Sony: Move's Lack of Speaker, Analog a Cost Benefit

The PlayStation Move and its Navigation Controller could easily be compared to Nintendo's Wii Remote and Nunchuk configuration. But it could have been so different - early designs actually had an analogue stick and speaker included within the one motion-sensing device, but were ultimately cut.

Anton Mikhailov from Sony's R&D department spoke to commenters on the PlayStation Blog about the missing features. While a speaker was "discussed" it was removed from the final design because "we found that the applications are fairly limited, and the cost saved was substantial."

Rather than requiring the Navigation Controller, Mikhailov also revealed the Move wand was actually prototyped with an analogue stick, but that "using an analog stick while you’re moving in 3D is actually not very intuitive." Adding a stick - that probably wouldn't be used that much - was seen as a bit too costly to include on the one device. So Sony put it on an optional attachment to make you spend more instead, basically.

But why no motion control in the Navigation Controller, Anton? "We felt that to be completely compatible with the Dualshock we shouldn’t allow motion, since you might not be able to do it holding the Dualshock in one hand.

"With just accelerometers and gyros you wouldn’t be able to do as much as the Move can, so its a bit of an inconsistent experience. And of course, it makes the nav cheaper while having room for other features like the rechargeable battery and wireless." Er, fair enough.

You can watch the blog's video, which started all of the impromptu design comments, below.



Hat tip goes to Sixth Axis.