Sony Officially Announces Playstation Move at GDC press event

Tonight Sony officially unveiled the name for it's new motion controller system during a live press event at The Game Developers Conference. Freshly off being named, the Playstation Move seems to have changed little since we last saw it, but we were treated to some live on stage demos this time around.

The concept is deceptively simple. You pretty much mash the Wii controller together with Microsoft's Natal. So now instead of a controller that receives signals from a transmitter bar like the Nintendo Wii, you have Sony's Eye camera tracking a lit bulb at the end of the controller.

Almost like a warning shot fired at Microsoft over reported Natal latency issues, Sony makes bold claims of a single frame response time making real time control and rendering a reality. Without getting an actual hands on, it is hard to support or deny these claims. Though, there did appear to be some lag in their street fighting game, the other titles did appear to run very well.

The biggest problem Sony might have to overcome with the Playstation Move is the idea that this all seems familiar. A sports game that shows us that we can play tennis, a first person shooter, some sword play and some party games. If the on screen characters were Miis, it would have really come across as a Nintendo Wii presentation. It is going to be really hard for Sony to make this a unique experience now that motion controls are quickly become old hat and boring for some players. Even the things that the Wii can't do, are familiar ground. Having video of yourself that is integrated with the game play and you directly interact with the environment is nothing new. Not only is it nothing new, but it's something that has mainly been rejected by the gaming mainstream.

The strangest thing was Sony introducing a second controller piece that is held off hand, which features more buttons and an analog control stick.  To illustrate how familiar and ingrained the Wii is into the gaming culture, I have a feeling at least 50% of everyone that read the last sentence thought "Yeah, like a nunchuck."  Sony will have an uphill battle trying to establish itself as being unique, but so far, it seems like the technology is very sound.

There is another thing that Sony must be given credit for. They have now officially shown us way more working software for their Playstation Move than Microsoft has shown for the Natal. Only time will tell if the Move will help keep the motion control craze alive, or if it will join the Nintendo Power Pad as just another footnote on strange video game trends.

While Sony didn't announce any pricing for the Playstation Move, they did hint at it while breaking down their distribution model.  The first option will come as a controller only package for those that already have the Eye camera.  If you don't own the camera, you can get a bundle that includes the controller, the camera and a game.  It was announced that this bundle will be priced below $100.  Lastly, if you don't even own a PS3, there will be a bundle that collects everything together along with a Playstation 3 console.  So apparently Sony believes that the Playstation Move will move some consoles.  I am truly sorry for that pun...