Sony’s PlayStation Move motion-sensing wand-based peripheral for the PS3 will debut on September 19, the company revealed at its E3 2010 press show today. It’ll be relatively cheap, too, starting at $50 per controller, or $100 for a pair.
In a trend reverse that’s seen Microsoft cram optional peripherals like WiFi into its new Xbox 360 “slim,” Sony’s breaking things out and offering the Move in several uniquely priced flavors.
For instance: You can buy one wand-controller for $50, which’ll take care of you for games like Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf, where you’re double-clutching a single club. You can buy two wand-controllers for $100, which’ll cover you in a game like Motion Fighters, Sony’s upcoming Move-centric boxing game. $100 will also buy you a single wand-controller, the requisite PlayStation Eye camera (necessary for tracking the light globes on the end of each Move wand), and a copy of the Move game Sports Champions. Or you can just pony up the $400 full monty for the latter bundle and a brand new PS3.
The sub-controller, which looks like Nintendo’s Wii Nunchuk with several additional PS3-style buttons and minus the cable, will set you back and additional $30. It’s necessary if you want to play games that require propulsion or camera repositioning via more traditional thumb-nub-related input.
Compare all that with Microsoft’s Kinect, which requires no controllers (it’s just you in front of a camera) and costs $150.
Response to Sony’s Move pricing was mixed, with some in the audience booing and others cheering. One person in the amphitheater yelled “Too much!” while the guys sitting next to me yelled “Yeah!”
I’m sitting back on this until I’ve seen more of the games. Sony’s Move looks notably more precise than anything I’ve seen from the competition, and that’s about all I can say at this point.
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