 | E3 2009, SONY, NINTENDO, MICROSOFT, MOTION CONTROLS, PS3, XBOX 360, WII, NEWS Sony shows off tech, but little application |
I have to admit, Sony had quite a show yesterday. It wasn't the games that impressed me (we knew about pretty much all of them anyway). It is pretty funny that both Microsoft and Sony have a Mario Kart clone in the works, though.
No, the interesting part of this conference was the motion control demonstration using a combination of the EyeToy and a... glorified flashlight.
Sony's new controller kicks Microsoft Natal all over town for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that it looks a lot further along and more in line with what we can expect of modern console technology. (As I alluded to yesterday, Natal is too far-reaching to make good on many of its promises.) But despite what I consider to be a Sony win, there are still a couple of very important problems to overcome.
Perhaps the biggest question is, where were the games? We saw a terrific tech demo, but heard nothing about what kind of software support might be on its way for the hardware - either first-party, or more importantly, third-party. Sure, it looks cool and all, but how can you say this controller comes out next year without making a tangible, good-faith effort to tell us what you're going to do to make it profitable?
Where Microsoft afflicted itself with this same problem at the beginning of the week, remember that Nintendo had multiple games prepared for the debut of the Wii Remote mere years ago. The technology isn't going to sell on its own: you need something fun to go with it.
The second issue, which might not be so important if we weren't talking about a company that's hemorrhaging money out of every orifice, is the question of how this product is going to be packaged and marketed. Sony's motion solution offers no significant advantages over the Wii Motion Plus, yet it's arguably more complicated and possibly more expensive to produce. (This depends on whether Sony ends up using the $30 EyeToy, or whether they need a more sophisticated camera to get the results they want. The "wand" controllers could cost even less than the Wii Remote if they don't include any more technology than was demonstrated yesterday.)
In addition, the Wii Motion Plus comes out next month, and this Camera Wand combination is supposedly at least 9 months away. (My guess is that it will be delayed.) It's clear that neither Sony nor Microsoft will be capturing any of the Wii's casual audience no matter what - it's far too late in this generation's life cycle for that, and the Wii's new attachment is getting a huge head start anyway.
Ultimately, therefore, the success of Sony's new peripheral leans heavily on its hardcore adoption. The potential is there, but it could go either way; On the one hand, the "hardcore" have traditionally raised their noses at any hint of motion control. On the other hand, already we are seeing arguments from both Microsoft and Sony fanboys about which company has the better motion control solution. This means that their disdain might have been simple hypocrisy all this time - not an objection to motion control at all, but rather a jealousy of Nintendo's incredible success with the concept.
We will see in time.
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