Regarding Immersion And The PS3’s Rumble (Or Lack Thereof)

Earlier this month we ran an article asking just how important Force Feedback was to you guys. The comments established that a lot of you are actually somewhat bummed at the thought of playing your next generation games without that warm vibrating tactile sensation that the Dual Shock and it’s successor provided. If you’ve been following the whole Sony vs. Immersion thing you’ll know that things aren’t looking up for the inclusion of rumble technology in the mighty PS3.

We opinionise and analyse the dilemma, please do read along after the jump!

Earlier this month we ran an article asking just how important Force Feedback was to you guys. The comments established that a lot of you are actually somewhat bummed at the thought of playing your next generation games without that warm vibrating tactile sensation that the Dual Shock and it’s successor provided. If you’ve been following the whole Sony vs. Immersion thing you’ll know that things aren’t looking up for the inclusion of rumble technology in the mighty PS3.

Sony’s official stance on the matter is that the rumble technology would interfere with the proper functioning of the tilt sensor technology now built into every PS3 controller. It makes sense when you think about it, particularly if the final controller is as sensitive as the ones we got our hands on at E3. However, this excuse also smacks of Sony attempting to save face and not look weak in the face of its recent legal loss to Immersion. Immersion for their part have stated that they believe both technologies can work together harmoniously, company CEO Vic Vegas also commented in a recent interview with Next Generation that “We continue to want to try to resolve this, and we’ve had discussions with them in the past about how we could resolve this, up until now, those discussions haven’t generated any progress, but we’re still hopeful that we can bring this new technology into the market, and that we can resolve our differences with Sony.” While I’d like to believe an amicable solution can be reached, I personally just don’t buy that a settlement’s going to happen, especially since Microsoft owns 30% shares in Immersion, they’re going to squeeze.

At least that was my first thought, but then we came across this bit of news which indicated that Immersion would definitely see its profits affected by Sony’s plans to exclude rumble tech in the PS3, the article also highlighted the fact that as a result the entire market for such technology would shrink as third party peripheral manufacturers would feel less inclined and obliged to include the feature in their products (after all, if the official peripheral doesn’t support it why should they?) This all bears asking the question, will Immersion end up shooting itself in the foot?

As can be seen in the above linked article, I personally didn’t lament the loss of force feedback as I feel it’s a feature more often merely “tacked on” than used in any legitimate effort to enhance gameplay (with the odd exception). I also feel that the new technology will force developers to think in new, more interesting ways that could benefit gamers (I’m lookin’ at you Hideo). That said I’m not an idiot (I’m just ugly) and if the possibility was there I would much rather have the best of both worlds, including force feedback and tilt sensor tech would be the gnats nuts, but we rarely get that option in this cruel cold world.

Making the exclusion of rumble tech all the more frustrating is the fact that just yesterday Immersion announced the successor to their current force feedback technology solution christened “Touchsense.” Described by Next Gen as being able to create “crisper, more staccato vibrations,” Immersion explains that the new technology is able to emulate the “springy sensation of hitting a tennis ball,” or the “surge of powering up a light saber, followed by the transition to a subtle hum, then the jolt of clashing with their opponent’s light saber.” Sounds cool doesn’t it? Here’s the kicker, Immersion categorically stated that the new tech was compatible with motion and tilt sensor based controllers…. ruh-roh!

Still, it’s not the end of the road, unlikely as it is, Sony could pony up the cash to make friendly with Immersion, incorporating this fancy new tech, or they could develop their own rumble technology in house that doesn’t interfere with the tilt sensor. It really does sound like both companies are feeling each other out right now, seeing how much ground the other is willing to give, and from an admittedly laymans perspective on such matters it seems as though some sort of settlement would be in the best interest of not just Immersion and Sony, but gamers as well. In a worst case scenario things would stay exactly as they are, and depending on how much you value your good vibrations and excitations, that’s not necessarily a big loss.