Friday, July 13, 2007

Rumbling Sixaxis in the Works? Not Likely

Speculation is running wild after gaming blog Kotaku erroneously claimed yesterday that Sony had confirmed the development of a Sixaxis controller with built in rumble. According to IGN's conversation with a Sony spokesperson, the alleged "confirmation" was nothing more than a Sony employees observation that news reports had claimed third party rumbling PS3 controllers were in the works. Pretty big slip on Kotaku's part.

Either way, it is not entirely unreasonable to assume that a redesigned Sixaxis may be announced in the not to distant future. The current Sixaxis is far too light and seems cheap compared to the beefy PS3 unit. In such a redesign, however, a rumble feature would be relatively unlikely. Sony has hopped aboard the motion sensing controller train and precise motion control and vibrations simply do not mesh well. The relative imprecision of Sixaxis motion control when compared to that of the Wii Remote, however, may ultimately allow for rumbles. Regardless, anything on a new Sixaxis is still a far way from being "confirmed."

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