Sony’s Move: Is it a Wii ripoff or something more?

Nintendo has the Wii Remote and Wii Motion Plus. On November 4th Microsoft will have Kinect for $150 (supposedly) and on September 19th Sony will announce their entry into the motion controller war with the release of the PlayStation Move. It will not be long until the trifecta is complete. How is Sony’s candidate compared to the others?

First let’s look at the price.  These days buying a Wii will net you a remote, nunchuk and motion plus as well. Getting another complete set adds another $70. Kinect is more the twice that plus the cost of the Xbox 360 itself but remember, with Kinect YOU ARE THE CONTROLLER! Once you have bought the camera you are done. Finally there’s Move, a device most comparable to the Wii controller. Sony’s remote will cost $50 and while you will not need a motion plus you will need to spend another $30 for the nunchuk stand-in required for more core games. Multiply that by the number of players and it ends up potentially being the most expensive controller out there not accounting for bundles.

But core gamers are always willing to shell out cash if the games are compelling. Say what you will about the Wii but by having motion controllers be a core part of the system it has forced developers to at least try using it leading some very quality games in a variety of genres. The main advantage it has so far is that it has somewhat proven itself. Kinect is a radical new experiment but so far even the best games we have seen for it have been casual games with the sole exception of the REZ sequel Child of Eden. The Move is similar to the Wii remote in ways beyond look and function. Like the Wii remote it has enough flexibility and familiarity (buttons) to work for traditional games in addition to the waggling craziness. It’s a safer bet. A compromise.

But will this compromise pay off? At E3 the Move proved to have fidelity possibly higher than even Wii Motion Plus. But even with that level of control and potential for amazing core games, casual games again got the spotlight. Sports Champions, EyePet, and Tiger Woods will probably all play great - but are they enough to buy this add-on as opposed to the Wii? And so far the only Move functionality core games seem to be using is the pointer. SOCOM 4 with Metroid Prime 3 controls sounds awesome, but it does not sound new.  People already have Wiis, they are not spending the money to basically get a Wii HD. And while new is great, new *and* good are even better (sorry Kinect).

The problem with this coming war is how reactionary Sony and Microsoft seem to be. History has shown that mid-cycle add-ons tend to fail, just ask the Sega Genesis. It is not that they do not know what they are doing, they are just not that committed and it painfully shows. As much as it may hurt, they should stick to their bases, admit that Nintendo has won for now and make motion controls a meaningful part of their next consoles. But who knows, by then we might have all moved on to smell-o-vision.

- Jordan Minor