When the PS3 was launched, two major things caught the attention of the gaming community in a negative way–the price of the PS3 and the lack of a rumble feature in the controller. Sony explained that it was unable to make the rumble work with its motion-sensing feature.
As it turns out, it was actually due to a huge $90 million lawsuit brought against Sony for "borrowing" the rumble technology illegally from the patent holders–Immersion Corp. In the lawsuit, Sony was forced to cease all production of DualShock controllers which had the rumble technology.
Since then, PlayStation 3 fans have been crying into their beer mugs and Mountain Dew soda cans at the loss of feeling the jolt of their rocket launchers or other tools of destruction in their PS3 games.
But all will be well (almost) as Sony has announced a release date for its kinetic controller–April 15 for the US. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the little device will set you back $54.99. Why so expensive for such an item?
Remember that lawsuit we mentioned? No doubt, the cost of the multi-million judgment against Sony has been factored into the price of the DualShock 3. In other words, you are probably paying for the lawsuit damages.
Are we having fun yet?
