Thursday, March 11, 2010

PlayStation ... Move?

The day everyone (OK, maybe just PS3 owners) has been waiting for has arrived: The folks at Sony have decided on a name for their forthcoming motion controller.

Sadly, they didn't choose "Gem." Nor did they choose "Arc." What did they choose, you ask? "PlayStation Move."

Huh.

I can't say the name gives me the tingles--at least, not in a good way.

I know I was one of the lone champions of "Gem," which I'm guessing the powers that be at Sony considered "too girly," but at least that name had character. "PlayStation Move" just seems so ... blah. Boring. Pedestrian.

Who cares about the name as long as the games are great, right? Yeah, about that... Sony showed off a handful of in-the-works titles that will make use of the peripheral during its GDC 2010 press conference yesterday afternoon, and all of them look pretty horrid, if you ask me. (Actually, I take that back: Sony's Wii Sports ripoff, Sports Champions, doesn't look too bad.)

Here, for instance, is an image from a game called TV SuperStars:


Another game, Move Party!, looks just as bad--if not worse.


(Go here to see additional images of Move Party!, TV SuperStars and Sony's other in-the-works games. Also, see them in action in this video.)

Sony has yet to announce a release date (or a price) for the peripheral or any of the games that will make use of it, so maybe things will improve before any of them hit store shelves.

See also: 'Truly outrageous: Sony to call its PS3 motion controller 'Gem'?' and 'Sony's PS3 motion controller no longer truly outrageous'

4 comments:

Viewtiful_Justin said...

I just threw up in my mouth...but not from disgust...from sheer apathy. MOVE?! That's the WORST name ever. It doesn't inspire hatred OR love...it's just...

Bryan Ochalla said...

If the name caused you to throw up in your mouth, just wait until you see more shots of the games being made for it. Barrrrrfff! :)

Viewtiful_Justin said...

I'm kind of happy it turned out this way. It's like...validating Nintendo's awesomeness despite being behind in the kickass graphics category.

Bryan Ochalla said...

I think the best thing that will come of MS and Sony bringing out their own motion controllers is that the Wii haters will see it's not as easy as they think to make a great game using such a contraption.

I like both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 and plan to get both systems eventually, but I do not think their motion controllers are going to be successful -- mainly because they're simply following Nintendo's lead. Most people aren't going to want "Sports Champions" because they already have Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, for instance.

What Sony and MS need to do to even have a chance, IMO, is offer something new -- and so far they're both failing miserably.

Also, like you I'm glad that Nintendo has succeeded with both the DS and the Wii despite the fact that both systems feature old tech. I love great graphics as much as anyone, but Nintendo's efforts on the DS and the Wii prove that great design and fun gameplay beat awesome graphics any day.

How I wish Square Enix would learn a thing or two from Nintendo. At this point, even if I had a PS3 I wouldn't buy FFXIII. Sure, it looks nice, but as far as I've read it's extremely linear -- to the point of not having towns. No thanks, I'll stick to my NES/SNES/PS1/PS2 Final Fantasies instead :)