We saw Sony’s impressive motion control demo. You may call it a gimmick, and even Sony admits that it’s not the primary direction of the PlayStation 3. The Dual Shock will still reign as king.

After being asked about the motion controller’s relevance compared to the Dual Shock and PS Eye, John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing for Sony responded:

It won’t be a new Dual Shock. The Dual Shock is the defacto and it always will be. This will be a component that can be used for a variety of games.

Indeed, even when we question Koller as to whether or not we could expect a PS3 motion controller bundle at its release, he hedged, explaining that bundling motion with every PS3 “might not make sense.”

In other words, motion controls may be in the PS3’s future, but they aren’t the future of the PS3—a somewhat different perspective than Microsoft has of their motion control peripheral, Project Natal.

The Price: $US40

The Verdict: Even at $US10 less than Sony’s Dual Shock 3, the Datel Wildfire is a pass. The controller actually feels decent in your hand, with an interesting pistol-like contour and a useful rubber texture. And its build quality is decent—it doesn’t feel cheaper than a Dual Shock or SIXAXIS.

But the rumble isn’t fantastic, the buttons are all a bit stiff and the altered, trigger-like position of L2/R2 buttons makes it a leap for your fingers to reach L1/L2 (similar to the Xbox 360, but exaggerated for the worse). I didn’t notice any inherent lag or inaccuracies in either the analogue sticks or the tilt sensitivity, but I found it hard to pull off any manoeuvre with laser speed. And additional turbo functions can do little to combat buttons that are hard to press quickly.

Plus, even though it plugs in via mini USB like official PS3 controllers, the Wildfire runs on AA batteries. Sony’s integrated rechargeable lithium ion alone probably makes the $US10 premium worth it.

Comfortable to hold

Bluetooth pairing was super easy, no dongle required

Stiff Controls

Awkward trigger placement

Mediocre rumble

AA batteries required
[TotalConsole]

In case you’ve been disappointed by the SIXAXIS or Dual Shock 3, Datel has just released the Wildfire. Yeah, it’s a generic controller, but it’s wielding all the standard PS3 functions and then some.

On top of tilt sensitivity, vibration and Bluetooth (we believe the Wildfire is the first dongle-less third party PS3 controller), the Wildfire features variable turbo and a design that looks like it could cut you. The only downfall on the spec sheet is its requirement of 2 AA batteries…which is probably a dealbreaker unto itself.

Since feel is everything in a controller, we’ll try to get our hands on one to test. Until then, the Wildfire is available for about $US50 at various vendors. [Total Console]

This Geocities page (wait, what?) has the download links, and this forum has English instructions on how to get it working. It works in XP/Vista, and theoretically should work on Windows 7 as well, but who the F knows. [Crave Asia via 3g iPhone Hacks via CNET]

First, the good news. PSP Plus will support controller vibration and add the use of the second analogue stick. Yay!

Then the bad news. It’s still unclear just how all of the hookups occur, but it will require you have a PS3. The first supported game, Resistance Retribution, will need the PSP Plus option to be activated through Resistance 2 (which is a PS3 game). This syncing sounds more invasive than a simple A/V out cord to your TV, which may or may not also be a required component of the hookup.

In other words, that dream of a Dual Shock that snaps onto the PSP is not happening. And by requiring a PS3/TV, Sony may have defeated the whole purpose of the PSP. But we’ll let you know if/when we get a clearer picture of how the peripheral support works. [Kotaku]

The first is exclusives. Final Fantasy 13 coming to the Xbox 360 was a pretty huge blow to the PlayStation brand seeing as they no longer having exclusivity to the main Final Fantasy line. This is just the latest in the line of Sony losing titles that were previously exclusive (or planned to be exclusive) to PlayStation. Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry are two more recent ones, but Wired also lists Assassin’s Creed (could have been PS3-only), Virtua Fighter 5, Beautiful Katamari, and Fatal Inertia. What does Sony have of big third-party exclusives? Metal Gear Solid 4.

This, as we learned from Sony’s Jack Tretton, is because they’re “not in the business of writing checks for exclusives.” Jack goes on to explain quite logically that in this day and age, it’s just much more profitable for game publishers to put their titles on as many consoles as possible, and companies would have to throw out some big chunks of money to convince them otherwise. The kind of money Microsoft has been doling out.

The second is Home. Tretton called the current state of Home a “no man’s land,” a phrase which he immediately wished he didn’t use. However, it’s as accurate of one as we could come up with. The problem right now is that Sony’s at an impasse. They’ve finished the shell of Home and much of the core functionality is done. However, there’s no content for it.

Maybe the best part is that the right analogue stick has been mapped with the D-Pad buttons. So while it’s still not quite perfect for an FPS, it feels better than the alternative. Damn I wish the PSP had two analogue sticks. [acidmods]

As a point of interest, the US version (which is exactly the same in every way), has an RRP of US$54.99, or the equivalent of $59.37. That’s roughly $40 cheaper. Factor in the shipping and it’s still cheaper.

Sure, there are economic factors that local companies need to take into account beyond the  strength of the US dollar, but $40 is a lot of money in anybody’s book. Sony’s decision to price their controller that high in Australia really will encourage a lot of people to import.

[Playstation]

The Price: US$54.99

The Verdict: Fantastic. It’s what the PlayStation 3 controller should have been at launch. You don’t realise how much you’re missing rumble until you actually get it back. We tested it with Folklore, Resistance, Super Stardust HD and Heavenly Sword and all of them behaved just like rumble should. It vibrated when you blew up ships in Stardust, when you shot and got shot in Resistance, and when you whipped out your little demons in Folklore.

We didn’t have the time to play through the entire game(s) to see if there are tons of different varying levels of intensity—say, if some cut scene started with a gentle vibration that ramped up to something crazy—but we’ve been hearing online that it does.

The DualShock 3 is also heavier than the SIXAXIS—still slightly lighter than an Xbox 360 controller—but definitely heavier. It feels right, not like the feeling you got from the SIXAXIS that someone hollowed out your controller while you weren’t looking.

It might not be worth your US$54 if you already own a SIXAXIS and don’t need another controller, but if you’re a big gamer that really loves the PS3 (and is waiting for Metal Gear Solid 4), it’s a good idea to invest in one. There’s a list of games that currently support rumble, which will most likely be supported by just about all games released from now on. [Amazon]