Oops… Sony won award for Dual Shock, not SIXAXIS

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 11 January 2007 21:10

Your IT - Entertainment

Thinking Sony had won an award for their SIXAXIS motion sensing technology in the PS3’s wireless controller, they rushed out a press release to celebrate. However, an Australian website did some checking and surprisingly discovered the award was for the historical innovation of Sony’s Dual Shock – an award shared by Nintendo’s D-Pad controller!

Australian website Hydrapinion has discovered that Sony won a Technology & Engineering Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) *not* for the SIXAXIS motion sensor in the PS3’s controller, but for their now discontinued Dual Shock technology.

Seamus Byrne wondered, as did many of us, that when Sony supposedly won the award for SIXAXIS, exactly what the wording of the award was, and why Nintendo hadn’t also been awarded for their Wiimote and Nun-chuck combination.

When he contacted NATAS, he first heard from Cheryl Daly of NATAS, who seemed to verify that the award was indeed for SIXAXIS. But a follow-up from Christine Chin at NATAS set the record straight.

According to Hydrapinion, Chin’s message in full was: “I understand you had contacted Cheryl Daly, Director of Communications at NATAS to confirm if Sony won for their PS3 controller. This is incorrect, Sony won for their dual shock analog controller”.

Chin continued that: “The award is from the Video Game Technology Group. It was nominated by our internal group and considered along with the Nintendo D-Pad both of which were considered Emmy worthy for the development of the generation of controllers that followed the classic joysticks. I would like to confirm that Sony did not win for their PS3 controller, they won for their Dual Shock Analog controller”.

Sony’s PR man Dave Karraker is reported to have said that: "I accepted the award myself and all they said was that the award was for ‘technological innovation for device controller’ ... but looking back, they never really did say for which one". Interestingly, Karraker also said that NATAS had approved Sony's press release about SIXAXIS before it was released. Oops!

So, there’s hope that Nintendo will win an award for their innovative Wiimote in the future, while future judges will be sure to remember Sony’s unfortunate misstep. Still, let’s not forget that SIXAXIS is still an excellent feature, with Microsoft yet to come up with a similar technology for the Xbox 360.

Lesson to be learned? Never, ever assume anything, and always double check. As my father’s uncle used to say… measure twice, cut once. Good advice!