All New, Last-Gen Feature Coming to PS3

Today, Engadget reported on some shaky confirmation, which says that rumble, or force feedback, would be coming to the PS3. They explain that in an interview with 1UP, Cory Barlog, who is the director of God of War, said that the upcoming (and still far off) God of War 3, for PS3 would have rumble. All I have to say is that it’s about time!

I still remember back to the days when Sony first made the announcement of the SIXAXIS controller. First off it seemed like a gimmick, considering that Nintendo had recently let loose the Wiimote design and purpose. But what came as a major shock was that Sony would not be including force feedback in their new controller. The funniest part, was that they claimed that it would interfere with the SIXAXIS technology, even though Nintendo fared fine with their motion sensing controls.

Further, Sony down played the idea of having rumble as a last-gen feature. I would have to say that it was more of a last-gen innovation but a feature that almost every gamer expects to have. Finally, word got out that the lack of rumble was most likely due to legal complications between Sony and Immersion. At this point it was clear to me that Sony was just making excuses in effort to skip paying a hefty sum of money to Immersion to license the technology. Recently, however, Sony and Immersion struck a deal. So, now, Sony is going to have to eat their words, and they will no doubt integrate this last-gen feature into their console.

What bothers me most, is that now, all PS3 owners who want to have this basic feature will have to go out and buy a new controller. What’s more is these controllers run $60 and don’t include a charging cable, last time I saw one purchased. And I would suspect that controllers that are packing rumble technology will use a little bit more power, so controllers will need to be charged more often. What a mess, Sony.