for dust.
Knowing how long this journey has taken, the functionality, refinement and polish inherent in the final PlayStation Move hardware becomes more understandable. Watch Marks' more recent demos, or better yet, buy Move and a copy of Sport Champions, and hopefully you'll get some idea of why we think that from a hardware perspective, Move is the pick of the bunch of the motion controllers from any of the major platform holders.
However, getting the most out of what Move offers developers is a real challenge, and it's one that we can only hope that Sony and the third party publishers fully embrace. Aside from its precision, where Move can really make a difference is in the way it performs as a true 3D controller. This in itself opens up a colossal array of new game concepts. Let's take a look at a couple of Marks' more recent tech demos in full direct feed glory.
First up, the manipulation of objects in 3D space. You can reach out, grab things and move them around in 3D space. While you might think that Wii MotionPlus would be capable of the same sort of thing, in actuality the applications are more limited. While the motion sensors within Move may well operate with a similar ballpark precision to MotionPlus, the Wii peripheral has no camera lock and the data is prone to drifting. Cover up the glowing sphere on Move and the same thing happens. Motion sensors on their own are not accurate enough.
That being the case, it's fair to say that only Sony's motion controller is consistently capable of achieving stuff like this:
Dual Move control is producing the closest thing yet seen in the games arena to the famous Minority Report user interface. While Kinect may well be the real deal in terms of controller-free interaction, its somewhat infamous inability to track hands and fingers at standard range makes the dream of "that" interface impossible to replicate in real life. Just the process of pressing a button in the games seen thus far is somewhat lengthy and can even be annoying.
Move is also capable of stealing a bit of Microsoft's thunder too. Using a combination of two wands along with head-tracking, it's possible to produce a fairly accurate simulation of tracking the upper body, as this tech demo clearly shows. But what is of crucial importance is the way that the robotic puppet is capable of interacting with objects - button presses on Move can be used to grab hold of items.
As Richard Marks told us in the E3 Move tech interview (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-playstation-move-tech-interview), "In one of his books, Isaac Asimov talks about the difference between humans and animals and he believes it's our hands that make us different, more than our brains. "Most people say it's the brain that's so much better, but he says it's the hands. He says that the ultimate interface to a computer isn't a probe that jacks into your head, it's where you insert your hands into this device. You have so much bandwidth going through your fingers."
Sony's Chameleon demo, shown in direct-feed quality at the end of this video, demonstrates that this combination of a true 3D motion controller combined with the ability of mimicking hand and finger movement in gameplay has rich potential for hugely innovative games with strong, original control concepts.
If Sony is facing a challenge in marketing Move as a truly revolutionary gaming interface, it has to be said that some of the blame lies in the collection of launch titles. It's difficult not to have fun with Start the Party (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-31-start-the-party-review) but there's not a huge amount of depth to the overall package, the quality of the mini-games varies somewhat and it can quickly become dull.
So long as you can rustle up some pals to join in, Sports Champions (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-01-sports-champions-review) is brilliant entertainment. Again, quality varies somewhat from event to event, and the antics of its charisma-free characters can induce a few facepalm moments, but its best mini-games are absolutely sublime. While the 3D nature of Move is not fully explored, it's clear that the precision of the controller comes to the fore in events like Bocce, Table Tennis and the Disc Golf. It's not quite a killer app, but it's the best party game we've played in ages.
As an introduction for Move to the casual gamer, Sports Champions is easily the best title available, but in family/friends party atmosphere, even the hardcore can't fail to appreciate its many charms. If you're a day-one Move buyer, that's the game to get.
But looking ahead to the imminent Move-supported titles, what we are generally tending to see are reworkings of the existing standards set by the Wii. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 gets patched with Move support, but nothing we have seen from the game suggests that the experience will be appreciably better than what you get with Wii MotionPlus - 720p HD visuals apart. Then again, it's difficult to imagine how much it could be better within the confines of the existing game.
Booting up Firemint's PS3 rendition of Flight Control HD is an interesting experience. The touch-screen controls of the original iPhone and iPad versions of the game have been jettisoned in favour of an onscreen pointer controlled by Move. Press the main button or the underside trigger to highlight an aircraft, then "draw" its approach to the runway. Simple, but classic gameplay.
Flight Control is - and most likely always will be - a lovely game regardless of platform. The concept is that strong. But there's a sense that Firemint doesn't quite trust the fine level of precision Move is capable of. There's a touch of the "auto aim" syndrome in how the flight path automatically locks on to the runway when you get close to it: it almost feels as though Move's precision is being bypassed in favour of a helping hand from the developers. This level of assistance is definitely a must for the pad rendition of the control system though, which is surprisingly very playable.
One interesting element in Flight Control is the inclusion of a simultaneous two-player co-operative mode. A cool offshoot of this is that the really brave can dual-wield two Moves for a spot of ambidextrous gameplay. Nice.
We've seen several applications of Move within the shooter genre thus far. First up is the implementation within the forthcoming SOCOM 4, while recently, at gamescom, Guerrilla Games revealed its setup for Killzone 3.
The sobering truth is that the control schemes on these games offer very little that we've not seen already on the Wii in titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and The Conduit. Movement is carried out via the navigation controller or the DualShock 3, while Move is used for looking, aiming and shooting.
On the one hand, there are clear advantages to this scheme. The view weapon becomes more independent from the player's orientation, meaning you can fire in the direction you are not directly facing. Also, there is a finer degree of control you have in aiming, which feels particularly pleasing in sniping-style situations, or when using iron sights. On the other hand, adjusting your personal viewpoint entails either holding down a button or "dragging" the reticule to the edge of the screen, which feels a touch counter-intuitive.
While the control system works well, there's still a sense that the depth perception in which Move excels is barely utilised and the feeling is very much Wii-like. Guerrilla has tossed in gesture recognition. For example, "stabbing" into the screen with Move instigates a melee move, while reloading is also gesture-driven but it feels somewhat tacked on and again, not hugely intuitive. Pressing a button is quicker. However, the grenade-tossing mechanism does appear to make use of the "3Dness" of Move and seems to work rather well.
Finally there's The Shoot from Cohort Studios, an old-skool on-rails arcade shooter very similar in execution to the likes of Time Crisis and Virtua Cop. This demonstrates another useful facet to the functionality that Kinect is not capable of - you can point with Move. Over and above the applications in shooting games, this also makes for menu interactions far faster than you'll find in Kinect based on our experiences with the Microsoft sensor thus far.
The biggest concerns we have for the prospects of PlayStation Move actually have nothing to do with the device's technical prowess: it's a highly elegant, solidly built device that offers a massive wealth of potential in terms of new gameplay experiences. The major concern is that the way Move has been marketed and bundled brings into question just how many of the truly innovative control concepts it is capable of will ever materialise in the form of full games.
The main problem it has to overcome is that it will always be an expansion or accessory to the console, meaning that if developers were to produce a Move-exclusive title using innovations along the lines of, say, Sony's own Chameleon demo, it can only ever appeal to a minority of the total installed base.
The only thing that could really change that is a strong strategy from Sony in making Move a new, de facto standard controller. You know, put it into every new PS3 box alongside the DualShock 3, mandate proper support where appropriate in all key titles (first- and third-party) and effectively make the upgrade essential - and cheap - for those who already own the console. It would be pricey for Sony, but the motion control market is obviously a prize worth challenging for.
There are also questions about the thinking behind the different Move configs, and how the lack of motion control for both hands out of the box is almost certain to limit the possibilities open to developers. How many are likely to develop innovative control systems that require the use of both hands when only a minority of a minority will have two wands available?
It's clear that much of the potential in the system resides in the ability to have a controller per hand - Richard Marks' demos prove that. Yet there isn't an official bundle pack offering two Moves when the full potential of the system, not to mention the basic concept of local multiplayer gaming, really demands it.
Nintendo has this sorted with the Wii remote and the nunchuk, both available out of the box with the system. Core games and two-hand motion control are yours by default. Two controllers should have been the standard in all bundles. Instead it's just one, immediately limiting the horizons for developers.
It's difficult to believe that Sony is truly committed to this extremely impressive controller when the platform holder has been on the fence about motion control for years now. How else can the decision to go for Sixaxis be explained when Richard Marks' team was developing and assessing far more advanced tech at least two years before the launch of PlayStation 3? Bearing in mind the immense research and development the platform holder had in its possession thanks to Marks' team, why did it take almost four years after the launch of Wii to get a competing system to market?
There's also a question of development commitment too. Sony happens to own outright an enviable portfolio of some of the world's most pre-eminent console developers - Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Polyphony Digital, Guerrilla Games and Evolution Studios amongst them - and yet none of them were deployed onto Move-exclusive titles. It stands to reason that there is no true "killer app" for the controller at launch, as Sony's best minds were not focused on it. Again, the contrast with Nintendo is telling. [Update: Sony's Sorcery is being created by Sony Santa Monica - not the God of War team as far as we know, but still an important developer. However, Sorcery is not due for release until Q2 2011.]
Perhaps an alternative would have been to go for Microsoft's approach, where Kinect has been set up as a parallel brand - almost like a platform launch - in its own right, complete with a library of bespoke titles and a substantial commitment from third party publishers, but again this has not happened.
From a technical and developmental point of view, PlayStation Move is very cool piece of kit. As a motion controller, its overall combination of precision, a fixed, low cost level of CPU and memory usage and the 60FPS camera feed makes it easily the most accurate, versatile and flexible interface available on console. There's little doubt that it can outperform the Wii remote and MotionPlus, and while the scope for dance and fitness titles may not be in the same league as Kinect, it can still compete in this space, and it has far fewer technical limitations than Microsoft's sensor.
There's also a sense that Move represents a vision of the future of control in console gaming - when games like Virtua Tennis 4 offer a combination of stereoscopic 3D vision combined with an ultra-precise, low-latency 3D controller, you can't help feel that Move offers the potential to test out the kinds of control schemes that developers will be targeting for the next generation of gaming.
Here and now, what we love most about Move is the raw potential it offers. The sheer scale and scope of the opportunity here to create fresh game concepts is hugely exciting. The only question remains whether the opportunity Move represents will end up being more of a missed opportunity due to the decisions that the platform holder has made.
Moving forward, Sony is on the record as saying that it is currently developing PlayStation 4, almost certain to be deeply integrated with stereoscopic 3D. While the DualShock will almost certainly never fade away, a 3D system needs a 3D controller out of the box. Let's hope that Sony get Richard Marks and his R&D team fully involved from day one.
Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-case-for-playstation-move-article?page=1
Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-case-for-playstation-move-article?page=1
The location: Stanford University. Sony's R&D mastermind Dr Richard Marks is once again showcasing motion control technology with a variety of ingenious technical demos very much along the lines of those recently seen (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-future-of-playstation-move-article) by Digital Foundry. The difference this time is that the date is January 21, 2004 (http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/040121.html) and the host console for the impressive tech is... PlayStation 2.
Marks has been waiting a long time to bring depth-sensitive "3D" motion control to the mass market. Even longer than you might think. His original camera-driven demos for the PS2 have been carbon-dated to before the turn of the century, with his original swords-and-sorcery style demo actually receiving a public outing at the summer ECTS Show at the Islington Design Centre in 2000.
There's even coverage of his work in the launch issue of Future Publishing's Official PlayStation 2 Magazine. Rare's Nick Burton recently talked (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-27-rare-on-kinect-sports-interview) about their prototype Kinect demo called "seagull" where you flapped your arms and flew around the environment. In that self-same issue of the Official PS2 Mag, you can see pictures of a very similar demo put together by Marks' team using the prototype camera that would one day become EyeToy.
The Stanford University lecture in its 75-minute entirety can be streamed directly (http://lang.stanford.edu/courses/ee380/2003-2004/040121-ee380-100.wmv), and while the final PlayStation Move hardware is immeasurably more precise, accurate and user-friendly, the precursor to the new motion controller available to PS3 gamers later this month clearly has much in common with the final design.
Back then though, there was no actual motion controller as such - just a series of props, including a long wand-like object with a familiar-looking sphere on the top. The camera and the PS2 does most of the hard work, but curiously there are many echoes from today's Move.
For a start, calibration is required. Back in the day this was achieved by taking the sphere and filling an on-screen circle displayed by the PS2. Voila: now the device can track the inanimate object in 3D space. While the implementation is undeniably primitive compared to the final rendition in PlayStation Move, crucially it works rather well.
Augmented reality (or "enhanced reality" as it was known a gaming generation ago) is also covered off with the same style of super-imposed 3D objects overlaid onto the webcam video. By the time of Marks' 2004 presentation, he was already experimenting with 60FPS video, satisfied that the doubling of temporal resolution helps to make the device far more precise and responsive. Clearly, many of the thought processes behind PlayStation Move have been a long time brewing.
Nintendo may well have been first to market with the mainstream-friendly Wii, but the Sony R&D team run by Marks has been consistently ahead of the curve. The combination of motion controller and camera was the subject of a patent that dates to the time of the Stanford talk. And there's more.
In the self-same 2004 presentation (around the 58-minute mark), you can also see Marks' direct experimentation with what is then known as the "z-cam" from Israeli company 3DV: a depth-sensitive 3D camera that can map the human body. Over five years before Microsoft announced Project Natal (latterly Kinect) and acquired 3DV's tech, Sony R&D team was already evaluating the sensor, and Marks is clearly fully aware of the potential for gaming.
The reality of the situation must be rather sobering for Sony. It could have owned motion control gaming, but instead Nintendo embraced the concept and left its rivals for dust.
Knowing how long this journey has taken, the functionality, refinement and polish inherent in the final PlayStation Move hardware becomes more understandable. Watch Marks' more recent demos, or better yet, buy Move and a copy of Sport Champions, and hopefully you'll get some idea of why we think that from a hardware perspective, Move is the pick of the bunch of the motion controllers from any of the major platform holders.
However, getting the most out of what Move offers developers is a real challenge, and it's one that we can only hope that Sony and the third party publishers fully embrace. Aside from its precision, where Move can really make a difference is in the way it performs as a true 3D controller. This in itself opens up a colossal array of new game concepts. Let's take a look at a couple of Marks' more recent tech demos in full direct feed glory.
First up, the manipulation of objects in 3D space. You can reach out, grab things and move them around in 3D space. While you might think that Wii MotionPlus would be capable of the same sort of thing, in actuality the applications are more limited. While the motion sensors within Move may well operate with a similar ballpark precision to MotionPlus, the Wii peripheral has no camera lock and the data is prone to drifting. Cover up the glowing sphere on Move and the same thing happens. Motion sensors on their own are not accurate enough.
That being the case, it's fair to say that only Sony's motion controller is consistently capable of achieving stuff like this:
Dual Move control is producing the closest thing yet seen in the games arena to the famous Minority Report user interface. While Kinect may well be the real deal in terms of controller-free interaction, its somewhat infamous inability to track hands and fingers at standard range makes the dream of "that" interface impossible to replicate in real life. Just the process of pressing a button in the games seen thus far is somewhat lengthy and can even be annoying.
Move is also capable of stealing a bit of Microsoft's thunder too. Using a combination of two wands along with head-tracking, it's possible to produce a fairly accurate simulation of tracking the upper body, as this tech demo clearly shows. But what is of crucial importance is the way that the robotic puppet is capable of interacting with objects - button presses on Move can be used to grab hold of items.
As Richard Marks told us in the E3 Move tech interview (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-playstation-move-tech-interview), "In one of his books, Isaac Asimov talks about the difference between humans and animals and he believes it's our hands that make us different, more than our brains. "Most people say it's the brain that's so much better, but he says it's the hands. He says that the ultimate interface to a computer isn't a probe that jacks into your head, it's where you insert your hands into this device. You have so much bandwidth going through your fingers."
Sony's Chameleon demo, shown in direct-feed quality at the end of this video, demonstrates that this combination of a true 3D motion controller combined with the ability of mimicking hand and finger movement in gameplay has rich potential for hugely innovative games with strong, original control concepts.
If Sony is facing a challenge in marketing Move as a truly revolutionary gaming interface, it has to be said that some of the blame lies in the collection of launch titles. It's difficult not to have fun with Start the Party (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-31-start-the-party-review) but there's not a huge amount of depth to the overall package, the quality of the mini-games varies somewhat and it can quickly become dull.
So long as you can rustle up some pals to join in, Sports Champions (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-01-sports-champions-review) is brilliant entertainment. Again, quality varies somewhat from event to event, and the antics of its charisma-free characters can induce a few facepalm moments, but its best mini-games are absolutely sublime. While the 3D nature of Move is not fully explored, it's clear that the precision of the controller comes to the fore in events like Bocce, Table Tennis and the Disc Golf. It's not quite a killer app, but it's the best party game we've played in ages.
As an introduction for Move to the casual gamer, Sports Champions is easily the best title available, but in family/friends party atmosphere, even the hardcore can't fail to appreciate its many charms. If you're a day-one Move buyer, that's the game to get.
But looking ahead to the imminent Move-supported titles, what we are generally tending to see are reworkings of the existing standards set by the Wii. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 gets patched with Move support, but nothing we have seen from the game suggests that the experience will be appreciably better than what you get with Wii MotionPlus - 720p HD visuals apart. Then again, it's difficult to imagine how much it could be better within the confines of the existing game.
Booting up Firemint's PS3 rendition of Flight Control HD is an interesting experience. The touch-screen controls of the original iPhone and iPad versions of the game have been jettisoned in favour of an onscreen pointer controlled by Move. Press the main button or the underside trigger to highlight an aircraft, then "draw" its approach to the runway. Simple, but classic gameplay.
Flight Control is - and most likely always will be - a lovely game regardless of platform. The concept is that strong. But there's a sense that Firemint doesn't quite trust the fine level of precision Move is capable of. There's a touch of the "auto aim" syndrome in how the flight path automatically locks on to the runway when you get close to it: it almost feels as though Move's precision is being bypassed in favour of a helping hand from the developers. This level of assistance is definitely a must for the pad rendition of the control system though, which is surprisingly very playable.
One interesting element in Flight Control is the inclusion of a simultaneous two-player co-operative mode. A cool offshoot of this is that the really brave can dual-wield two Moves for a spot of ambidextrous gameplay. Nice.
We've seen several applications of Move within the shooter genre thus far. First up is the implementation within the forthcoming SOCOM 4, while recently, at gamescom, Guerrilla Games revealed its setup for Killzone 3.
The sobering truth is that the control schemes on these games offer very little that we've not seen already on the Wii in titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and The Conduit. Movement is carried out via the navigation controller or the DualShock 3, while Move is used for looking, aiming and shooting.
On the one hand, there are clear advantages to this scheme. The view weapon becomes more independent from the player's orientation, meaning you can fire in the direction you are not directly facing. Also, there is a finer degree of control you have in aiming, which feels particularly pleasing in sniping-style situations, or when using iron sights. On the other hand, adjusting your personal viewpoint entails either holding down a button or "dragging" the reticule to the edge of the screen, which feels a touch counter-intuitive.
While the control system works well, there's still a sense that the depth perception in which Move excels is barely utilised and the feeling is very much Wii-like. Guerrilla has tossed in gesture recognition. For example, "stabbing" into the screen with Move instigates a melee move, while reloading is also gesture-driven but it feels somewhat tacked on and again, not hugely intuitive. Pressing a button is quicker. However, the grenade-tossing mechanism does appear to make use of the "3Dness" of Move and seems to work rather well.
Finally there's The Shoot from Cohort Studios, an old-skool on-rails arcade shooter very similar in execution to the likes of Time Crisis and Virtua Cop. This demonstrates another useful facet to the functionality that Kinect is not capable of - you can point with Move. Over and above the applications in shooting games, this also makes for menu interactions far faster than you'll find in Kinect based on our experiences with the Microsoft sensor thus far.
The biggest concerns we have for the prospects of PlayStation Move actually have nothing to do with the device's technical prowess: it's a highly elegant, solidly built device that offers a massive wealth of potential in terms of new gameplay experiences. The major concern is that the way Move has been marketed and bundled brings into question just how many of the truly innovative control concepts it is capable of will ever materialise in the form of full games.
The main problem it has to overcome is that it will always be an expansion or accessory to the console, meaning that if developers were to produce a Move-exclusive title using innovations along the lines of, say, Sony's own Chameleon demo, it can only ever appeal to a minority of the total installed base.
The only thing that could really change that is a strong strategy from Sony in making Move a new, de facto standard controller. You know, put it into every new PS3 box alongside the DualShock 3, mandate proper support where appropriate in all key titles (first- and third-party) and effectively make the upgrade essential - and cheap - for those who already own the console. It would be pricey for Sony, but the motion control market is obviously a prize worth challenging for.
There are also questions about the thinking behind the different Move configs, and how the lack of motion control for both hands out of the box is almost certain to limit the possibilities open to developers. How many are likely to develop innovative control systems that require the use of both hands when only a minority of a minority will have two wands available?
It's clear that much of the potential in the system resides in the ability to have a controller per hand - Richard Marks' demos prove that. Yet there isn't an official bundle pack offering two Moves when the full potential of the system, not to mention the basic concept of local multiplayer gaming, really demands it.
Nintendo has this sorted with the Wii remote and the nunchuk, both available out of the box with the system. Core games and two-hand motion control are yours by default. Two controllers should have been the standard in all bundles. Instead it's just one, immediately limiting the horizons for developers.
It's difficult to believe that Sony is truly committed to this extremely impressive controller when the platform holder has been on the fence about motion control for years now. How else can the decision to go for Sixaxis be explained when Richard Marks' team was developing and assessing far more advanced tech at least two years before the launch of PlayStation 3? Bearing in mind the immense research and development the platform holder had in its possession thanks to Marks' team, why did it take almost four years after the launch of Wii to get a competing system to market?
There's also a question of development commitment too. Sony happens to own outright an enviable portfolio of some of the world's most pre-eminent console developers - Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Polyphony Digital, Guerrilla Games and Evolution Studios amongst them - and yet none of them were deployed onto Move-exclusive titles. It stands to reason that there is no true "killer app" for the controller at launch, as Sony's best minds were not focused on it. Again, the contrast with Nintendo is telling. [Update: Sony's Sorcery is being created by Sony Santa Monica - not the God of War team as far as we know, but still an important developer. However, Sorcery is not due for release until Q2 2011.]
Perhaps an alternative would have been to go for Microsoft's approach, where Kinect has been set up as a parallel brand - almost like a platform launch - in its own right, complete with a library of bespoke titles and a substantial commitment from third party publishers, but again this has not happened.
From a technical and developmental point of view, PlayStation Move is very cool piece of kit. As a motion controller, its overall combination of precision, a fixed, low cost level of CPU and memory usage and the 60FPS camera feed makes it easily the most accurate, versatile and flexible interface available on console. There's little doubt that it can outperform the Wii remote and MotionPlus, and while the scope for dance and fitness titles may not be in the same league as Kinect, it can still compete in this space, and it has far fewer technical limitations than Microsoft's sensor.
There's also a sense that Move represents a vision of the future of control in console gaming - when games like Virtua Tennis 4 offer a combination of stereoscopic 3D vision combined with an ultra-precise, low-latency 3D controller, you can't help feel that Move offers the potential to test out the kinds of control schemes that developers will be targeting for the next generation of gaming.
Here and now, what we love most about Move is the raw potential it offers. The sheer scale and scope of the opportunity here to create fresh game concepts is hugely exciting. The only question remains whether the opportunity Move represents will end up being more of a missed opportunity due to the decisions that the platform holder has made.
Moving forward, Sony is on the record as saying that it is currently developing PlayStation 4, almost certain to be deeply integrated with stereoscopic 3D. While the DualShock will almost certainly never fade away, a 3D system needs a 3D controller out of the box. Let's hope that Sony get Richard Marks and his R&D team fully involved from day one.
Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-case-for-playstation-move-article?page=1