Tuesday 26 September 2006
Immersion, the company holding the patent for controller rumble technology, has published the findings of the survey it commissioned on gamer response to the new PS3 pad's lack of vibration feedback.
After Immersion sued Sony and Microsoft over the use of controller rumble, Sony's response - other than fighting, and losing, an ongoing legal battle with the company - was to drop rumble entirely from the PS3 pad, thus cutting Immersion out of any PS3 profits.
The company's obviously intending to go down swinging, though, with its survey results finding that 72% of the gamers questioned feel that vibration enhances the game experience "most of the time", and 58% were disappointed by the news that the PS3 will not feature it - especially with regards to backwards-compatible PSone and PS2 titles. Interestingly, 74% were not even aware the feature had been dropped from the PS3 pad.
Immersion then goes for the kill by claiming 5% of gamers surveyed will definitely not buy a PS3 without rumble, and 32% are "somewhat less likely" to purchase - all under a bold-text "Microsoft may gain market share vs Sony" heading.
While playing PS3 titles at TGS this weekend has raised our own doubts about the now DualShock-less PS3 pad, it remains to be seen if Immersion's warning will shake up Sony or be dismissed as another case of sour grapes.
