Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Sony Confident About Motion Controller
Microsoft may be winning all the pre-release battles between its Natal motion controller and Sony's as-yet-unnamed endeavor, but Sony senior vice president of publisher relations, Rob Dyer, says that Sony is more than capable of winning the war.
Many – myself included – have criticized Sony's very low-key marketing strategy up to this point, but Dyer defended the company's approach so far in an interview with Industry Gamers, and simultaneously took a shot at the hype surrounding Microsoft's Natal. "I'm actually really proud of the way we've handled the motion controller. From Sony's perspective, rather than go out and do a whole PR barrage to give everybody the 'happy, happy, joy, joy' news, we're going to show up and have a lineup of products to show people rather than having a lot of great statements to say: 'This is what's going to happen.'"
Dyer says that GDC, E3, and other events will feature both first- and third-party software for the peripheral, and he thinks that developers – and ultimately the games themselves – will benefit from the support and tools they are getting for the motion controller. "From a third-party perspective, it's easier to develop for, you can use the same code base that you currently use for PS3 or 360 or even the Wii in order to get a motion controller game out. You can't do that with Natal. We can sit around here and debate that...but the fact is I'm not having any trouble getting third-party support." He also thinks that developers will benefit from the fact that the PlayStation Eye camera is already released.
If you're worried that games using the motion controller will be Wii-like shovelware or that the controller will be an afterthought, Dyer says that he feels like the games themselves should dictate whether or not they need to use the peripheral and not the other way around."'Can I make a game that's compelling using this motion controller?' And if you can't then just make a great game without it..."
It's good to hear that the support for the motion controller seems to be going well, but I still think that more work needs to be done on the marketing side to drum up interest for the peripheral on par with Natal's. Hopefully a strong batch of games this spring and at E3 can help it make up some ground on its competitor before Sony releases the peripheral sometime in the fall.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
