(IGN) Sony's Harrison on Wii Controller

Sony's Harrison on Wii Controller

Calls allegations that Sony stole Nintendo's montion-sensory concept dumb. Much more inside.


by Kathleen Sanders and Matt Casamassina

May 31, 2006 - The next-gen console war is heating up and going international. In an interview posted today, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison spoke frankly to Spiegel Online, the online arm of the leading German news magazine, Der Spiegel, about Sony's next-gen console contender, the PlayStation 3.



When asked what he thought of people saying that Sony stole the PS3's motion-sensing controller idea from Nintendo's next-gen Wii, Harrison replied, "In some way, I understand why people are saying that, but it's a bit dumb, if you can forgive the expression."

The Nintendo Wii's motion-sensing controller has an unconventional remote control-like design that works wirelessly via Bluetooth to sense movement and orientation. The controller also uses a speaker and force feedback. Sony's new controller looks very similar to the previous PlayStation 2 controller, but tracks basic tilting motions in several directions.

"When we [Sony] brought PlayStation to the market in 1994, we introduced real-time graphics in 3D for the first time," Harrison commented, apparently dismissing SEGA's Saturn. "When Nintendo released N64 in 1996 and it also used real-time 3D graphics, did we say: 'Nintendo stole our idea!'? No, of course not. Such innovations are made possible because of the combination of technology, cost and manufacturing capacity."

Harrison also clarified that the PS3 controller design was not a last-minute decision, as some suspected.

"We've been working on that [motion sensitive controller] for a long time," he said, "and Nintendo has no doubt also worked on similar, if not identical innovations for a long time -- that's normal. That's technology. The difference between our strategy and everyone else's is that our controller, the PlayStation Dual Analog Controller, is the de-facto standard for videogames.

"I'd estimate that if you include controllers of the same shape from third-parties, more than 400 million were sold world-wide. That means we define the standard for the man-machine interface for games. Now we added an additional dynamic; freedom of motion."

Recently at the Electronic Entertainment Expo the only playable title using Sony's motion-sensing controller was the combat flight game Warhawk. When Phil Harrison was asked how many of the PlayStation 3's games would ultimately use the motion sensing feature of the controller he replied, "I'm expecting that every game uses this function in some way. We all move the controller when we play, whether you're playing a racing or a soccer game. Now, for the first time, we can also capture the primary input, such as the analog sticks, as well as the secondary movements the gamer makes; and then combine the two. This is an important advantage that only the PlayStation 3 controller offers."

Spiegel Online asked Harrison if he was concerned about the PS3 competing with the Microsoft's Xbox 360's ability to seamlessly network with PCs via Live Anywhere Harrison said, "No, this doesn't concern me and I don't think that it concerns the consumer. When you buy a game console, a primarily entertainment device, then you only want that. We believe that the PS3 will be the place where the users will play, watch movies, surf the web, and use other computer entertainment functionality. The PS3 is a computer. We don't need the PC."

Later on though, when asked about what sort of games he'd like to see come to PS3 and what sorts of games he found interesting Harrison emphasized about the importance of the social aspects of gaming, citing community creation in services like MySpace and Second Life as inspiration.

Spiegel Online pushed this issue, saying that to get to something like MySpace people need a PC. To which Harrison replied, "The PS3 has a browser, so you can access MySpace with it as well."

Will gamers want to access the web via their PS3? It remains to be seen, but the interview closed with Harrison hinting that Sony has more plans for the next-gen console to create connections between gamers.

What would you like to see PS3 offer by way of communicating with your friends and other gamers? Let us know in the forums.