CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XIV : Lack of rumble keeps PS3 controller "affordable"

It's time again for one of our favorite segments, CE-Oh no he didn't! For this week's episode, we're going to talk a little bit about the PS3. Now, we all know that the new PS3 isn't going bring the rumble to our favorite upcoming Sony gaming console. But what we didn't know was why -- yes, yes there were claims that it had to do with interference of motion sensing, or lawsuits from Immersion, but we hadn't gotten a clear reason straight from the horse's mouth, particularly when surveys suggest fans would be willing to pay for it. However, a recent interview by GameDaily Biz with SCEA prez Kaz Hirai says that it's yet another reason altogether:

"Is it technically feasible? Absolutely. But the balancing act that you need to do, is to be able to present the controller to the consumer at an affordable price."

Affordable? Please. Joystiq points out that a G-Pad Pro for the PS2, which has motion sensing and vibration, costs $30, a whole Lincoln higher than the Dual Shock. C'mon Kaz, can't you at least be straight with us? Now of course, this is from the same folks who said that just a few months ago said that the $500 PS3 was "too cheap," and is well worth the markup compared to the Wii, but backtracked when the company recently dropped the price in Japan. Maybe that means the prices of the controllers are going to come down too?

[Via Joystiq]

[Dario @ Oct 6th 2006 12:50AM]

SAD, REALLY SAD!

sony is dead to me now, theyre too conceited. they think that since its brand name is Sony, then they have the right to charge us as much as they please.

[David @ Oct 6th 2006 1:24AM]

*Yawn*

Is there really a point to these articles anymore? We get it... Sony's execs say stupid things. I swear people are giving Kenneth Lay less crap.

[funkycoldm3dina @ Oct 6th 2006 1:40AM]

"Is it technically feasible? Absolutely. But the balancing act that you need to do, is to be able to present the controller to the consumer at an affordable price." well seeing as how integral rumble is to my own gameplay needs, i am sure sony hirai can afford to lose me to the opposition.

[pops @ Oct 6th 2006 1:52AM]

Well maybe that's cuz Ken Lay is really dead. Ken Kutaragi is only brain dead.
Kaz and Ken need to get out of their ivory tower and start thinking about
real gamers. Most of their decisions lately seem based on ego and false pride.

I really like FF and rumble in most of the games I play. I see very little use
for tilt motion. Seems like a bad idea to me. Sony can't get out of their own
way.

But WTF do I know?

[Veritas II @ Oct 6th 2006 1:52AM]

Booo! Let the two minute hate commence!!!

[Zorque @ Oct 6th 2006 2:18AM]

I don't see why people are so shocked about the PS3 comments. This stuff is coming from the same guy who defended the "square button cracking the PSP screen" problem by saying something to the effect of "The PSP is a work of art. You wouldn't ask an architect to change his designs, would you?"

[David @ Oct 6th 2006 2:22AM]

Battery life. The controller is wireless. Get a clue people. I assume that there will be 3rd party controllers offered that will have both tilt and rumble, but they probably won't be wireless.

[jorge @ Oct 6th 2006 2:33AM]

david, i don't think that having a 3rd party controller that rumbles is worth anything, cuz i dont know if you know this, but the game itself tells the controller to rumble. so if the game isnt pre programmed to rumble, even if you have a "3rd party controller that rumbles" doesnt mean it will.

[Becky @ Oct 6th 2006 7:05AM]

"The controller is wireless. Get a clue people. I assume that there will be 3rd party controllers offered that will have both tilt and rumble, but they probably won't be wireless.
"

Rumble mustbe supported by the system and games in order to be possible on third party controllers. If Sony does not include rumble it won't be available regardless of the controller.

[Peter Steffens @ Oct 6th 2006 2:49AM]

Actually the game disc has the code but the system sends the rumble command. If the PS3 console doesn't allow rumble there is no 3rd party controller solution. Also PS2 games won't rumble. By the way Immersion says that battery life is hardly affected at all. Example-Logitech wireless PS2 controller has Immersion licensed rumble tech - long battery life.

[riggs @ Oct 6th 2006 3:05AM]

i dont see the need for rumble at all honestly. it was nice with n64 and the rumble pack and all but it has gotten old and repetitive and i always turn it to off in options anyway.

[Marjoh @ Oct 6th 2006 3:15AM]

Do we really expect Sony to admit the reason they throw the rumble away was because of the lawsuit?

[Jon @ Oct 6th 2006 4:07AM]

Why can't sony just pay the licensing fee? So it bumps the price of the controller up a buck or two.

In all honestly I never really liked the rumble feature anyways. I didn't find it very "immersive". now if there was some kind of linear slide which could make the controller jerk in one of 4 directions slightly that might be interesting. or even if it would just jerk to one side or another (would make fun steering for racing games?)

[S.A. @ Oct 6th 2006 3:33AM]

Damn, they had two years more than Microsoft did to create a great system and they couldnt do it. Microsoft came out with an amazing system in just a few short years, while sony toiled away and came up with shit.

[wtf @ Oct 6th 2006 9:50AM]

Maybe Immersion wants more than "a buck or two" in licensing fees. Maybe we don't have the entire picture, because we're not party to the licensing talks nor the lawsuit.

[Jon @ Oct 6th 2006 4:07AM]

so it won't be as expensive as an Xbox 360 controller, which is almost as expensive as the last game system I purchased? (and more than the last if I buy two controllers)

[hemmy @ Oct 6th 2006 4:09AM]

Zorque, that was taken well out of context. He was asked about the button design in general, not about the square button problem.

[Aaron @ Oct 6th 2006 4:19AM]

One "step" forward (tilt sensing) and two steps back (removing rumble, a feature that has been standard for about a decade now). Good job Sony. Remarkably, this STILL won't kill them. Yeah, everyone is saying that the price and their stupid decisions are going to cost them big time, but the PS3 is still going to sell. I'll bet you 90% of the people who buy one won't even know it doesn't have rumble until they get it home, and half of those people still won't notice. Sony deserves to be taken down a notch with the next generation, but I don't think it's going to happen...

[Aaron @ Oct 6th 2006 4:21AM]

Oh, and hemmy's right, the quote about the PSP being a work of art and all that had to do with trivial complaints about button layout, not the issues with the square button causing problems on a few units.

[Jamie @ Oct 6th 2006 4:29AM]

Getting old. This bit was interesting the first 100 times it was done, now its just plain predictable and yep, boring. We get it, Sony is dumb, Sony never does anything right, Sony is evil, Sony is the worst company in the world. Heck, they finally bring out a demo unit and you guys found a way to make it about the display being too big.
Suggestions for future articles:
-Can't believe the PS3 is black!
-Sony's logo is on the PS3, not good!
-Sony execs show up in suits, they just dont get it!
-Anoher Sony debacle "you have to turn PS3 on to play it"
-Big misstep Sony! No PS3 in HomeDepot and Lowes?
-Ken says PS3 is a good product. The ego!

[Zorque @ Oct 6th 2006 4:42AM]

I stand corrected. Regardless, whether the issue was with screen breakage or with button layout, the man is still arrogant, and thinks more of himself than of his customers.

[ronalds @ Oct 6th 2006 5:21AM]

I think everyone is looking at this all wrong. Every time something comes out everyone is angry because it is yet another problem to what you expect to be an amazing console (i still believe it will be truly awesome, as usual).

If you think about it the cost of a controller which has now proably changed because of bluetooth, usb interface, batteries and motion sensors, all that adds up and i dont imagine gamers want to be paying over the top for one controller, so by removing rumble it will save a little money.

Also if your going to add rumber to a wireless controller how long are the batteries going to last before you have to stop playing to recharge your controller or they could fill the controller with batteries and you could enjoy playing your playstation with the controller weighted to the floor.

Stop being so angry and show sony some suport, all this bad publicity cant be going down well in the sony camp which means poorly motivated staff

PS Jamie the PS3 logo is shit

[Scott @ Oct 6th 2006 6:23AM]

Am I the only one that never uses the rumble in the controllers?

First thing I do when playing is turn that off. I hate it. Always have, always will. Takes away from the gaming experience as far as I'm concerned.

[redders @ Oct 6th 2006 7:17AM]

well... my girlfriend always enjoyed the rumble feature ;)

[Andrew @ Oct 6th 2006 7:33AM]

The rumble feature was rubbish anyway, it never immersed me further in the game, just tickled my hands a bit.

[anthony f. @ Oct 6th 2006 8:32AM]

I have to totally agree with Scott. I even have an xbox 360 and the first thing I do is turn off the rumble. oh and great post jamie, there is soo much sony hate going on that people will hate on everything. hating on the ps3 logo is rather stupid. It is a damn font not a freaking feature of the console. Funny how people call Sony arrogant, when on the same coin so is microsoft with windows.

When people actually get to sit down with the PS3 maybe it might sway them.

[Jody @ Oct 6th 2006 9:10AM]

Can anybody tell me what a Lincoln is?
I assume it's a dollar bill or something?

[JinKazama @ Oct 6th 2006 9:21AM]

What is so conveniently not mentioned in any talk about immersion, rumble, and Sony is that when MS settled with immersion they bought a 6,000,000 stake in the company.

So what Sony is saying is "we are not going to pay Microsoft to license rumble."

You couple that with the fact that this lawsuit against MS, Sony, and Nintendo was filed in 2002, YEARS after rumble first appeared in Nintendo's rumble pack and Sony's Dual shock controller (1997), and that the patents themselves are vague and far reaching, and oh by the way immersion was failing at the time the suit was brought...I can see why Sony is fighting this. What they need to do is just come out and say that rather than feeding us this BS about cost and technical issues...

[Rob @ Oct 6th 2006 9:58AM]

All the people saying they don't use rumble - good for you.

But, personally I do enjoy the rumble, it does help in the immersion factor. Playing Forza on the XBox or 360 - the rumble played a significant factor in helping to determine if I was pushing the tires too much.

The problem I have with Sony is that they don't give you the option of turning it off - It's not there. At least with Microsoft - you have the choice. Choice is good!

[Sean Jackson @ Oct 6th 2006 10:45AM]

I cant stant when people claim there is no need for rumble. There is no real need for anything as far as gaming is concerned, but picture, if you will, playing metal gear solid (any) without rumble. The experience is different enough to warrent concern.

[Gamey McGee @ Oct 6th 2006 10:56AM]

OMG! Negative Sony press by Joystiq! I bet the PS3 sucks and nobody will buy it now!

Joystiq bloggers, find something else to complain about for a while.

[Binu @ Oct 6th 2006 10:59AM]

By more expensive I think he means that they would be passing the cost of paying immersion down to us. So in a sense, we would all be paying a little chunk of that lawsuit when we buy a slighter more expensive console. Makes sense right?

[Kamisamanou Burgess @ Oct 6th 2006 11:39AM]

Yeah sure....motion sensing or rumble, let's go with the cheaper one of the two.

[Loonie @ Oct 6th 2006 11:55AM]

Oh come on, Sony. I'm looking forward to more PlayStation goodness, but it does NOT cost a lot of money to include a cheap motor with an offset weight on it into your controller. That is a feeble excuse.

[everrette powell @ Oct 6th 2006 12:11PM]

It�s nice to know what corporations really think about us the consumer. Charge an arm and a leg, they will buy water and starbucks coffee so they will buy our over price equipment, without the necessary pieces that makes it interactive! Nice.

[Lee Gibson @ Oct 6th 2006 12:58PM]

"Funny how people call Sony arrogant, when on the same coin so is microsoft with windows."

Um, yeah? How are these two things related? Nintendo and Apple are pretty arrogant too sometimes, except they actually have decent products.

[Michael @ Oct 6th 2006 1:28PM]

Here's a review of that G-Pad Pro
http://www.got-next.com/features_read.php?id=401

[Kev50027 @ Oct 6th 2006 2:45PM]

Engadget hates Sony, what else is new? 2 of these anti-Sony posts in one day? Annoying.

[Jimmy Dean @ Oct 6th 2006 6:30PM]

DO you guys FAIL to realize how GOOD of a deal this controller is??

seriously you guys are so brainwashed by Nintendo and MS its insane..

Lets look at the competition shall we
360:
wired controller is $40 (SAME PRICE as the wireless dual shock)

WIreless controllers are $50 MORE (also since it DOES NOT COME WITH A BATTERY) you ALSO HAVE to purchase a play and charge kit (add another $15 PER CONTROLLER)...

Wii:
Now these guys are interesting..
First of all they are selling TWO different units to complete ONE controller.

The Wii mote, the classic controller, and the nunchuck.

Since people are buying the Wii for the controller.... they HAVE to purchase the WIi mote ($40) PLUS the NUnhcuk ($20) so it costs $60 to add a controller.. a full %$20 higher than SOnys.

O and sonys gives you A LITHIUM BATTERY BUILT RIGHT IN WITH A MINI-USB connector.. unlike MS who USES A PROPRIEYARY PLAY and charge port on the controller to charge it..

So sony has the cheapest controller, GIVES you a rechargeable battery, and motion sensing..

why dont you guys flame MS for its over priced $50... er $65 controller and Nintendos $60 crap instead

[philadelphonic @ Oct 6th 2006 9:28PM]

Sony didn't want to eat the cost of adding another feature, or paying for the licensing? They could have offered a superior product for the same price... It might even be too cheap. Heck, they might even make a buck or two off of the darned thing.

[David @ Oct 6th 2006 10:35PM]

I enjoy the rumble, especially during FPS games. I'm surprised that the PS3 won't come w/ rumble controllers, but this seems a minor issue compared to the elephant in the room (i.e., the price).

[Patrick Lepak @ Oct 10th 2006 1:08AM]

Is it just me, or do Hirai and Kutaragi belong on some sort of reality TV show? Entertainment Island, anyone? Better yet, put all those crazy video game execs on an island and see who gets voted off.