Sony insists they haven't added rumble to controllers

by Nick Doerr { Aug 3rd 2007 at 10:00PM }

Dave Karraker from SCEA recently responded to the mostly confirmed rumors of a rumbling Sixaxis controller by stating, basically, no such controller exists. He did confirm that better motion-sensing controllers were in the works, but downplayed it as more of a controller update than a new controller. He said that "[Sony] recently sent out to the development community some new prototypes that have a slightly enhanced sensitivity for the analog sticks and the motion sensing within the Sixaxis controller ... This is not a new controller, but is part of the normal development and evolution of controllers."

While this may seem disheartening, this may be a PR tactic utilizing semantics. Rumble, as far as controllers are concerned, involve rotating hammer weights, causing the controller to shake. That feature is not coming to the PS3. But Karraker might have been dancing around the word rumble, when the proper term is TouchSense technology. Know what we're saying? Of course, maybe we're wrong. But we like dancing, too, Sony!

[via Digg]

Tags: rumble, sixaxis, touchsense

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Steve @ Aug 3rd 2007 10:08PM

Sony beats around the freaking george bush too much. It's a yes or no question.
They lie to us now, get us all pissed off, then take us by storm in 3 months.

Stef Geiger @ Aug 3rd 2007 10:28PM

Take it with a grain of salt.

I'm sure he's just saying that because it'd be bad business for them to admit there's a new better controller coming - it'd hurt sales till it came out.

And I'm betting (and praying) that the controller DOES indeed have rumble in addition to touchsense.

MYPS3KilledMy360 @ Aug 3rd 2007 10:48PM

stop it with your lies Sony! devs say they already got a hold of the rumble controller.

Bluebrake @ Aug 4th 2007 12:18AM

Where's that picture of Valerie in The Princess Bride screaming "Liar! Liaaaaaarrrrr!"?

John @ Aug 4th 2007 12:42AM

That is funny, Nick. We're sitting here with our mouths agape, going, what no rumble? And it's like, yep, no rumble. (Nobody asked about touch sense)

Dahk @ Aug 4th 2007 1:07AM

Yeah Stef gots it right. They wouldn't annouce something so early =P I'm itching to grab 2 more controllers, yet i'm holding on to my shameful 2 controllers. I need it when warhawk hits the road :S.

So I guess this announcement is supposed to justify me pitching out another 120 bucks (CAD) for 2 controllers. But nope. I need my touchsense! I'll hold off until Leipzig. Or maybe even TGS.

Plus they denounced PS3 price drops 2 days before they announced it =P

Maybe thats the delay for Lair?! Or... heavenly sword? (like... 1% chance of happening though) Or devs just got it for GTAIV and are owning up touchsense for 2008 release? Haha. Dancing around rumours are fun.