Rumble-Supporting Sixaxis Rumored as TGS Announcement
The recent timing of the new SDK rollout--supposedly sent to devs last Thursday--could mean Sony is prepping for an announcement. Sony announced its intentions to work with former legal adversary and rumble technology developer Immersion earlier this year after reaching a financial agreement with the company.
In light of this, the eventual inclusion of rumble support should be no surprise, and a TGS announcement would be as likely as any--though it would seem to make more sense once Sony actually has a game to go along with the technology. As with the PS3 price shuffle, press and analysts speculated Sony would pull the rumble card at E3 soon after the Immersion deal, but Sony has yet to reveal a date for the inclusion of last-last-gen technology in its current-gen console.
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Beady
replyWhat was it they said during *that* Sony trainwreck? Something about rumble being last gen technology?
*cough*-
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I think it's more of a case where Sony tried to feed us some bullshit PR line on why the PS3 didn't include rumble and now we're calling them on it.
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They were targetted by a lawsuit relating to rumble. What did you expect them to say?
Obviously, they can't say "we wish we could give you rumble", or "we're in a lawsuit for rumble right now". They just try and focus on the features they have. Thats PR.
All these people feigning ignorance to the facts of the issue and acting all butt-hurt is a huge joke. Grow up. You aren't calling them on anything.-
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You admit you knew the reasons why they said what they did, and yet you still think there is something to 'call them on". I'm thinking you either don't understand PR, lawsuits, or you just want to hate Sony so you've convinced yourself that you were "lied to".
Lets say conversely, that they still do think it is "last-gen" tech, but so many people bitched about it they are now adding it because they listen to the customers. Are you "calling them on" listening to what their customers want?-
They told two lies.
One was that it was "impossible" to combine rumble and motion sensitivity (despite the fact they have now done so, and at the time a 3rd party PS1 controller had done so, and the Wii had done so).
The second lie was that rumble was an unwanted "last gen" feature.
These were both LIES. Not PR Spin. LIES. If you're happy being lied to then fine but other people feel like it is at least pointing it out when it happens.
If Sony cared about making the best system for their customers then they should have simply licenced the technology from day one and settled the lawsuit immediately like Microsoft did rather than fighting it, losing it, appealing it, etc. Alternatively, they could've invented a different way to do rumble which wasn't covered by the patent (like Nintendo had done, although that was probably luck on their part).
Patents like that suck for sure but that's business. Sony let it get in the way of making the best possible system and then, to add further insult to their customers, cooked up a load of bullshit to explain it. If they had simply said "We're not paying those bastards a licence for that technology!" then that would have been a different thing. I'd still disagree with a business squabble like that affecting an important feature of the system but at least it would've been the apparent truth.
Seems to me that Sony were just playing chicken with Immersion. Perhaps Immersion thought they'd always back down because it would be unthinkable to not include rumble on a console controller in this day and age and Sony called them on it and went through with their threats... then lost the lawsuit TWICE and went back to Immersion with tail between legs to licence the technology. What a victorious business and PR strategy that was. Complete failure for everyone.
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Actually I'll hand you this one. I had forgotten about the "impossible" line. That one was pretty stupid, and I'll admit it was a lie.
The rest of it is just PR speak. Twisted, but true at its core even if it sounds stupid. The "last gen" did have rumble, and therefore it was a last gen feature. That really isn't a lie.
Nintendo invented the rumble before Immersion, actually. That is why they are immune. If they were patent trolls they could probably go after Immersion.
I agree they were playing chicken with Immersion, and for the cost they had to pay you would too. When it became clear it wasn't going to work, they cut their losses.
I'm glad you are critiquing their business and PR strategy here, in the present with all the facts in front of you. It certainly makes it much easier for you. Too bad for them they didn't have a time machine and probably thought they had a decent chance of winning, so they went with the best strategy they could. -
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Why wouldn't they say that? The lawsuit is the main (possibly only) reason they ditched rumble in the PS3. Everyone knew it. But instead of saying so, Sony came out and said they were ditching it because it was useless and "last-gen". You may call it PR spin, I call it lying and treating your customers like idiots.
I have a lot more respect for companies that talk straight to their customers. If you don't want to pay royalties for the rumble technology, are in the middle of a lawsuit to try to regain the rights to use said technology, just fucking say so. Don't feed me some line about how I don't need or want rumble anymore.-
"Why wouldn't they say that?" It isn't obvious? They are currently in litigation with another party. Anything they say will be used against them. "We didn't include rumble because we're infringing on someone's patents." "Our competitor paid off Immersion and now they are patent trolling us." "Talk[ing] striaght to their customers" in PR is what would get an even larger judgement levied against them. They had to say something, they are a public company. They also couldn't say that they were planning on releasing rumble in the future because that would have just hurt them at the bargaining table for their eventual settlement.
As far as treating your customers like idiots, I think the only idiots are the ones who believed it enough to be all emo about it now. To everyone else, it was pretty obvious it was just PR talk because of the lawsuit. Lips moved, words came out, but that wasn't what they were really saying.
Your comments just strike me as naive. Were you pissed off about MS and Sony denying price cut rumors right up until they happened? Thats PR homie. I guess if you want to be sad every time a press release "lies" to you, thats your game. I just think you're going to be sad a lot of the time.-
I understand the nature of PR and I understand that you can't speak about ongoing litigation, and I still think Sony could have handled it in such a way that didn't make them look like such giant douchebags. Give me something plausible. Give me something at least partially based on the truth.
I'd respect "We aren't including rumble in the PS3 due to ongoing litigation with Immersion." or even "We chose to drop rumble to extend battery life." a lot more than "Rumble? Who gives a fuck about rumble? Rumble is last-gen. You don't need rumble anymore! Also it's impossible with motion-sensing technology."
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