PS3 Rumble Controller Confirmed

IGN was playing a build of the upcoming title Burnout: Paradise when they noticed something new about the controller in their hands: it was shaking. The rumble-equipped PlayStation 3 controller is almost certainly a reality at this point, with Kaz Harai's keynote tomorrow expected to officially announce the product. "The controller we were using to play the demo looked exactly like a standard Sixaxis, except that it had a sticker on the bottom that said 'RUMBLE.' It also felt notably heavier than the standard Sixaxis."

Remember this?

[igotmybfg]

"We have no plans to do so in the standard controller that ships with PlayStation 3. I believe that the Sixaxis controller offers game designers and developers far more opportunity for future innovation than rumble ever did. Now, rumble I think was the last generation feature; it's not the next-generation feature. I think motion sensitivity is. And we don't see the need to do that." - Phil Harrison, President, Sony Worldwide, 26 Feb 2007

hahaha

Re:last gen?

[This_Is_My_Happening]

MS is a villain in a lot of areas, but not in this case. Immersion sued both MS and Sony for using rumble technology in their consoles without licencing it.

MS bought a share of Immersion as a settlement, while Sony decided to keep fighting and eventually lost. I think it was obvious to both companies at the start that Immersion had a good case - MS quickly decided to settle while Sony decided not to. The 10% share of Immersion that MS bought as a settlement has nothing to do with Sony refusing to settle. If anything, seeing MS settle should have been a good clue to Sony that they might want to settle as well.

Sony paid a lot for their lack of forsight too; It cost MS about 25 million to settle. Sony got stuck with a bill 4 times as much, not counting the years of legal fees. Sony gambled and lost. It was their decision, not MS's.

I'd also like to point out that Immersion isn't the standard patent troll that we hear about on Slashdot all the time. They actively develop and sell their technologies, not just sit on patents and litigate their way to profit like some other companies. MS and Sony both used their designs without permission, and there was a good reason Sony lost their fight. Immersion isnt a villian either.

Side note: Nintendo wasn't sued because their rumble technology works differently, and was developed in house. Immersion has a patent on a specific method of providing rumble feedback, not just rumble feedback in general. Since Nintendo used a different method, they were fine. MS and Sony (for some dumb reason) both decided to use the same method Immersion had patented.