The company behind controller rumble technology wants to solve Sony's problem.
One of the big announcements at E3 was the new controller for the PlayStation 3. The Dualshock-alike will feature motion control, but will lack the rumble technology that gave it its name. Sony claimed the reason was to do with the amount of technology needed in the controller to make the motion sensitive control work. It of course had nothing to do with an ongoing court battle with Immersion, the company behind the vibrating technology seen in many controllers today.
Speaking to US website Gamasutra, Victor Viegas, Immersion president, has said that he'd "offered them numerous solutions to the problem," and that he doesn't "believe it's a very difficult problem to solve... Immersion has experts that would be happy to solve that problem for them."
It won't be quite as simple as it sounds though. Sony would need to drop its appeal against the lawsuit that resulted in the company being ordered to pay Immersion USD 90 million in damages - something that Sony clearly isn't keen on doing.
Like many people, Viegas believes that the PlayStation 3 controller will disappoint gamers who now expect to feel feedback in game controllers. "To take vibration out of a driving game or a first person shooting game, I can't imagine how people will be able to view that as an advancement in gaming," commented Viegas.
It seems unlikely that Sony will back down, but we'll bring you any news if and when it breaks.


I really wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft had some involvement in this. Picture it; how much PR damage would it cause if like the "E3 2005 Sony conference in game footage fiasco" stepdown was repeated. "...