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SIXAXIS Rumble Version Strongly Suggested

Posted by Zonk on Thu Jul 12, 2007 12:35 PM
from the swing-and-rumble dept.
Sony PlayStation (Games)
Next Generation is reporting that a rumble-enabled version of the PlayStation 3 SIXAXIS controller may be on the way. At the moment its existence is still theory, but there are some facts to back it up. Immersion has entered into a partnership with a 3rd party company to make accessories for the PS3. Additionally: "Sony reportedly informed Kotaku that rumble is definitely coming to PS3, it's just a matter of when, and this latest press release from Immersion certainly raises the possibility that it could be in September. 'Under the terms of the license, these products will now bear Immersion's Feel The Game TouchSense Technology logo,' reads the press release from which the news emanated."
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  • Wow, a rumble controller. Does *anybody* really care about this? Really? I know this is news for nerds but seriously, I can't imagine why anyone would care about a rumble controller. Isn't that like SO 1998?
    • I think that's the point. Xbox/wii got rumble and have had it for awhile. PS3 is getting it... in 2007 or maybe 2008.. How can you call yourself the hottest most advanced console.. and not have something like rumble.
    • I thought women were more a fan of the vibrating controllers.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Fallingcow (213461)
      Well, MGS4 is coming out on the PS3.

      The previous installments were the only games I've played where rumble actually contributed to gameplay.
      • The first game I played where rumble made a significant contribution to gameplay was Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, on N64. There is an item called the Stone of Agony. Once obtained, it would let you know when you got near a secret area by rumbling the controller. Release date in North America: November 1998.

        • First, Metal Gear Solid's release date in North America was October 1998, a month prior to Ocarina of Time.

          Although I would argue that in both cases the rumble really did nothing for the gameplay. MGS used it as a gimmick. The controller shook when you were discovered, which definitely added something to the experience, but really did nothing gameplay wise. It also shook when using the sniper rifle unless you took the Diazapan. I think it also shook when you were hit. In every other case, it was used for

          • MGS2 had a "heartbeat sensor". Very useful. Strength of the beat varied with distance.

            It was also one of the few games where one was made acutely aware that the R and L buttons on the PS2 had more than two states...

            • MGS2 had a "heartbeat sensor". Very useful. Strength of the beat varied with distance.

              Another example of something that, while enhanced by rumble, doesn't actually need it. It could have been done by a beating light on the screen. (As I recall, the PC version of Rainbow Six did something like that with their heartbeat sensor.)

              It was also one of the few games where one was made acutely aware that the R and L buttons on the PS2 had more than two states...

              Not to mention the Square button. Press lightly to aim, hard to fire...

              "Freeze!"

              RAT-AT-AT-AT-AT! Alert!

              "DAMNIT!"

      • Feel my Psychic powers. MOVE Controller, MOVE.
    • You mean this story is really about the "game controllers that shake"? They're still doing that? Whoa, they need to get some people with fresh ideas in the gaming industry.

      I still remember the first time I tried the "controllers that shake". When you shot a weapon, it shook. When you crashed your car, it shook. When you blew up an enemy, it shook. No matter what was happening on the screen in the game, all you had was the thing shaking. It quickly became something of a joke, as if exactly the same so
      • Except there are games where rumble actually plays an integral part. Racing games such as Gran Turismo, mostly. If you're using cockpit view, you can't really see where your car is - it's hard to get a feel for it, like you would in a real car. Which is why some games rumble when your car touches the sidelines (comparable to how real cars vibrate when driving over uneven ground). It helps a lot, and many games are virtually unplayable without it.
    • People care after playing hours of Motorstorm without the rumble. I'm hoping there will be updates to "old" games adding support for the rumble feature. I intend to buy four rumble controllers; so far, I've only bought one additional controller, and I bought the cheapest I could get because I knew it would be obsolete soon.
  • Rumble controllers are like cruise control on new cars. It should be standard, it isn't expensive, but some manufactures still want to milk the end users for every friggen dime.

    But I digress, I don't need it anymore now that I have motion sensitive bluetooth IR tracking Wiimotes.
    • Rumble also eats batteries, which matter atleast somewhat for wireless controllers. I've got a Logitech one for my PS2, and with rumble on and lots-of-rumbling games the batteries are dead in aprox 20 hours of playtime. Without rumble they last literally 10 times that, or practically forever. (granted, that controller has ridicolously powerful rumble, I'm sure it's possible to do it a lot more energy-conserving, still it *does* mean moving parts, which will always cost some energy)
  • Hehe this hole rumble patent thing is hilarious and something to worry about! :S
    How come sony lawyers where not able to find some "prior art" you know... a motor with an unbalanced axis! heh
    I think for women and... a vibrator could be considerated a "Joy Stick"!!!!
  • Sony delivers the most expensive console, but they chose to cut costs by not licensing a highly desirable technology for their controller over the strong protests of their gamers long before launch. Now many of their best customers gamers are going to be severely disappointed at having to buy new hardware unless Sony included the hardware at launch and can activate it with a firmware upgrade, although it sounds like they didn't.

    Will they upgrade already released games to include support through a patch?

    Not

    • Presumably the PS3 was always capable of sending rumble commands to the controllers (after all, the original PlayStation didn't ship with rumble-capable controllers and the DualShock was added to it later). So people who already own a PS3 will just have to buy new controllers. If I owned a PS3 I'd be ticked off, but it's not like I'd have to run out and buy a new PS3.

      Then again, I always suspected that Sony would do something like this and was planning on waiting until after rumble support was readded bef

    • Sony delivers the most expensive console, but they chose to cut costs by not licensing a highly desirable technology for their controller over the strong protests of their gamers long before launch.

      FSVO "highly desirable," "strong protests," and especially "their gamers." Most of the complaints came from people who were looking for any excuse to bash Sony; everyone who was honest with himself could admit that while losing rumble wasn't a good thing, it was hardly something that should be hyped up to the ex
  • Didn't Sony state at a press conference long time ago that rumble was "old technology" and who would want it?
    • yes, and this is them eating crow.

      Again.

      I am honestly curious how this will hit. How are current owners going to react to their controllers now being 'obsolete'. Will we see the rumble controllers packed with new systems? Patches for old games that don't have rumble?
    • Yes, and all the fanboys said so with them. "I'm so glad we don't have rumble anymore, it was just annoying."
      • Yes, much like the anti-Sony fanboys who didn't really care about rumble until they heard that the PS3 wouldn't have it. No such thing as a side with no stupid people on it.

        Rob
        • I've been consistent; I hate it, and I wish people would stop using it. Except that, grudgingly, I admit that the very slight vibration of the Wiimote is good tactile feedback. I just hate the thing where controllers physically hurt me while I'm trying to play a game.
          • Wasn't "rumble" almost always a feature that can be disabled? I don't miss it. I guess doing decent rumble in a compact controller is too hard to do well on a reasonable budget, so they just do a half-assed cop-out and pretend it's a desirable feature.
            • It can often be specially disabled, although I think a few games offered no way to do so. The thing is, I hated it, but the Wii's very subtle vibrate doesn't actually bug me; it's just a sort of tactile response for "you just moused over a button" or the like.
  • OMG this is the moment I've been waiting for!!! I can now go out and blow over half a grand on a PS3 and games.

    • OMG this is the moment I've been waiting for!!! I can now go out and blow over half a grand on a PS3
      There, fixed that for you.

        • OMG this is the moment I've been waiting for!!! I can now go out and blow over a grand on a PS3 and one game

          (Switzerland :-)

  • While I'm not THAT concerned about rumble in PS/3 games I am concerned about it in my old PS/2 games.

    If the Sixaxis isn't backwards compatible with the PS/2 emulation (both hardware and software) that would be BAD.

    And while we're on the subject, Sony, take a cue from Microsoft and make external battery packs for the Sixaxis. You're SONY for cryin' out loud. You already manufacture battery packs for your various cameras and walkmen! Think of the extra sales of charges and batteries (hard core gamers will
    • The SIXAXIS is compatible with your old games. Rumble or not it works just fine, which is not surprising as the controllers have a virtually identical layout. The PS3 does have a annoying habit asking you to push the Home button on the controller after you start a PS2 game but otherwise it just works. There are also adapters if you really want to use an old controller. I assume that if a rumble controller appears it will also support rumble in PS2 titles as well.

  • Logo required? Blech. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Valdrax (32670) on Thursday July 12 2007, @01:28PM (#19840837)
    Under the terms of the license, these products will now bear Immersion's Feel The Game TouchSense Technology logo,' reads the press release from which the news emanated.

    Oh, great. 'Cause we all know that the reason why third party controllers are all so attractive is the delightfully gaudy logos that enhance their aesthetic appeal.

    Seriously, though, this is part of why I really don't like third party controllers. They all look seriously tasteless compared to the standard controllers that most console companies come up with. (That and the shapes are always awkward feeling in comparison. Mad Catz, I'm looking at you.)
    • Nah. Don't agree.

      http://www.logitech.com/repository/367/jpg/2646.1. 0.jpg [logitech.com]

      Better than the Sony-one.

      It's wireless. It's rounded, better to hold. There's *one* thumbswitch rather than the braindead 4-buttons-allthough-theyre-one-under-the-shell of the PS2 original controller. I personally also find it prettier than the original controller, but that's a matter of taste I guess.
    • Actually, Mad Catz fixed the Dreamcast controller. Mad Catz fixed the awkward shape of the original controller so you were able to hold it properly. That, and the extra buttons, made them about 100X better than the originals.

      And the Logitech controllers for the PS2 are generally regarded as being superior to the originals as well.
  • Does this mean the PS3 will finally support force feedback as well, for devices like, say, a racing wheel?

    http://kotaku.com/gaming/sixaxis/no-force-feedback -for-ps3-racing-wheels-either-226250.php [kotaku.com]
  • Rumble? Alright! Time to run right out and buy that PS3!

  • The whole rumble "debate" is so funny. Just about every mobile phone can rumble, my dishwasher can rumble, the washing machine is just far out, and Lord, does my car ever rumble on a bad road.

    It's old news. And it's also useless. I want real force feedback that's actually telling me something about the environment, like proper racing wheels of the ancient MS Sidewinder sticks have; not some generic on/off crap, but something with actual direction to it.

    Also, PS3 owners should be glad that there are new co

    • Rumble can be useful. It's nice to have tactile feedback when you are shot or bump into another car when racing.

      Some games tend to use it when anything is going on in the environment which I think is overdoing it. Sadly it's overused in too many games. When it's used right it can add just the right amount of influence to make you feel more immersed into the experience of what you are doing - This is quite rare, but when it happens it's still impressive.
      • "A little quiver when I hit a boundary or bump when I am over an active area would be great."

        Hmmm ya I want my mouse to quiver too when I go over certain bumps. Hmm and those active areas, maybe I could get some audio and visual feedback too. Porn at a new level...lol
      • A friend of mine used to have a mouse that worked just like you describe... any time you rolled over a button or link (configurable through the control panel) it would give just a little snap of the vibrating motor, and it literally felt like you had gone over a little bump on the mouse pad. Absolutely useless gimmick, but cool nonetheless.
        • This is actually not useless. It helps the user target stuff on the screen; it's additional feedback. If you can, check out how the Wii's keyboard works. If you move the cursor over a key, the remote gently vibrates, which gives you the impression of really "entering" the key area. It helps a lot with typing quickly. Some games don't support it, and using the keyboard in these games is extremely annoying.

            • A mouse has a neutral state of "Staying exactly where it was", so it's not as difficult to click with pixel-perfect accuracy.

              As someone who has accidentally closed a window when I wanted to zoom it - and more than once - I disagree :-)

              The mouse is more precise, but you also think less and work faster when using it.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Osty (16825)

        I would actually like a small amount of rumble on my mouse

        Welcome to 2001, where Logitech is about to release its new line of iFeel mice [dansdata.com] based on Immersion's TouchSense technology.

        As it turns out, rumble in a mouse wasn't all that great. Sure, it was a neat little trick initially, but ultimately there was no support for it but for a very few games. Logitech killed the iFeel line of mice relatively quickly.

        That said, I do agree with you that the Wii's pointer feedback is helpful. Part of that is becaus

    • Since the PS3 wasn't shipped with rumble controllers, does this mean developers have to code with the assumption that nobody has the rumble feature?

      Rumble is subtle enough to where it wouldn't really be that hard to emulate it using on-screen features, and turn off those features when vibration is turned on. In MGS4 you might have to buy a new controller to get a slightly more immersive gameplay experience, but that would only really make a difference to the hardcore gamers who are going to buy new control
        • But I'm wondering if this will be considered a basic feature of the console, and Sony will require all new games to use the rumble feature.

          They didn't with the PS2, which started with rumble. Plenty of games allowed you to turn it off, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some that didn't even use it.

          Rob
    • No it won't. The wiimote is the first first Bluetooth rumble controller.
      • Oddly enough you CAN use the Bluetooth component, however ONLY in Linux with some kernel tinkering from what I remember... in Windows for some reason you have to go through the USB port.

        I never understood Sony not selling the SIXAXIS as a PC controller too, if anything 2-3 ppl would buy em for that and that's a few extra bucks. How hard can a driver be to make for it?
    • "Because nothing makes a fight game realistic like a vibrator in your hand."

      You mean on top of the bouncing breasts and areal moves that'd require a wire rig to pull off?

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