Sony has been forced to delay the launch of its motion-control system by four months.
The as-yet unnamed system, which uses a camera attached to a PS3 to track the movements of a handheld wand, had been expected to launch in spring this year, and to preview at last year’s Tokyo Game Show in October.
However, Sony failed to demonstrate the system in Tokyo, and the new launch date means it will beat Microsoft’s similar Project Natal system, due to launch in November, by just two months.
“The issue isn’t that it wouldn’t be ready for a spring launch, but that we’d rather launch it in the autumn window when there will be more games available to show it off with,” a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment told The Times.
Motion control is the latest battleground for the current generation of high-definition video consoles, the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.
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The ability to control games intuitively using the motion of the body is largely responsible for the popularity of Nintendo’s Wii, which, though technically inferior to the Xbox 360 and PS3, outsells them both.
Sony and Microsoft see motion control as crucial to the expansion of the games market beyond its traditional marketplace. Both companies are aware that traditional games controllers can act as a barrier to gaming for the uninitiated.
“Project Natal brings in consumers who wouldn’t traditionally have thought of themselves as an Xbox or a gaming customer,” Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, told The Times at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Now we are an entertainment device, which creates a tremendous new opportunity for us.”
Sony’s new motion-control system uses a wireless wand-like controller whose motion is tracked by a camera connected to a PS3 console. Within a game, the wand can be used as required, as a sword, shield, tennis racquet and so on. It will appear on screen as the required object.
Microsoft’s Project Natal system adopts a different approach. Using a separate box connected to the Xbox 360 console, Natal uses a camera to track and analyse the movements of the body. No controller is required.
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Microsoft claims its approach is the more intuitive, while Sony says its system is less restricted in what it can do.
Both systems are likely to make their first public appearance in San Francisco in March, at the Game Developers Conference, and both are likely to be among the hottest gifts for Christmas 2010.