Step aside Nintendo, Sony’s on the Move. The Japanese electronics giant set its sights squarely on its fellow Japanese rivals on Wednesday by announcing the PlayStation Move, a precise motion controller for the PlayStation 3. The company broke the news at a press conference at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco.
Known as “Arc” during its prototype stages, the Move features a wand-like controller with a colorful, LED-lit ball on top. A set of internal accelerometers along with tracking from Sony’s EyeToy camera allow it to translate real-life motion to players on the screen, similar to the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s upcoming Project Natal. Both Natal and Move are scheduled for a tentative fall 2010 release.
Sony plans to offer the Move in a starter kit bundled with the EyeToy camera and game for under $100, as well as an “ultimate” bundle, which will include the PS3 console, and a standalone package that only includes a controller. Pricing on the latter two hasn’t been hinted at yet, but with the EyeToy currently selling for around $30 on its own, we wouldn’t expect the standalone Move controllers to go for under $50.
Games in the works include Sports Champions and Move Party, which will both be Wii-style compilations with multiple mini games on one disc, such as Gladiator Duel and Table Tennis. Sony also claims “Virtually every third-party publisher” is on board to cook up titles for it, including Activision, Capcom, WB Games, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Ubisoft, EA, Disney, Konami, Sega, Crave and Tecmo Koei.
