Sony and Immersion Settle: Does This Mean We Can Have Rumble?
- Scribbled on March 1st, 2007 by Devin Grimes
- Filed in Industry News, Sony PlayStation 3
One of the main complaints users had about Sony’s decision making with the Playstation 3 was the lack of rumble in their SIXAXIS controller. Rumble is something that you don’t really notice when its there, but are left feeling empty without it.
Apparently Sony has made up with Immersion, who filed a lawsuit with Sony over their rumble technology in the DualShock2 controller found with the PS2.
This potentially, and most likely means that we may see a new, redesigned version of the SIXAXIS that supports Immersion’s rumble technology. A Sony Exec. responded with the following statement:
We are very pleased to have reached a cooperative agreement with Immersion regarding the use of its advanced vibration technology (haptics technology). We look forward to working closely with them as we explore new and innovative ways to utilize this technology in PlayStation products.
Seems like a risky move changing their product not even half a year within its release, but if it means a better gaming experience, I’m all for it.
Now whatever happened to rumble not being possible with motion sensing, Sony?
(Thanks 1up.)
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:38 am
Thank God. This was one of Sony’s dumbest claims - that rumble was “last gen” and motion sensing is “next gen.”
Sony initially claimed that the rumble feature would interfere with the motion sensing. But I don’t see why they couldn’t just include a switch which disables rumble for when motion sensing is required. Sony seemed to be really stubborn on this whole thing.
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:52 am
It seems like it would be extremely difficult to have force feedback and motion sensing at the same time - you’d constantly have the force feedback jerking the controller around, screwing up the motion sensing. You could partially compensate for this by subtracting out some of the estimated movement whenever the force feedback happened, but that would never be a perfect solution because the amount of movement depends on things like how firmly the user is gripping the controller.
What S Holmes said above is also a possibility - switching modes - is also a possibility, but games would pretty much need to be designed for one or the other (since the movement sensing opens up methods of control otherwise unavailable), and then you’d constantly have people unhappy that game X doesn’t use their preferred form of control.
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:23 am
@Drocket: The Wii remote has both force feedback (rumble) and motion sensing. I’ve never had problems with the rumble jerking my hand around and messing up my motion sensing!
@everybody: Seriously people, boycott Sony. They JUST had an interview where Sony said that rumble was last generation and that is why it isn’t in the new controller. They LIED to you. You really want to support a company that blatantly LIES TO YOU, THE GAMER?!?! Send Sony a message by not buying a PS3 - maybe for the next generation they’ll give the axe to the whole division and start fresh with smarter and more truthful people!
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
No. There will be no rumble til the PS4.
March 6th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
[...] GameTrailers got the chance to catch up with Jack Tretton recently, and one of the questions brought up was their status on the SIXAXIS now that their conflict with Immersion is officially over. [...]
July 12th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
[...] lawsuit between Sony and Immersion over their patented rumble technology was recently resolved, leaving us scratching our heads as to whether or not we would be receiving a version of the SIXAXIS [...]
August 6th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
[...] a lot of flack over the lack of rumble in the PlayStation 3’s SIXAXIS controller, and after settling with Immersion, many felt that a redesigned SIXAXIS would be one of the foremost concerns for SCE. [...]