Sony: Hands on with Move and PlayStation 3D gaming

Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 19:37

Opinion and Analysis

Sony announced a video download service for the Australian market today in Sydney, but they also gave a select few (including myself) the chance to try out the new motion controller, and check out Sony's PS3 based 3D gaming.

Without doubt, for content starved Australians, the highlight of today's press event was the announcement of the PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service, delivering movies into households - something Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been doing for a number of months, but it is good to have competition, and Sony is certainly stepping up heat in this area.

At the press event today, Michael Ephraim, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and New Zealand spoke about the rise of the PlayStation 3 since the introduction of the Slim model, importantly at a new price point.  According to Ephraim, since that September 9th 2009 point in time, the PS3 has seen the highest unit increase in the gaming console industry.  These figures were boosted by the give-away promotions such as the Bravia TV deals done during this period.

With 853,000 PS3's now in the Australian market, 60 percent connected to the PlayStation Network, the local Sony arm was able to swing being part of the second wave rollout of the movies on demand feature already available in North America.

The other playthings on show at todays launch included Sony's entrant in the motion controller world, the PlayStation Move.  In conjunction with the PlayStation Eye I got a chance to try out the PlayStation Move motion controller with a couple of titles.

The archery demo used two Move's, one for putting behind the head, to take an arrow, one to represent the bow, and with a drawback action and releasing the trigger, watching the arrow fly.  Graphically this looked great, and the feeling was accurate and worked well in the demo.

The other game used a single Move controller only - I did not see the third component, the Sidekick at the demonstration.  In this game I got the chance to swat bugs on the screen, with my hand (holding the Move) turned into a tennis racquet.  

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