Monday 5-Jun-2006 11:38 AM That motion-sensor controllers's been planned for "two and a half years", according to David Reeves
It's the cross-platform tussle that just won't go away: Iwata, Miyamoto and Yarnton have all had a pop at Sony's 'surprise' motion-sensing controller announcement at E3 and the company's Phil Harrison has returned fire. Now, Sony Europe's president and CEO, David Reeves, has stepped into the ring in a bid to reassure gamer's that it didn't just nick Nintendo's idea on a reactionary whim.
Speaking to trade publication MCV, Reeves claimed, "We've had a positive reaction to the controller and obviously some people have asked if it's a last minute thing [...] It's not - it's been planned for around two and a half years."
Reeves continued, "If you have a device that includes 50 or 55 patents, you can't reveal it, as someone will try to file a patent to stop it. We have already had some positive feedback on it from publishers." Obviously, with the controller having been in development for so long, it does rather beg the question, why did it surprise so many PS3 developers when logic would suggest they'd benefit greatly from getting the technology at the earliest opportunity? Sadly, that's something we don't have an answer to.
Meanwhile, Reeves also slapped down some of Sony's aims for the next-generation of console gaming, suggesting that market share isn't what it's all about this time around: "The name of the game is not market share, it's how fast we can grow the industry - our ambition is to grow 15 per cent a year on hardware and software if we can. We want to try and double digital entertainment in the next five to six years. Whether we have 40, 50, or 60 per cent market share is not that important."
Frankly, with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft all plumping for a taste of that untapped fruit, it sounds like we're not going to be able to move for consoles spilling out of people's letterboxes and bedside drawers in a year's time. Assuming they all get their way, that is.
