motion control

If 2010 equals Battle of the 3D Televisions for home entertainment, then in video games it might be the Battle of Motion Controllers. With Microsoft's Project Natal promised to be available by holiday 2010 and Sony's motion controller now pushed to a fall 2010 launch as well, the Nintendo Wii looks like it will have tons of company in the world of newfangled control schemes.

How will Nintendo survive, with a system that's technically the most archaic with the exception of its innovative controller? If the Xbox 360 and PS3 offer motion controls to equal or rival … Read more

Sony announced Wednesday that its PlayStation 3 Motion Controller, previously set to launch this spring, has been pushed back to the fall.

According to Sony, the new controller couldn't provide the most value to gamers with a spring release, citing a fewer number of games that could use the new device.

"We have decided to release the Motion Controller in fall 2010 when we will be able to offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users," Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said in a … Read more

LAS VEGAS--With all three home consoles supporting motion control in one way or another it's certainly odd that PC gaming has yet to adopt the technology. Traditionally, PC gaming is the platform others look to emulate but in the current generation of Wii remotes, Sixaxis controllers, and Project Natal, gesture-based gaming on the PC remains untouched.

At CES 2010 we've found that this is about to change. High-end PC gaming accessory manufacturer Razer, in conjunction with Sixense, have teamed up to make precise motion control on the PC a reality. Better yet, the companies are doing it with … Read more

While last year's CES didn't blow us away in terms of gaming, we've got high hopes for 2010. Both Sony and Microsoft have new technologies right around the corner and we're hoping to get to see a taste of each at the big show.

Microsoft announced Project Natal at E3 2009, and it would make sense for the company to showcase some of the technology's applications at CES. Could we get an official release date and price for Natal?

Sony has a new motion controller that is almost ready for release so we're anxious … Read more

While Panasonic, Sony, and other heavy hitters in the consumer electronics world are working hard to bring 3D to TVs, a far less recognizable name is working to bring 3D to computer interfaces.

You might never have heard of Canesta--and that's OK--but the largest contract manufacturer of notebook PCs, Quanta Computer, has. On Wednesday, Canesta will announce that it's raised another $16 million in funding, from new investors Quanta, chipmaker SMSC, and returning backers Carlyle Growth Partners, Hotung Venture Group, and Venrock. The new round of capital brings Canesta's total raised since 2001 to $70 million.

Quanta … Read more

One of the bigger pushes for Nintendo's Wii console recently has been The Conduit, a sci-fi first-person shooter from Sega. Looking past the hype, we put it to the test--hoping to find out if the popular Wii is actually good for something other than casual, party, and kids' games.

As with the recent Ghostbusters debate, our CNET editors' gaming roundtable gives conflicting opinions below, and we naturally want to hear what you think in the handy comments section.

Jeff Bakalar: We're really impressed at how customizable the game is. In addition to completely changing the controls around, you have the option to move around individual HUD (heads-up-display) items at your leisure, so you can build the presentation that's right for you.

Control-wise, the game performs very smoothly, just how you'd want a first-person-shooter on the Wii to play. It's refreshing to see a game like this built from the ground up specifically for the Wii--you'll notice little things like rack focusing and other camera tricks that aren't seen in most Wii games.… Read more

It's by far the definitive theme this year at E3 2009. It seems everyone wants in on motion control. At their respective press conferences, both Microsoft and Sony debuted compelling demos of what they envision as the future of gaming.

Microsoft introduced Project Natal, an initiative to allow the user to play games and navigate through menus using body movements in place of a handheld controller. We got to see what game design guru Peter Molyneux was able to do with the technology in the form of the Milo demo, where a human seemed to convincingly interact with an artificial boy on-screen.

While that demonstration leaves plenty of skepticism and unanswered questions on the table (even with a Steven Spielberg endorsement), most will agree it was the rubber ball block-breaking game performance that really proved that the technology has potential.… Read more

Whether it's hardware, software, or vaporware, there's no shortage of intense hype for new products and technologies at E3. But beyond the breathless product demonstrations, the reality doesn't always live up to the promise (not that this is all that different from any other part of the tech industry). Even having gotten a close-up, in-person look at some of these big buzz-worthy introductions at E3, it's hard to separate fact from hype, although one thing is obvious: only a handful of these hardware developments are even close to actually being released.

Project Natal, the Xbox 360's motion-sensing camera add-on, certainly has potential, but the promo video for it Microsoft showed off was purely a work of science fiction. In it, a happy family enjoys multimedia content, chats with friends, and plays complex interactive games without a controller, just using their bodies. The actual playable demos were a few generations behind that, more reminiscent of the Sony Eye Toy accessory for the PS2--the main example was a simple game where players bat a ball back at the screen by swatting at the air, with just enough lag to be annoying. We're very excited about the potential of this new motion-sensing, face-and-voice-recognizing, camera add-on, but for now the gulf between the reality and prerendered video is sizable.

A much-hyped software package that uses the Project Natal hardware, Milo was presented as a virtual onscreen boy who could recognize you and carry on an intelligent conversation. The demo video was impressive, but obviously shot in a tightly controlled environment with clearly scripted responses. Talking to several people who got a chance to try out talking to Milo in person behind closed doors, the responses were uniformly disappointed, describing the supposedly realistic Milo similar to a Tamagotchi virtual pet, with only very basic interactivity. Milo was created by Peter Molyneux, a game designer infamous for over-promising and under-delivering, with ambitious but flawed projects such as Fable and Black & White. … Read more

With E3 returning to its old, bigger-is-better format, there seemed to be more at stake at this year's show. Could Nintendo provide enough compelling news to hold onto its lead? Would Microsoft trot out something to create new enthusiasm for its Xbox 360 platform? And could Sony reveal anything that might give it some much-needed momentum?

Alas, as it goes most of the time at E3, none of the companies truly hit it out of the park and a lot of what was announced was already leaked to greater or lesser degrees before the show started. However, that doesn't mean we can't try to objectively determine which companies did themselves some good--and which companies may not have.

Here's a quick recap of the news conferences from each camp and my quick assessments. But nevermind what I say, feel free to add your own comments--and try to be objective.