PlayStation Move Message Board older than one year ago

Don’t let our recent love affair with the East Coast fool you – we’re giving the West Coast a shot to go hands-on with PlayStation Move… next week. This time, the lucky city is Seattle.

We’ll be at Sole Repair Shop (near downtown and Seattle U) this coming Thursday evening, armed with food, drinks, and state-of-the-art motion-based gaming; that’s *months* before PlayStation Move will show up in stores, so don’t miss out on your opportunity!

You’ll also get to chat with the devs, us (if you care to), and meet some of your fellow Washington-based PlayStation gamers. Of course, we’ll also raffle off prizes – always a fan favorite at our meetups. And the price – as always – is FREE. If you’re not convinced (really?), take a look at some pics from last week’s PAX East meetup. A good time was had by hundreds.

Here are the details:

• Date: Thursday, April 8th
• Time: 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
• Location: Sole Repair Shop
• Directions: Sole Repair (aka ‘the Shop’) can be found just off of East Pike 1 block past Broadway on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Located right next door to Quinn’s, and directly across the street from Neumos. Be sure to enter in the 10th avenue entrance. Look for the white door.
• Parking: Plenty of places to park! Available at 10th & East Pike ($7), Broadway & East Madison ($5), Pike & Broadway (free!) and, of course, street parking is free after 7:00 p.m.

Adult beverages will be served, so we have to limit admittance to ages 21 and up… remember to bring your ID.

We hope to see you there – so make sure you RSVP today.

Add one more title to the list of PlayStation Move launch games -- Zen Studios has announced that its Planet Minigolf game, set for a release as soon as this spring, will be "Move-enabled." Of course, Move isn't released until later this fall, but Zen promises that their game "will be fully-compatible" with the motion controller anyway.

Presumably, that means you'll be able to swing the controller like a putt-putt club, but who knows -- maybe the game will incorporate any number of other minigolf-associated motions, from throwing your club in anger when the clown blocks your shot to stealthily nudging the ball with your foot when your opponent isn't looking. The possibilities are endless!

We may not make it out to the East Coast very often, but when we do, we bring the big guns. PlayStation.Blog readers in Boston and New York were the very first in the gaming public to play PlayStation Move this week, as we brought our GDC-announced games out for a pair of community meetups.

On Tuesday, we made our much-requested New York Meetup debut in Tribeca. Despite the crappy weather, fans braved the outdoor line to go hands-on with Slider, Move Party and Sports Champions (all working titles), and to watch Dr. Rick Marks and Anton Mikhailov show off the Move’s capabilities in a series of intriguing tech demos. You can see some of those demonstrations in the replay of last Saturday’s Engadget Show here.

We also honored Ray, our PlayStation SuperFan who’s been to our meetups in SF, Vegas, Seattle, and Los Angeles, despite living in NYC. Now that we were on his home turf, we rewarded him with a God of War III Ultimate Edition for his incredible fanship.

Click here for more pics of the NYC Event.

Next stop: Boston. Last night we kicked off the PAX weekend with PlayStation Move, and I’m still at a loss for words to describe the crowd. Actually, “huge” probably has it covered. Over 300 gamers, fans, and bloggers came out to hang out and go hands-on. GTTV’s Geoff Keighley even turned up to help hand out the prizes (special thanks to Charlie at 2K for providing BioShock 2 and Borderlands PS3 prize packs). Take a look at the pics – Boston knows how to party.

Ray showed up for that one too :-)

In both locations, everyone let us know that they were glad we came out East, and we’re really happy we made the trip.

Now to answer the big question: which Northeast city turned out in bigger numbers? Let’s just say that if Boston and NY meet in the ALCS this year, my money’s on the Sox.

#ps3 The PlayStation Move thrives in darkness, could enable a new kind of Greek god game, has 10 hours of battery life, a mystery port and a simple innovation that could be profound. More »

Did you miss our live broadcast of the Engadget Show? Joystiq's very own Chris Grant was on the show to talk to PlayStation Move's Richard Marks, who came prepared with brand new tech demos for the live audience. If you missed it the first time around, or want to just get another look, feel free to watch a recap of this segment.

For the entire episode, feel free to visit Engadget to get links to HD downloads. Check out Engadget's extended "after the show" coverage of the PlayStation Move after the break.

#clips Kotaku just used the PlayStation Move again... this time in New York City, with top Sony Move gurus showing us two new demos that take advantage of the Sony controller's ability to have its movement tracked in 3D space. More »

In a video interview posted by Game-Vid and reported by Dutch tech site Tweakers, a kind of nervous-sounding Folkert Langeveld, PlayStation marketing manager for Sony Benelux, appears to have outed LittleBigPlanet 2. His Dutch-language speech about the PlayStation Move hits all the familiar bullet points: support for downloadable games like Hustle Kings, new games like The Shoot, and major releases like SOCOM 4. The thing is, he also name-drops a "LittleBigPlanet Twee" -- or, in English, "LittleBigPlanet Two." (See the video interview after the break.)

While it makes sense on a base level for Sony to release a sequel to one of its flagship games, we're leaving the possibility open that Langeveld simply misspoke, for a couple of reasons: First, Sony has made repeated reference to Move support for the original LittleBigPlanet, something that Langeveld didn't mention; and second, Media Molecule level designer Danny Leaver once said that a sequel would be "the most counterproductive thing you could do I think." Of course, Leaver may have been overruled by Media Molecule's Alex Evans, who said last year that he would "love there to be a sequel" -- and overruled by Sony, which owns the studio now.

If you're not out walking around on this beautiful day, or sitting in the live taping at the Times Center in NYC, you should probably get your eyes on The Engadget Show that's happening live right now! Aside from the MIT Media Lab and OLPC Project's Nicholas Negroponte, Sony's Dr. Richard Marks will be dishing on the PlayStation Move to Engadget's Joshua Topolsky and Joystiq's very own Chris Grant. Hit the break for the live stream!

What are you doing today? Out enjoying the warm weather that’s somehow taken over the country this weekend? Well, you *could* do that, but that’s tacit approval of global warming. And that’s evil :-)

Why not stay inside, away from the sun’s dangerous rays, and catch Dr. Richard Marks as he takes the Engadget crew through a behind-the-scenes look of the PlayStation Move, LIVE on today’s Engadget Show, which starts at 5:00 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. PT). It’s streaming right here!

Once you’ve seen PlayStation Move, how about actually playing it? For those in the New York area that want to get their hands on the PlayStation Move, be sure to stop by our first New York meetup this Tuesday, March 23rd. RSVP for the event here and let us know you’re coming.

Oh, and we’ll also be in Boston this Thursday, March 25th, PlayStation Move in hand. Details and RSVP are right here. See you there!

#paxeast Our PAX East party might be the convention's must-attend Friday night event, but what can you do on Thursday night? Why not get some hands-on time with the PlayStation move at Sony's PlayStation Blog meet-up? More »

TV spot drops possible November release for the Move controller.

You’ve asked for it. You’ve demanded it. You’ve even submitted a formal request for it.

Your wish is granted: PlayStation.Blog is coming to the East Coast. This coming Tuesday (March 23rd) we’ll be in New York, and two days later we’ll swing up to Boston for PAX East (Thursday, March 25th).

In honor of our first swing through the Northeast, we’re bringing out the big guns: attendees will be the first PlayStation fans to go hands-on with PlayStation Move! Of course, we’ll be doing the usual meetup things as well, namely free food and raffles for prizes.

Here are the details you need to know:

For New York, we’ll be meeting up at the Tribeca Grand Hotel from 4-7pm this Tuesday, March 23rd. Because the room capacity is not huge (and we have limited kiosks), we’ll have to do this one in two 90-minute shifts of about 75 people each. The hotel staff requests that you don’t wait in the lobby, but rather line up along 6th Ave (Ave of the Americas), where you’ll be able to get direct access to the PlayStation setup. I photochopped the Google Street View pic below to give you a better idea of where to line up. Note that you’ll need to be 21 or older to get in, as we will have adult beverages on hand. IDs will be checked, as usual, by men whose necks are barely visible.

Special NYC Bonus! Our friends at Engadget have invited you to join them this Saturday for a taping of the Engadget Show, where Dr. Richard Marks will be talking about and demoing PlayStation Move! Click here for more details. For those of you *not* in NYC, we’ll be streaming the show live here on the PlayStation.Blog.

OK, let’s talk Boston! We’ve got a swank setup at the Colonnade Hotel, which is super convenient if you’re in town for PAX East; it’s right across the street. We’ll be meeting from 5-8pm on Thursday, March 25th. First 150 people get in for free food, prize drawings, and become the first Bostonians to try out PlayStation.Move. Kick off your PAX right!

Both events are first come, first served, so don’t pass up your one chance to try out PlayStation Move way before anyone else! Make sure you RSVP here for New York or here for Boston.

Any questions? Hit us up in the comments. See you next week!

The amount of latency between a user's input on a game controller and the in-game reflection of that input is an incredibly important factor when comparing motion controllers. Sony has been boasting that the input latency for the PlayStation Move would be "under a frame" -- though Digital Foundry concluded otherwise during its brief tech demo with the sphere-tipped peripheral.

Digital Foundry conducted a fairly rudimentary experiment in which a person filmed himself sharply moving the controller, then counted how many milliseconds it takes for the screen to reflect his movement. Though there were a few variables to the experiment (such as the unknown, natural latency of the television display used in the demo), Digital Foundry estimates the device's latency to be in the ballpark of 133ms (around eight frames), which they claim is "fine for most of the applications you would want from such a controller." You can check out a video of Digital Foundry's simple latency experiment on Eurogamer.

#ps3 Muffins are the unsung hero of the games industry. They are the glue that binds publishers, PR, and the media together. More »

Not only does PlayStation Move enable realistic motion controls for PS3 games -- it also allows for corporate dispatches from the future. We didn't hear about that at any press conference! But there's Kevin Butler, addressing us from November 2010 about advances in nutrition and the success of the PlayStation Move. That means, according to Sony's time travel technology, the Move should be out sometime in November at the latest.

This commercial features plenty of footage of some guy completely battering air in Motion Fighter, along with some not-so-subtle callouts of the motion-based competition, and even a little bit of reverent Tretton worship. Check the ad out after the break.


[Thanks, Antony!]

In an interview with IndustryGamers, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime asserted that Nintendo does care about third parties and does need them, despite the fact that Nintendo's business is sustained pretty well by first-party games. "The fact of the matter is we know we create great content for younger consumers," he said, "we know we've got great content for more casual players, and we want fantastic content for that more active player who loves Metroid or Zelda, but maybe also wants something like a BioShock 2 to play as well." Reggie then admitted, "We're not good at it and it's not a key focus area," thus Nintendo's interest in third-party developers.

The boss man also reiterated, almost word for word, his previous position that Nintendo would begin work on the next Nintendo system when a developer was unable to do something on the current Wii hardware, and he repeated that an HD feature alone wouldn't be enough to justify a new console.

When asked about the PlayStation Move, Fils-Aime questioned the Sony device's appeal. If the Wii already scratches the itch for motion-based gaming, then why would consumers be moved to pick up a PS3? "What's going to motivate them to spend minimally $300 for a new [PS3] system, plus minimally $100 for the Move motion bundle? So [as a consumer], now I'm into this for $400 and I still have to spend money on software. What's going to motivate me to do that?"

#ps3 While at GDC, we noticed that the new PlayStation Move controller has a little lag. Want to see how much lag? More »

#gdc Sony's new PlayStation Move controller made headlines last week as it added Wii-like controls to the PlayStation 3. But a key difference in the tech, one lauded by Sony, could hurt the device. So could a lack of innovative software. More »

The Engadget Show is teaming up with Joystiq's very own Chris Grant this Saturday in a brand new episode that features the newly unveiled PlayStation Move motion controller. Sony's Richard Marks will take the stage, bringing some brand new tech demos that highlight what the controller is capable of. This will be the first time the general public will be able to get their hands on the device, with random members of the audience being able to play with the Move live on stage. And there's going to be a special surprise ...

If you're in the NYC area, go to Engadget to find out more details on how to score a ticket for the show. If you can't make it, don't worry! Both Joystiq and Engadget will have a live stream of the episode available for you to watch this Saturday, March 20th at 5PM EST. Hope to see you there!

We were starting to worry that SCEA had forgotten about EyePet when its planned holiday 2009 release came and went. Sony's Eye-enabled virtual pet simulator made a surprising reemergence recently, now featuring PlayStation Move support. We chatted with EyePet producer Nicolas Doucet about implementing Sony's motion controller into the game, and what that means for gamers, new and old.

By removing the Magic Card, and replacing it with motion controls, isn't this new version of EyePet, essentially, a brand new game?

Especially for North America and Japan, as well. It's going to be the first release, so yeah it's a brand new game. We've really made a lot of effort to make sure that whatever we converted from the Magic Card for the Move wasn't just a port. We deconstructed and reconstructed things to really make it feel like a Move-dedicated game. Obviously, to begin with it wasn't. We put a lot of effort into that. We've extended the development by another nine months to really give something special to players.

Will it be a PlayStation Move launch title?

Yes it will be, this Fall.

ModNation Racers has come a long way since the release of its public beta last year. Since then, Sony San Diego Studios and United Front Games have expanded the franchise quite a bit, adding a number of new creation tools, four-player split-screen support and even a PSP counterpart. We chatted with ModNation Racers producer Dan Sochan about what's new, and what we can expect from the future, including support for the PlayStation Move motion controller.

Joystiq: What's new about the code we're seeing today at GDC?
Dan Sochan, producer, ModNation Racers: There's the four-player split-screen, two-player online split-screen, and we've also announced and have been showing off more of the single player career. We kept the story of the single player career mode quite light. At its core, it's still a racing game, so we didn't want to complicate it with you saving the world. The story is you're this young racer who goes into this league, the ModNation Racing Championship, and you're basically going from a nobody to take on the ultimate champion. Through the way you have also have a bit of an influence. It has some elements of Pleasantville, where everyone tends to be a little bit more drab with the colors they choose for their characters and karts, and you influence them by being very creative. So all of a sudden everyone wants to have bright, vibrant colors and doing very elaborate decorating of themselves and their karts, and it's narrated through two characters: Biff and Gary, who offer comic relief through the game.

How does progression work in the single player campaign? Do you unlock creation tools in that mode, akin to LittleBigPlanet?
Yes, definitely there will be a certain number of unlockables you'll get through the career, but we tried not to make it exclusively through the career. We didn't want to pigeonhole people and force them to play that way. So you'll also get more unlocks by publishing, sharing, downloading, voting, basically being a participant in the community, which is kind of cool.

#gdc That Game Company's Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, saw their team's game Flower nominated for several Game Developer's Choice Awards, winning for Best Downloadable. We talked about their future, Pokemon, and, since they made motion-games for the PS3, PlayStation Move. More »

#gdc10 There's been a flood of information coming from Sony about the new PlayStation Move controller for the PS3, but Sony's technically inclined folks showed off some of the more technically capable members of GDC, getting down to the finer details. More »

#gdc Zipper Interactive has a lot to prove with SOCOM 4. More »

Sony's GDC panel "Introducing the PlayStation Motion Controller was exactly that: An introduction to the newly named Move peripheral. David Coombes, Kirk Bender and Anton Mikhailov showcased a number of impressive tech demos, many of which demonstrated the Move's incredible precision and low latency. One of the most impressive demos showcased full body tracking using an on-screen body puppet, not unlike one of Project Natal's tech demos.

Body tracking is made possible by combining the Move and PS3's head tracking capability. According to the presentation, the PS3 can also detect faces, going so far as to identify individuals through face contour and feature detection. The software will be able to recognize gender, age, smiles and when eyes open and close.

Coombes explained that all the calculations necessary to handle image processing are done by the Cell CPU, which apparently excels at the doing floating point calculations. The raw data can be processed incredibly quickly by the PS3, taking "under a frame" to translate to a game experience. And while Mikhailov didn't reveal how much of the CPU's overall power the Move controller requires, he did reveal that the memory demands are truly "insignificant" -- 1-2 MB of system memory.

#gdc We saw a peek of Slider yesterday when he trailer was released, but today I got a chance to zip down a paved street on an office chair with the help of the PS3 Move controller first-hand. More »

If you saw our live broadcast on Ustream yesterday, then you’ve been properly introduced to PlayStation Move. We’re incredibly excited to start bringing you lots of PlayStation Move content in the coming months, starting right here. Head on over to PlayStation.com to find out what PlayStation Move is bringing to the PS3.

On Tuesday, GameSpot premiered the very first PlayStation Move developer diary, which you can see in its entirely here. And today, we’re premiering PlayStation Move Developer Diary #2, featuring Zindagi Games. In the video, you’ll get special behind-the-scenes insight into PlayStation Move, as well as game footage in action. Enjoy it!

#gdc Viewed in the hands of someone who helped make or market the game, the Playstation 3's motion controlled Motion Fighter looks like the sort of thing everyone will want to play and watch be played. But once it was in my hands things changed, drastically. More »

Sony Worldwide Studios VP Scott Rohde had the onerous task of introducing the first PlayStation Move games at Sony's GDC press conference last night. We caught up with the executive after the show to talk about Sony's plans for exploiting motion control and if hardcore gamers should be concerned about the future of the PS3 games library.

Our complete interview with Rohde follows:

It's obviously going to take internal resources to develop games for PlayStation Move. How can you guarantee that this won't take away from the resources devoted to traditional hardcore games?

Scott Rohde: The bottom line is, you know Worldwide Studios is a huge organization. I'm not sure exactly where it sits among other global publishers, but it's right up there. There's a lot of resources put into product development. I'm pretty proud of the roll that we've been on -- with Uncharted 2 kind of sweeping the awards recently.

There's plenty of resources to go around. It's our heritage: we're never going to compromise our core; great exclusive games. This is a new initiative to us. Some teams are looking into how they might incorporate motion control into some existing plans; others are totally focused on making the best sequels to the games we all love. It's not something I'm worried about.

[Wii version] Warner Bros. Interactive has revealed that, in addition to the previously announced PS2, PSP, DS and Wii releases, it's putting Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest on PS3 -- with PlayStation Move support. The kid-friendly LOTR game will now be released this fall (delayed again!) on all five platforms, with the Wii version developed by Headstrong Games (yes, that Headstrong Games) and the others by TT Fusion. Of course, the Wii and PS3 versions will be the only ones with motion control, and they will also be the only versions featuring two-player co-op (with the second player controlling Gandalf).

The PS3 version won't be an exact port of the Wii one, but it's the same idea -- a game for which the Wii was originally the lead platform, now spreading to the PS3 thanks to the existence of a very Wii-like motion controller. It may be the first, but this is definitely not the last time we'll see this!