Sony Working on 'PS3mote'?

Get the gritters ready...

Posted by Staff
Sony Working on 'PS3mote'?
Update: Sony has responded to SPOnG's request for comment on the 'PS3mote', telling us, "we do not comment on rumour or speculation".

The latest controller-related rumour to do the rounds suggests that Sony (like, apparently, Microsoft) is working on a Wii Remote-alike.

The controller supposedly resembles a Wii Remote in its wand-like properties - but this one comes in black. To work, however, the models that have been seen need a 12-inch tripod that connects to one of the PS3's USB ports and sits in front of the TV - in the middle of your gaming area. Four of the controllers can allegedly be attached to the PS3 at once.

The news reportedly comes from a 'secret' focus group that was invited to a facility in California to test the product earlier this year.

Mini-games were rolled out to show off the controller, with tennis, fencing and paintballing shown off. Also on show, apparently, was Quake as played using the 'PS3mote' on a laptop. Why Sony would be using a game that's over a decade old on a platform that's not its own to show the peripheral to testers, SPOnG is a little unsure...

The group was apparently shown several different designs of the 'PS3mote' and asked to choose which felt and looked best.

So, having already spent time and money bringing the motion-sensitive Sixaxis into the world, why bother going to the effort of creating a further peripheral that will be derided as a Nintendo rip-off? Especially since many PS3 owners are already inevitably going to find themselves shelling out more cash for controllers thanks to the release of the Dual Shock 3...

The use of a tripod planted right where you're going to wave the remote around doesn't sound like the most sensible idea in the world, but it could be explained away as being part of an early prototype that won't be be seen in the final package.

SPOnG contacted Sony for comment and will let you know when a representative doesn't comment on rumour and speculation.

If rumour and speculation that doesn't get commented on is to be believed, Sony would not be alone in its bald-faced attempt to take on Nintendo in the world of controllers. Microsoft is said to have its own '360mote' in development over at British developer Rare.

For now, SPOnG recommends breaking into a council facility, nicking a road gritter and using it to spread copious amounts of salt over this one.

†SPOnG does not, in fact, recommend breaking into council facilities. Breaking and entering is against the law.

Source: PlayStation Lifestyle
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Comments

Showing the 20 most recent comments. Read all 24.
SuperSaiyan4 2 Jun 2008 12:10
5/24
And in other news you can now buy 2 Sixaxis in a box for £39.99 saw it in HMV today in London.
Joji 2 Jun 2008 12:33
6/24
Well, if MS can have a go, why not Sony?

Wish they put the BC back into PS3 though.....I want that more.
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schnide 2 Jun 2008 13:43
7/24
Joji wrote:
Wish they put the BC back into PS3.....I want that more.


Seconded. Issues of space, cash and convenience mean that I don't want my PS2 still being around before I consider a PS3. It'd be a great move for new owners if they reintroduced it, but it make the marketplace look a bit messy (messier).
deleted 2 Jun 2008 13:47
8/24
schnide wrote:
Joji wrote:
Wish they put the BC back into PS3.....I want that more.


Seconded. Issues of space, cash and convenience mean that I don't want my PS2 still being around before I consider a PS3. It'd be a great move for new owners if they reintroduced it, but it make the marketplace look a bit messy (messier).


Seconded (Secondment) = to transfer (a person) temporarily to another job. but then im just being pedantic.
OptimusP 2 Jun 2008 14:54
9/24
haritori wrote:
schnide wrote:
Joji wrote:
Wish they put the BC back into PS3.....I want that more.


Seconded. Issues of space, cash and convenience mean that I don't want my PS2 still being around before I consider a PS3. It'd be a great move for new owners if they reintroduced it, but it make the marketplace look a bit messy (messier).


Seconded (Secondment) = to transfer (a person) temporarily to another job. but then im just being pedantic.

*trows pie in your face with the word 'Nazi' fingerwritten in it*

Now look what you made me do, waste good pie! At least i got a taste from it...
schnide 2 Jun 2008 14:58
10/24
haritori wrote:
schnide wrote:
Joji wrote:
Wish they put the BC back into PS3.....I want that more.


Seconded. Issues of space, cash and convenience mean that I don't want my PS2 still being around before I consider a PS3. It'd be a great move for new owners if they reintroduced it, but it make the marketplace look a bit messy (messier).


Seconded (Secondment) = to transfer (a person) temporarily to another job. but then im just being pedantic.


seconded
One entry found.

second[4,transitive verb]

Main Entry: 4second
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Latin secundare, from secundus second, favorable
Date: circa 1586
1 a: to give support or encouragement to : assist b: to support (a fighting person or group) in combat : bring up reinforcements for
2 a: to support or assist in contention or debate b: to endorse (a motion or a nomination) so that debate or voting may begin
3\si-ˈkänd\chiefly British : to release (as a military officer) from a regularly assigned position for temporary duty with another unit or organization
— sec·ond·er noun

I'd also add:

4 a: come over here and eat my ass, haritori
PreciousRoi 2 Jun 2008 15:11
11/24
haritori wrote:
...im just being pedantic.


errr, no you aren't...any pedant worth his salt would not only know what seconded means and that it was indeed used quite correctly, they'd also have capitalised "I'm" and not failed to omit the proper punctuation...'course an orthodoxical type might not even use contractions at all, but I AM just being pedantic.

You have disgraced the name of pedants everywhere and forced me to agree with schnide, I'm not sure which I resent more...
schnide 2 Jun 2008 15:14
12/24
PreciousRoi wrote:
agree with schnide


I just want you to know that I'm mature enough not to make a big deal out of this.

But I've taken a screenshot, just so you know.
PreciousRoi 2 Jun 2008 15:24
13/24
*sighs

*grabs haritori by the scruff of his neck and forces his nose down into the previous post like it was a puddle on the carpet

LOOK WHAT YOU DID...JUST LOOK WHAT YOU DID...BAD HARI!!
schnide 2 Jun 2008 15:33
14/24
PreciousRoi wrote:
*sighs

*grabs haritori by the scruff of his neck and forces his nose down into the previous post like it was a puddle on the carpet

LOOK WHAT YOU DID...JUST LOOK WHAT YOU DID...BAD HARI!!


*sits back in throne obscured by partial shadow*

*grins, rubs hands gleefully*
deleted 2 Jun 2008 15:34
15/24
schnide wrote:
PreciousRoi wrote:
*sighs

*grabs haritori by the scruff of his neck and forces his nose down into the previous post like it was a puddle on the carpet

LOOK WHAT YOU DID...JUST LOOK WHAT YOU DID...BAD HARI!!


*sits back in throne obscured by partial shadow*

*grins, rubs hands gleefully*


ah but it is i who has the last laugh, with my mastermind plan, mwhahahahaha
schnide 2 Jun 2008 16:02
16/24
haritori wrote:
ah but it is i who has the last laugh, with my mastermind plan, mwhahahahaha


My plan's already accounted for your plan.

MWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA (etc)!
p 2 Jun 2008 19:24
17/24
schnide wrote:
haritori wrote:
ah but it is i who has the last laugh, with my mastermind plan, mwhahahahaha


My plan's already accounted for your plan.

MWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA (etc)!


All of which leads to this terrible and hopefully obscure joke.

Q: Who led the pedants’ revolt?

A: Which Tyler.

To have any hope of gaining personal amusement from this “joke”. Try it on a pedant, and achieve smugness at their inattentive correction.
Ouisi 2 Jun 2008 20:58
18/24
they are only confusing their customers demographic, customers that want a Wii will buy a Wii; if anything they'll be percieved as copycats in a run for copying the market leader... yet the generation has already started and it won't ever be standard on those.

Also, it'll only divide their own userbase, most Wii fans will despise them, just like they despised Sony after the sixaxys unveilment... and for what? bad publicity, hate and what did the sixaxys do?

Also... Sony going from sixaxys to dual shock 3 to wiiclone? do they even have a strategy? DESPERATE. Same for X360 actually; but that's also precisely why Sony shouldn't do it... it'll be a failure for X360 who are struggling to sell more than they are.

I can see stupid analysts predicting big changed because of this and developers, not wanting to shift to the Wii holding on for this, but quite simply put... it's a stupid attempt; who won't change the outcome.

These company's aren't thinking outside the box, they're mimmicking the box.
schnide 3 Jun 2008 10:14
19/24
Ouisi wrote:
These company's aren't thinking outside the box, they're mimmicking the box.


I disagree - if the hardware works well, and the software's there to back it up, I think it's entirely sensible to try and chase the market share that Wii has (somehow, I still don't understand it) taken. Aside from the fact that Nintendo only makes software for Nintendo consoles, and I still don't see anything amazing they've done this generation, then the Wiimote function is the only thing that the console can do that the PS3 or Xbox 360 can't. If Sony and Microsoft can steal that, Nintendo's f**ked.
OptimusP 3 Jun 2008 11:29
20/24
schnide wrote:
Ouisi wrote:
These company's aren't thinking outside the box, they're mimmicking the box.


I disagree - if the hardware works well, and the software's there to back it up, I think it's entirely sensible to try and chase the market share that Wii has (somehow, I still don't understand it) taken. Aside from the fact that Nintendo only makes software for Nintendo consoles, and I still don't see anything amazing they've done this generation, then the Wiimote function is the only thing that the console can do that the PS3 or Xbox 360 can't. If Sony and Microsoft can steal that, Nintendo's f**ked.


Those are big "if"'s nonetheless...especially the software one. Seeing how mimicking works in this industry, the copies being far lower in quality because they haven't really figured out how the original actually really works which you point out yourself very neatly, Nintendo has nothing to fear. Sony and Microsoft will probably also mimick the mini-games compilations and do a even worse job at it.

If you can't see what the Wii has done by now, please do not take up a job that relies on medium and long-term vision with shifting structures...you would be really really bad at it.

Here's a hint: why is it that everyone talks about casual gamers in corelation with the Wii except Nintendo?
schnide 3 Jun 2008 11:49
21/24
OptimusP wrote:
Those are big "if"'s nonetheless...especially the software one. Seeing how mimicking works in this industry, the copies being far lower in quality because they haven't really figured out how the original actually really works which you point out yourself very neatly, Nintendo has nothing to fear. Sony and Microsoft will probably also mimick the mini-games compilations and do a even worse job at it.

If you can't see what the Wii has done by now, please do not take up a job that relies on medium and long-term vision with shifting structures...you would be really really bad at it.


Actually, and I'm not busting your chops here, I'm an Analyst (although not the type that Spong often reports on) and I'm really good at it.

Sony already have first-party experience in the market that Wii has captured, it just didn't capitalise on it and take it forward like Nintendo has. SingStar goes some way to that, but I'm talking about EyeToy. EyeToy is simple to play, allows the player to interact with what's happening on screen like you couldn't ever do with just a joypad and is a game that got your grandma up where she might now be bowling or playing golf with very basic graphics.

That aside, I wasn't clear enough on my point. Firstly, I don't think the Wii is very good. The only thing I know people to play on it is Wii Sports, which I repeat, I don't think is very good and is a novelty. Galaxy didn't do the numbers, and both Zelda and Mario Kart are retreads of old games where there's a law of increasingly diminishing returns. The Wii is underpowered and can only go on like this for so long. The third-party drought is already starting to show. In a year's time, I'm still confident that a lot of those Wii's will be in cupboards, and sales wouldn't be anywhere near they have been if it wasn't for the hype surrounding the sales shortages at Christmas.

Sales shortages which were very convenient for Nintendo to say the least, but we've had this conversation elsewhere.
OptimusP 3 Jun 2008 20:46
22/24
schnide wrote:
OptimusP wrote:
Those are big "if"'s nonetheless...especially the software one. Seeing how mimicking works in this industry, the copies being far lower in quality because they haven't really figured out how the original actually really works which you point out yourself very neatly, Nintendo has nothing to fear. Sony and Microsoft will probably also mimick the mini-games compilations and do a even worse job at it.

If you can't see what the Wii has done by now, please do not take up a job that relies on medium and long-term vision with shifting structures...you would be really really bad at it.


Actually, and I'm not busting your chops here, I'm an Analyst (although not the type that Spong often reports on) and I'm really good at it.

Sony already have first-party experience in the market that Wii has captured, it just didn't capitalise on it and take it forward like Nintendo has. SingStar goes some way to that, but I'm talking about EyeToy. EyeToy is simple to play, allows the player to interact with what's happening on screen like you couldn't ever do with just a joypad and is a game that got your grandma up where she might now be bowling or playing golf with very basic graphics.

That aside, I wasn't clear enough on my point. Firstly, I don't think the Wii is very good. The only thing I know people to play on it is Wii Sports, which I repeat, I don't think is very good and is a novelty. Galaxy didn't do the numbers, and both Zelda and Mario Kart are retreads of old games where there's a law of increasingly diminishing returns. The Wii is underpowered and can only go on like this for so long. The third-party drought is already starting to show. In a year's time, I'm still confident that a lot of those Wii's will be in cupboards, and sales wouldn't be anywhere near they have been if it wasn't for the hype surrounding the sales shortages at Christmas.

Sales shortages which were very convenient for Nintendo to say the least, but we've had this conversation elsewhere.

The Eye Toy is indeed a very great invention by Sony and you're right they didn't do much with it. That's because Sony doesn't have a strategy, Nintendo does. I recommend reading [link=http://malstrom.50webs.com/birdman.html]this[/link] for Nintendo's strategy and combine it with the fact the DS allready succeeded at it. In short, Nintendo is literally reforging the entire game-industry from the ground-up, training a complete new army of gamers in its new ways of playing games. The best part is...almost no one knows that it is happening and mistakes it as a casual gaming boom while Nintendo never took the casual gamer as a basis but the non and former gamers (again, Nintendo never ever mentioned "casual" gamer).

And the rest of your arguments are the same run of the mill average fanboy (of every kind) level . Replace Zelda and Mario Kart with Halo, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Madden, FIFA, Gears of War, Resident Evil ect. and you have the same "true" argument. So by your logic, all the consoles are virtually screwed. Also, you have to explain to me how diminishing returns are part of Mario Kart when it allready outsold its predecessor and still has a spot in the top 50 in all regions? Key concept here is: only release a new iteration of those franchises every generation, not go the EA-way of making yearly updates. Nintendo actually understands that you can't flood the market, that's why there is no Nintendogs 2/Wii or Animal Crossing 2007/2008 or whatever.
Replace Wii Sports with FPS-games and Wii with X360...look at that stereotype, not an argument. Also...there are now more units sold of WiiFit then there PS3's in Japan. Whooptie

Also, what third party drought? You mean the EA exclusives...or the Capcom exclusives...or the SEGA exclusives... or the fact third parties have figured out their multi-platform titles actually sell better on the Wii (Guitar Hero III)?
schnide 4 Jun 2008 09:40
23/24
OptimusP wrote:
And the rest of your arguments are the same run of the mill average fanboy (of every kind) level.


You're very literate OP (I'm not calling you Optimus, not your nor anyone else deserves that name - CHILD OF THE EIGHTIES!) but if you're going to come out with s**t like this, I'm simply not going to bother arguing with you.

If you can rise above this in future then please let me know, and I'll happily debate with you, which I would have otherwise found interesting to do.

If not, let's see how your arguments stand in a year.
OptimusP 4 Jun 2008 12:51
24/24
schnide wrote:
OptimusP wrote:
And the rest of your arguments are the same run of the mill average fanboy (of every kind) level.


You're very literate OP (I'm not calling you Optimus, not your nor anyone else deserves that name - CHILD OF THE EIGHTIES!) but if you're going to come out with s**t like this, I'm simply not going to bother arguing with you.

If you can rise above this in future then please let me know, and I'll happily debate with you, which I would have otherwise found interesting to do.

If not, let's see how your arguments stand in a year.

Well, let met dissect your arguments differently then.
Problems with your arguments are:
1) You take the hardcore gamer (and by this maybe also yourself) as the point of reference while they are a clear niche part of the gaming industry (around 20-25% of the entire market). People should have allready figured that out with Pokemon and The Sims.
2) The law of diminishing returns only apply to recurrent releases with insignificant quality improvements aka: the EA-way of doing things. It is applicable to Madden and FIFA, it's not on Mario Kart Wii or Warcraft 3 or HalfLife2 because of the (various) levels of innovation and high-quality of all of these titles.
3) saying people only play Wii Sports on the Wii while its attach rate (without counting WiiSports and VC-games) is higher then the PS3 and closing with the Xbox360...where does that put the PS3 then? An exclusive Blu-Ray player? That's two fanboy stereotypes in one sentence if you hold on to one and introduce facts. That's not me running any kind of s**t, that's just you talking s**t. I just pointed it out.

Personally, my arguments are not meant to be hold accountable in a year time but are only meant to rebuke yours. Only my theories can be hold accountable for longer periods of time, since they are theories and need to be proven/disproven.
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