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When Nintendo first released the motion-sensing Wii it was obvious that they had a hit on their hands. The Wiimote’s unique paradigm shift made console gaming seem more accessible to people who might never have gamed before.
It took the likes of Sony and Microsoft a few years to catch up to the Wii. Four years after the Wii’s debut, though, both Sony and Microsoft managed to release motion controllers of their own. Sony’s was the PlayStation Move, and it’s done okay, but the real game-changer is the Kinect, which has already become the fastest-selling home consumer electronic of all time.
With the success of all these controllers, you might think your days of fiddling around with a D-pad are over. Think again, though. Dr. Richard Marks, the inventor of both the PlayStation Move and PlayStation eye, thinks traditional controllers aren’t going anywhere.
“I don’t think that makes sense [to give up on traditional controllers]. I said that pretty much from the beginning that we’re not trying to get rid of the gamepad. The gamepad is a really good abstract device. It can map to so many different things. It doesn’t map one-to-one to those things, but it doesn’t need to for a lot of game experiences.”
On one hand, it’s easy for Sony to say regular controllers aren’t going anywhere, since the PlayStation Move is easily the least popular controller amongst the console triumvirate. Still, it’s true to say that a lot of times when you’re gaming all you really want to do is lay supine on the couch with a beer balanced on your belly and pull off some headshots. It’s also true that even with the most advanced motion-controllers, like the Kinect, their functionality can be greatly supplemented by using a regular controller simultaneously. My guess is we won’t see regular controllers go anywhere until our consoles can read our minds.
