PlayStation Move will offer limited four player support
By Vlad Savov 
posted March 12th 2010 3:54AM
posted March 12th 2010 3:54AM
That basically means you can have the full Move experience with only one friend, or you can share out the wands and have that tiny bit less fun with a quartet. Not a problem for the misanthropes out there -- or most people really -- but an important limitation to be aware of, nonetheless."Four PlayStation Move controllers can connect to a PS3 at one time (or two PlayStation Move Controllers and 2 PlayStation Move sub-controllers)."
@Atkins
Or buy an Xbox 360! Project Natal will get you Moving Cheaper.
@Atkins
Can you use four Wiimotes and four nunchucks on the Wii?
@r34p3r Yes you can! Were you proving a point or asking a question? Probably both with one being rhetorical ;)
@r34p3r
Yes you can, but a nuncheck connects to the wiimote, and so doesn't use an extra bluetooth addres
@LordSauron the playstation move i believe will come up with some sort of update or could this be the first sign, as http://sonyps4.com suggested, that they may need to begin considering a Playstation 4
@r34p3r Nunchucks are connected via cable to wiimote so no problem, ps3 problem is that the subcontrollers also connect wirelessly
@LordSauron Nunchuck ;) (Where the hell is the edit button ;))
How many people can natal recognise until it gets confused?
@Davo
More importantly...if I'm sitting on the couch behind a friend prancing around playing their game, would Natal pick up my movements too?
The point is all these systems will throw up some sorts of limitations. I get angry when my girlfriend carelessly wanders in front of the TV while I'm doing some intricate skill move in the 6 yard box surrounded by defenders in FIFA 10, so I can only imagine the fights when she decides to start walking by during a fight and makes my character wander off for a second.
@Tes
I doubt Natal's camera is going to think you grew another head an additional limbs as it was tracking you
@EGOvoruhk
Yes, but I'm talking about a whole human walking past as is common with the systems we all use today. We're not assuming old problems will suddenly disappear with a new system. The missus walks in front of my game playing constantly...she's not going to change that annoying habit because there's a new bit of kit attached to my Xbox.
I'm wondering will the camera ignore me because I'm behind her when she walks by and follow her for a brief second throwing out whatever game I'm plying.
@Tes
From what I can tell, Natal works by effectively scanning the scene at the start of a game, identifying the persons within the scene, and then construncting rudimentary skeletal systems for them. Once it has done this, it will know where the bits of you it can see are, and makes educated guesses about the bits it can't see. The system does not constantly assess what is and isn't part of the person playing the game, and so even if the cast of Gladiator walked in front of you there would be no problem.
@Tes
If you're going to bag on a product, learn a little about first, you'll look less foolish.
In nearly every demo they've done MS has shown off the scenario you're describing, Natal ignores extra input, it knows what a human looks like.
@Khalid Shahin
Yes, partially being rhetorical, because I know that the Wii's nunchucks aren't wireless. I just didn't know that they don't use a separate connection, as I don't own a Wii, therefore I never get to play around with it very much.
A very big limitation nonetheless. I plays PS3 when I'm alone or with a friend. I turn on wii when I'm with bunch of peeps and it gets the party going when 4 people are rocking with wiimote.
Thanks a lot Sony but I hope you can fix that soon before I grab 4 of them. I mean that!!
You can use 8 wireless buzz controllers at the same time...
@kashve They connect via a dongle though, not bluetooth.
I'm fairly sure the 4 player market would be quite a small one given the cost of the controllers.
@Boss Skill You don't have to buy all 4 yourself if you have friends with playstaions
I remember Sony saying "you can connect 7 controllers at once", and that was a feature. It actually turns out to be a little limiting. What happens if you want to use a wireless headset or two at the same time?
@dunean use the Eye's camera
@r34p3r
I actually think the wii supports mroe than 4 connected wireless devices as well, something like 11? Just there's four lights on ur controller :P
The ps3 7 wireless devices is rather annoying. If you have a bluetooth headset I believe that takes up 2 of the 7. You run out of connection spaces pretty quickly.
ha even if it supported more controllers, i can't even afford it
@Hobsie
If you have up to 7 people round playing some 7 player game at the same time...why on Earth would you be chatting to some randoms on the net at the same time?
OK Sony...I'm imagining a PS3. As I remember, there are USB ports on it. Why can't some sort of bluetooth receiver be plugged in to expand the number it could cope with? The ports are there...USE THEM!
@Tes
Well you wouldn't? Art of missing the point much? Lets say you have a n online multiplayer game (Socomm 4) and you have 2 sets of these motion controllers so that's 4 slots taken, then only one person can use voice, instead of 2 with 2 traditional controllers. Like I said, you can run out quickly.
Sony rips off Nintendo's innovation, but can't do more than two? Hah! That's rich! I think we've found the peripheral flop for this generation of devices. At least Microsoft went a totally different direction with a completely wireless & camera system with Natal. No wonder Sony is in third place. No thanks. My advice to Sony? Star working on Playstation 4.
@Hobsie
You're missing the point...the scenarios you're cooking up will be few and far between. Two guys standing side by side playing SOCOM? Then use the traditional controllers if you insist on voice chat at the same time. One of you use the new hotness and the other the old busted joint...
Some of the whining here is just juvenile. "Oh why oh why won't SONY accommodate the frankly childish and anti-social use case I just cooked up?!"
You're all forgetting to compare like for like. You personally are now complaining about SONY providing a feature (Voice headsets) that the Wii doesn't even have. I assume you would whine if SONY disabled headsets while using Move...you want it all basically.
This is not a limitation, this is engadget style of news presentation
How long will it be until a bluetooth dongle is released to fix this?
@Zaeed Probably forever. First off, it's a Bluetooth limitation that only 8 devices can talk together (the PS3 counts as 1). Second, it's a limitation of the 2.4 Ghz band that you can't really have so many devices communicating continuously without interfering with each other. The only way around this is to use the 5.8 Ghz band.
@CityZen
False. In that case, your wifi network is limited to 8 simultaneous clients at a time? It's more a bluetooth limitation.
@KevinQ If you have multiple clients all streaming data at full bandwidth constantly, you're going to see issues. I said specifically that 8 is the limit for Bluetooth. The interference issue just makes things more & more unreliable as the number of gadgets operating simultaneously goes up. Wifi users are not usually constantly streaming at maximum bandwidth, and they are usually tolerant of dropped packets or lowered bandwidth. Game motion controllers however do need to stream constantly; any lost updates impairs the ability of the system to accurately calculate the position & orientation.
@SeNiLe911 I'm sure natal will confuse people...
@Atkins Everyone here is not thinking. If the hardware limitation is there no software will try to support 4 sets of controllers with sub controllers. So whats the issue? Think people.
Am I missing something here? Is the Move controller 1 port, and the Move sub-controller also 1 port?
Because 3 x move controller + 3 x sub-controller = 6 - which is less than 7.
So where did the "two PlayStation Move Controllers and 2 PlayStation Move sub-controllers" come from?
some of you guys are just idiots. I mean seriously what game has a 7player split screen, or even five for that matter? Most multiplayer games where there are more than 3 ppl, will be played online anyway. And if its a party game like um, Scene it, its controller can be replicated by the Move controller without its sub-controller. And if your playing something like Tiger Woods golf, then you just pass the controller when its your opponents turn. There is no limitation here. And if we must, then look at the pictures of the controller and you'll notice 2 jacks on the bottom of the controller, (mini usb and a second port) that port, very well, can be utilized to connect the sub controller to the Move a la wii-mote and nun-chuck.
Vadislav stop promoting nonsense. Now off to gizmodo to replicate this comment.
@Recon
Before you call everyone idiots you should really learn to read the article. The point isn't that you can't do 7 player split screen, it's that you can't even do 3 player split screen with the Move controller and subcontroller according to Sony.
Even more odd, by the 7 connection limitation mentioned 3 should be doable. Either way they probably wish theyjad specced a bluetooth solution capable of handling more connections when they designed the system now.
@AltairDusk
*"they had" not "theyjad". Stupid phone keyboard...
@AltairDusk
Knowing Sony they will deliberately limit it to take up 4 slots to either allow for 2 more traditional controllers or 4 slots + the 2 for a bluetooth headset.
My hunch
@AltairDusk
first, "some of you guys" does not equal "everyone"
second, 4player split-screen games are little to none on ps3. unlike wii, Sony's PSNetwork is what gamers use when they want to play against there friends so the point is this limitation is a non-issue.
@Recon So what happens when people want to play 4 player tennis? Grand slam tennis. Did anyone realise there is no d-pad on the remote? Using is going to be weird.
@Exile
Yeah I spotted that. Not entirely sure why sony thinks its a good idea to have BOTH a joystick and a Dpad on the nunchuck but none on the dildo?!
@Exile
just got off work
anyway tru!, but think about it. 4 people waving there arms around (in tennis swing motion) .... somebodies gonna get hurt or a couple of arguments starting with, "got damnit, would u get outta my way" or "owe damnit, what the hell are u swinging at" or "why didnt you swing? I did but he was in the way" seriously 4 ppl? (this excludes big home theater setups in the basement where there is lots of room)
And there is a d-pad on the sub controller along with the analog stick. you can take a look at more pics at http://playstation.joystiq.com
No big deal, I don't have enough friends anyway...
: (
@Tes
You think two people playing an online fps with these controllers (they don't need to stand up btw) and wanting to use voice chat each is an uncommon user case? Ofc its not. People use traditional controllers with chat each in that same scenario all the time why is it so ridiculous to think that you SHOULD be able to do the same with these motion controllers when they're being demo'd as possible controller replacements in FPS's for example.
On top of this, the type of person they are trying to attract are Wii owners (the whole malarky about it being a Wii but HD). Well Wii owners are all used to 4 player with their nunchuck setups.
It IS a limiting factor that will hurt them because casual gamers are more than used to playing games with more than just 2 players with that controller set up simply because that's is what they are already used to. I guarantee you average casual gamer Joe WILL ask why they can have 4 player with, what will be seen as, a full controller.
how popular do you think these be as "massagers"?
And I still won't buy it. I already have a Wii. Motion controls are so overrated. Not to mention Socom 4 will be the first good exclusive released on the ps3 this year. Do people not realize that the ps3 is an epic failure? I bought one on launch and ended having to go buy a 360 when Modern Warfare 2 quit working on the PS3 the day after release. What a joke.
I don't see that as a problem. When have you ever had 4 friends playing on a PS3 at one time....never. And what the hell would you be playing? With the move, you jump and wave that thing around and it would sure be crowded if there were four people doing that. I don't plan to have more than 2 people doing it at the same time.