Ask any die hard Playstation fan what is the most notable characteristic of the controllers are and you,ll come away with answers that predominantly boil down to something called “vibration feedback,” or “rumble feature.” With the coming of the PS3 SIXAXIS controller, this has changed with the addition of motion sensing and the exclusion of the rumble ability.
Phil Harrison, head of Worldwide Studios for Sony, gave his defense of Sony,s decision to leave out the beloved vibration capability on the new controller. He made his remarks to GamesIndustry and said that he had no regrets about the final PS3 design.
Harrison stated that the decision for motion sensing had benefits that hugely surpassed that of the popular Dual Shock controller functionality. “I think that the next generation interfaces that can be created [and] built on SIXAXIS motion sensitivity [and] give tremendous gameplay benefits that far outweigh a reactive vibration function."
He explained the superiority of the SIXAXIS controller by pointing to the depth of the feature and the enhanced gaming experience uses would get out of it. “"The vibration function is the game sending a single channel of feedback to the player – six axis of input puts the player in control in a much richer, deeper way. So, game design can go in much more interesting directions as a result of that than from receiving a single input from the game itself."
In continuing his view, Harrison pointed to the lightness of the controller as a positive feature for SIXAXIS. "So it has to be done at a price, and it has to be done at a volume that fits our production requirements. I think the decision that we,ve made to build in the SIXAXIS functionality, and Bluetooth wireless, and great battery life, and all the other functionality that comes with it, far outweighs the chatter that we,re getting on vibration. And, it’s incredibly light! Just pick it up!"
General consensus of the attendees at this year,s E3 pointed to the lightness of the unit as a drawback, rather than a positive aspect of the new controller. While it is still too early to speculate whether the new SIXAXIS will be adopted widely by the general gaming public, the absence of vibration feedback will be greatly missed.
