Friday 26 May 2006
A games accessory manufacturer has claimed that Sony could have built a rumble feature into the PlayStation 3 controller and that the reason it hasn't included one is actually down to legal - not technical - issues.
Technology company, Immersion, won a lawsuit against Sony in 2004 after it claimed the PlayStation maker had illegally used its 'haptic' technology in the PS2 DualShock pad, a decision that Sony is currently appealing against.
Immersion has since granted games accessory manufacturer, eDimensional, permission to use some of its technology in the G-Pad Pro Gyroscopic controller for PC and PS2, which features both vibration and motion-sensing capabilities.
The fact that both these features have successfully been combined in the controller conflicts with Sony's claims that it was unable to include any rumble feature in the PS3 pad as the vibration would interfere with the information detected by the motion sensor.
Speaking to industry website gamesindustry.biz, an eDimensional representative said that "making these two features work together is not difficult but requires knowledge of haptic technologies. Based on that information, it sounds like there is more to the story than Sony is telling us."
