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Sony announces Move.me application for researchers and hobbyists, promises improvements to PlayStation Home
The PlayStation Move may not have proven to be as instantly hackable as Microsoft's Kinect, but it looks like Sony is now trying to change that -- it's just announced its new Move.me server application that promises to let researchers, hobbyists and others use the Move as a controller for a PC, with the PlayStation 3 handling all the work in between. It will be available for download from the PlayStation Network this spring, although you can also try your luck with Sony's early-product seeding program if you'd like to get it sooner -- no PS3 SDK or licensing agreement is required. In other PlayStation news, Sony's also confirmed that it's now working on version 1.5 of PlayStation Home, which promises to add real-time multiplayer gaming functionality to the virtual world, along with improved physics and refined graphics. Details on it are otherwise still fairly light, but it's also slated for a public release sometime this spring. Head on past the break for the official word on both announcements from Sony.
PlayStation Move headed to PCs under official 'Move Server' project
Oops. Looks like Sony's plans to make its PlayStation Move controller an official PC accessory have been unceremoniously revealed in a description of a Sony Computer Entertainment America talk scheduled for Game Developers Conference 2011. According to the synopsis, John McCutchan, SCEA's lead for Game Systems and Developer Support, will be on hand to discuss the "Move Server project that will make it possible for academics and hobbyists to develop software using the PlayStation Move controller on their own PCs." Hmm, sounds like somebody feels left out by all of the unofficial Kinect hackery which could be treated to official Microsoft support sometime this summer. Now go hit up the source link below to read the description for yourselves.
Blaze PS3 Move Gun attachment for perps lacking a second amendment
Know what's awesome? Guns! Especially when they're capped with a glowing pastel ball. This more "realistic" alternative to the $20 Sony PS3 Move gun attachment is from Blaze and will set you back £9.99 (about $16) when it begins shipping at the end of February. Bring it to a Texas bar and we hear you'll get a complimentary Shirley Temple. Yeehaw!
Nyko's CES 2011 gaming peripheral lineup: Intercooler STS, Perfect Shot Pro, and more
A pinch of gaming here at the annual Consumer Electronics Show? Yeah, we'll take that. Nyko's just revealed a wheelbarrow full of new goods to pore over at this year's edition of the show, and we get the feeling that PlayStation Move owners will be particularly pleased with what's on offer. For the PS3, the outfit has revealed that its Raven Standard and Raven Alternative controllers are shipping now for $34.99 apiece, as is the 2- / 4-port charging station. Moving onto newer goods, the Power Shot for Move is a newfangled rifle attachment (seen above) for Sony's play on motion gaming, with an MSRP that's not quite final and a projected release date of March 2011. Moreover, there's a pistol-like Perfect Shot for Move (also shipping in March at a price that's TBD), and if you're looking for a similar charging solution for your Xbox 360, the Charge Base S will do just that for $24.99. Comically enough, this year marks the return of the infamous Intercooler, but hopefully the STS version won't cause your Xbox 360 S to go up in smoke. For those who like to take chances, it'll hit retail next month for $19.99. Closing things out is the Perfect Shot Pro for Wii, which is a revamped version of the original Perfect Shot that features vibration support; it'll ship in April for right around $20. Head on past the break for the full release, or spend a few precious minutes digging into the eye candy below. Or both. %Gallery-112561%
PlayStation Move Sharpshooter hands-on: a first-party SMG peripheral coming in February
This isn't the first PlayStation Move peripheral to replicate a firearm, but the Sharpshooter is brought to you by Sony itself, so you expect a higher degree of quality than from the third-party deluge. And if you're the sort who like to accessorize, it's a pretty good offering. We had a chance to check it out this morning over a brief round of Killzone 3, which Sony says was the inspiration (along with the upcoming SOCOM). Overall, it's pretty light and sturdy. The Move controller slides into the front, and the buttons then become mapped around the gun: RL is under the grip, the Move button is just under the trigger, start and select rest on opposite sides of the barrel, and Square / Triangle are mirrored above the trigger, making it easier to reach regardless whether you're right- or left-handed. There's a cradle under the stock for the Navigation Controller to rest, the butt is adjustable, and the top has a mount for a scope (no details on that peripheral of a peripheral). There's additionally a lock button and what seems like burst-fire mode that won't be used by Killzone 3; the reps told us they spoke with various other developers to make sure the accessory fit their needs as well but couldn't elaborate more. So, how did it handle? We'll say the buttons were all easy to get to, but this accessory is fundamentally not for us. Having to move the entire submachine gun (or your whole body, as it were) to aim felt more unwieldy than simply twisting a wrist like you would with the first-party Shooting attachment (or the Move controller by its lonesome). Speaking of which, the Sharpshooter is lacking in retro aesthetic, something we really liked in the "1950s laser pistol" replica that came out last month. We get the feeling this wasn't made with us in mind, anyway. Sharpshooter should hit store shelves in February (same month as Killzone 3) for a penny under $40. Looking for something more traditional? A jungle green DualShock 3 is also coming in February for $55. Press release after the break. %Gallery-110228% %Gallery-110247%
Sony ships 4.1 million PlayStation Move controllers to retailers (updated)
A little press release from none other than Sony informed us this morning that the company has shipped 4.1 million PlayStation Move controllers worldwide. Alas, that number has been widely misreported as the tally of direct end-user sales, which it most definitely is not. What Sony's letting us know is total wands that have left its warehouses on their way to retailers, a number that's one step removed from actual sales results. Still, if you simply must have something to compare against Microsoft's 2.5 million Kinect sales, there you have it. Update: Our brothers at Joystiq have reached out to Sony and confirmed that these numbers represent shipped units, not consumer sales. Here's Joystiq's exact wording on the (seemingly purposefully) confusing situation: A Sony representative explained that the 4.1 million actually represents Move units shipped to stores, adding "While we don't disclose our exact sell-through number, the key is that our retailers continue to ask for more Move units and are taking every unit we can supply them with based on their sales." Which, you know, would have been a cool thing to put in that press release, we think. Update 2: We've also confirmed with Sony that the sales numbers are in reference to retailers, not consumers, and learned that more than 75 percent of the sales in the US are bundles -- meaning new console sales or software groupings.
Shocker! GameStop expects Kinect and Move to be in short supply this holiday season
Are you prepared to be blown away? Have your mind flipped inside-out? Experience a revelation to end all revelations? Tough luck, bubs. During an earnings call yesterday, GameStop president Tony Bartel was cited as saying that both Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Move would both be difficult to find this holiday season, noting that the Kinect would be "a hot item through the holiday season and the key opportunity will be just to continue to keep them in stock." He also stated that the Move would be "in short supply," and even went so far as to predict that consumers would be "following the UPS truck to our stores to pick up that product as soon as they can find it." Naturally, GameStop's in-stock guarantee won't apply to the two things it actually should (read: Kinect and Move), and Tony stopped short of providing hard evidence that this so-called shortage would in fact occur. But hey, no one ever said that drumming up demand for a product your store hawks was a bad business move, you know? And on the real, we're guessing that Santa will actually have the hots for these things, and if you're considering one, it's always wise to be proactive. Or spend countless nights attempting to snipe Johnny Doe on eBay -- your call. [Image courtesy of Geek In Heels]
How would you change Sony's PlayStation Move?
Is it Sony's play against the Wiimote, or the Kinect... or both? Hard to say exactly, but there's no question that the PS3 is no longer on the outside looking in when it comes to motion gaming. Now that it's been on the market for a few months, we're looking to hear from early adopters -- have you enjoyed your time with the Move? Has it lived up to your expectations? Any quirks with gameplay that you'd iron out? Any particular games that you'd prefer to see play nice with the apparatus? Set yourself in the mindset of a SCEA designer for a tick and let us know how you'd do the Move differently down in comments below. And yeah, sticking with "Arc" is totally an acceptable suggestion to make.
PlayStation Moves into creepy ad business
We all know Sony likes to be a bit off the wall with its commercials, so this dystopian vision of a grown-up baby's trudge through corporate monotony shouldn't surprise us at all. And yet, somehow, it does. It's part of a pair of new ads destined for Latin America, the second of which awaits you after the break.
Speculative Kinect sales figures announced, looks to have handily trumped PlayStation Move
We'll get this out of the way right up front: VGChartz won't say where it gets its sales figures and, because of that, they're not to be taken as gospel or treated with much validity on their own. But, comparing one set of the site's numbers to another can be useful in showing trends, and with that caveat firmly in mind let's take a look at Microsoft's Kinect vs. Sony's PlayStation Move. According to the site, Kinect Adventures (bundled in with the camera itself) sold just under 480,000 units in one week after launching on November 4th, while the PlayStation Move sold 200,000 "units" in its first week, which according to VGChartz is not individual pieces of hardware but bundles of hardware tied to a single console. (This contrasts to Sony's figure, which counts each piece of hardware -- nunchuck, wand, and camera -- separately.) So, by these rather early and decidedly unofficial numbers it looks like Microsoft's Kinect investment might just be paying off, though of course it's the long-run that counts in these things.
PlayStation Move shipped one million units its first month in the Americas
We've got some hard numbers from Sony on how the PlayStation Move is doing in the US, and it's really not that bad. Sony says it's shipped more than one million units of Move (which particular configuration is unclear) in North and Latin America. If you add in the 1.5 million Sony said it had already sold in Europe a couple of weeks ago, and Sony's probably hovering close to the 3 million mark as of right now. Not bad for an add-on peripheral, and Sony itself says it sees the Move as more of a word-of-mouth grower, but we'll see how much momentum Kinect gets out of the gate: Microsoft certainly plans on pushing it.
PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment out now for $20, still blindingly beautiful
Our inexplicable love affair with the PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment (apparently the official name for the thing) is well documented. So what's new? Well, it's out now. Sony is releasing it into the wilds of retail for $20, alongside The Shoot ($40), an on-rails shooter title that failed to excite when we previewed it earlier this year. Will it be more enjoyable with your Move controller firmly ensconced in this beautiful bit of red and white plastic? Of course it will.
MAG dev demonstrates Move support, it only does point and spray (video)
The PlayStation Move is out, and gamers everywhere are throwing away their DualShock controllers, spirits carried aloft by the liberating breeze of motion gaming. Okay not really, but if more traditional games had Move support baked-in that might be the case. 256-player MAG has recently been given a taste, and level designer Ben Jones is taking a moment to show off how motion gaming looks in this uber shooter. As you can see, the baton acts for aiming, turning, and shanking, while a nunchuck (or second controller) handles the moving duties. We're not entirely convinced of the accuracy playing in this mode, especially given how the video focuses almost entirely on close-range, full-auto carnage, but Mr. Jones says he believes this to be a "lateral transition from keyboard and mouse?" So, PC gamers, you buying it?
PS Move SMG accessory is not a rifle, it is a gun, it is not for fighting, it is for fun
When Sony announced its PlayStation Move it went ahead and threw out a bunch of accessories at the same time -- a charging stand and even a cheesy light gun attachment. The intent was obvious, trying to get ahead of those third parties who've filled whole aisles at your local Target and Walmart with cheap plastic Wii clip-ons, but you just had to know they'd catch up. CTA Digital, who earlier brought us the classy Wii bowling ball controller, is coming out shooting with a submachine gun peripheral that it aptly calls "Submachine Gun." Clip your glowy Move baton up front, slide the nunchuck thing in the grip, and start huntin' Helgath. The stock and scope are removable (shown after the break), in case you're fighting in the close confines of a dorm or studio apartment, while the "quasi-futuristic styling" is perfect for your faux-military tastes. Shipping in late November, this can be yours for $29.99. Oh, and don't worry, we won't cover every junky Move accessory that comes along. We predict a flood of the things.
PlayStation Move accessories charge controllers, keep your pesky imagination in check
If there's anything Microsoft's Kinect has over the PlayStation Move -- neither seem to have a killer app -- it's that peripheral manufacturers (hopefully) won't be able to generate wave after wave of cheap plastic junk to wave in front of a camera. As you can imagine, PlayStation Move peripheral purveyors have no such problem, and Nyko, Mad Catz, Interworks, CTA Digital, PDP and more are pumping out plenty of plastic shells and chargers for those ball-tipped motion controllers. Hit the links below to just see how far we haven't come. Read - GamingBits Read - IGN Read - Amazon
PlayStation Move gets broken down -- so easy, an end-user could do it
Another week, another well-detailed tear down from the kids at iFixit. Blessed with an eight out of ten on the repairability index, the PlayStation Move was said to be one of the easiest devices yet to break down and reassemble, so there's a good chance that any novice DIYer with a steady hand and a Phillips screwdriver could accomplish what's shown in the link below. No huge surprises were found once the PCB's clothing was removed, but we were told that the Move controller contains a great many components that are found in today's modern smartphones: a processor, accelerometer, gyroscope, Bluetooth transmitter, vibrating motor, and even a MEMS compass. The sphere at the top can flash any color thanks to the included LEDs, and the integrated Li-ion battery can be disconnected (and thus, replaced) from the device without any soldering. Hit the source for the nitty-gritty, and hop on past the break for the highlights. Oh, and as a reminder, you can grab your own Move starting today if you call North America home.
PlayStation Move shooting attachment preview: it's a shooting attachment!
We're not sure what we were expecting to experience when we picked up this gun-style "shooting attachment" for the PlayStation Move, but it was hardly full of surprises. Basically, it's a comfy, lightweight attachment that makes holding your Move controller feel like holding a gun, and pulling the trigger button feel like pulling a trigger. We do love the retro look, quality Sony construction (we're pre-rolling our eyes at the inevitable crappy third party versions and their inferior plastics) and pretty much everything else about the attachment. The biggest perk is that for shooting games you'll be able to hold your arm out straight more naturally, instead of pointing "up" at the screen with the traditional Move controller grip. Unfortunately, the Big 3 Gun Shooting title we tested it on wasn't showing off 1:1 aiming to really let us know how this would feel in that scenario, but for the on-rails-shooter lovers out there (the attachment puts the face buttons out of thumb's reach, so it's useless for more in-depth games like SOCOM 4 or Killzone 3) we'd say there are worse things you could spend $20 on. Check it out on video after the break. %Gallery-102526%
PlayStation Move on sale now at Amazon
While the PlayStation Move isn't supposed to go on sale until September 19th, that hasn't stopped a few local brick-n-mortar shops from breaking the street date. Now Amazon's jumped the gun and put the PlayStation Move $99.99 Starter Bundle up for sale a few days early. And with local express delivery, you can even get it shipped today if you qualify. Worse case, use one-day shipping and you'll still get it before the Joneses. Update: Oh, and we just found the $399.99 PlayStation 3 320GB with Move Bundle, $49.99 Move Controller, and $29.96 Move Navigation Controller ready for purchase too. Full press release detailing all the items after the break.
Tired, thirsty man murders Mii with PlayStation Move controller
You can't find Sony's name anywhere on this bit of video; it's a "viral" from Wolfbreeder, an LA ad firm that Sony can no-doubt distance itself from if it gets in trouble. But we won't tattle: the video above, which has been described for you succinctly in the headline above, the video which you've no doubt already watched and forwarded to that one friend of yours who still plays Wii regularly, is frankly badass. [Thanks, Bilbo]
The PlayStation MoveMen are watching you
Sony may still be relying on Kevin Butler and Marcus Rivers to sell its gear over here, but it looks like the company's entered an entirely different realm in Norway. It's just rolled out a new ad campaign for the Norwegian launch of the PlayStation Move that features the "MoveMen," a dynamic, all-seeing duo that watches for a lack of partying and delivers the Move to those in need. The question is: who moves the MoveMen? Head on past the break to see the see the ad yourself, and hit up the Flickr link below for some behind-the-scenes shots.