• Scarface3010

    I think in the case of Sony’s controller, Nintendo’s controller looks far less accurate. I believe that Sony has learned from it’s PSeye venture and have finally come through for hardcore gamers. Microsoft with eventually learn the lessons that both Nintendo and Sony have already learned and will release a controller to go along with Natal as well. In this case I believe that microsoft is once again is designing a poor conceived product.

  • mujugaba

    While I do not disagree about Sony’s controller being more accurate, one must take into account that the Wii’s current controller configuration was released back in 2006. I believe that the differences in accuracy will be diminished with the addition of Nintendo’s MotionPlus adapter. Only time will tell which configuration has the best control.

    One thing I can assure you is that I will not be piloting any game without a controller. Call me old-school but I’ve got to have some semblance of a button-studded piece of plastic in my hands to game. I surely do not need an expensive XBOX peripheral to frolic around like an idiot in my living room.

  • seljo_myeri

    As a developer who has looked at such tech for non-gaming applications, I can tell you that as of at most 6 months ago, accelerometer tech is by far the simplest, cheapest, and least compute intensive solution. It remains to be seen whether it is less accurate. I can understand why Nintendo would choose it, and make these comments. In my view, MS and Sony are just trying marketing tactics instead of sound engineering. They think “pure rip-off” of the tech would not sell (i.e. we have accelerometers too!). I disagree. Most gamers really don’t care about the how, they care about results. In fact, in the case of console gamers, most probably don’t even know what tech the Wii uses. And that is not intended to be a slam against them in any way. It’s just fact and a testament to the quality of the engineering of the Wii. If Sony’s and MS’s techs work, they will see success. However, since both of those markets care more a bout performance than the Wii market, if there are any FPS penalties, these techs won’t be received well. I find it curious that Win7, last I heard, has built in support for accelerometer devices (especially game controllers) but MS, it appears, is not using them on the XBox.

    BTW, the military uses accelerometers as an alternative to GPS in GPS -deprived environs (inside buildings, for example) in their UGV’s, etc.

  • bridgerbot

    I think Nintendo is just blowing some hot air when they say they tried Sony’s technology and abandoned it. Sony gave a very good convincing live demo. That camera tracking was dead on the controller.

    As far as Microsoft’s product goes, a lot of people are very wary of anything Microsoft. Some of their products are great, but things like 30%+ failure rates on the Xbox 360 make people stray away. Natal may be just awesome, or it may just be a bug ridden piece of junk. Similar tests have been performed and a lot of people start having tons of control problems when you remove all physical controllers.

  • Shishimo

    …isn’t Project NATAL just the eyetoy without the motion controller recently introduced? And didn’t the eyetoy pretty much fail because it only tracked motion well under the PERFECT lighting conditions? I think Sony’s new tech is a great idea, only i hope on that controller there is some kind of D-pad or Analog Stick because even if there is a camera that will mean ill still just be waggling my arms…

    Oh and on a side note i honestly feel that the six action motion control is more accurate than the wii-mote. thats just with the games I’ve played though not like I’ve done any extensive testing to prove that or anything.