A few weeks ago, Sony unveiled the Playstation Move at GDC 2010, which is their answer to the Nintendo Wii’s motion controller. Sony claims it to be an extension of the body rather than being another pointing device. It will retail for less than US$100 and it’ll come as a bundle with the Playstation Eye.

Personally, I see it as a sideline player more than a main attraction.

First off, I’m not here to criticize the functionality of the Move. It looks decent (even with its glowing colored ball attachment thing), it seems easy for someone to pick up and play, and the hands-on impression seems to garner positive reactions. What I’m more concern is whether its announcement and existence is due to Sony capitalizing on the Wii controller trend. If it’s just solely to do that, I doubt the Move will capture people’s attention in the long run when it’s out later this year.

The PS3 released around the same period the Wii got into the market, and the latter got more sales numbers on its debut. Heck, even until now the Wii has been climbing the top spot in terms of hardware sales. Sure, the Xbox 360 and PS3 did get higher sales for a month or so once in a while, but Nintendo gets the ante up in the long run as soon as they get something that’s either a Mario game or a 1st party Wii Fit gimmick. Seriously, a tech demo from them (complete with a Wiimote stuffed in its box) somehow outdid a number of bestsellers for the past 15 years. There’s just that something about Nintendo and their grand scheme of things.

Long story short, Sony already has a good, nay, GREAT thing going with the PS3’s price cut, sleek design, and its exclusive titles (and the ones using the PS3 as their lead SKU). It took them a while to recover from their E3 2006 stagger, but they pulled through in the end by focusing what they do best: churn out great AAA games using a high-powered machine that also plays Blu Ray.

Do they really need the Playstation Move, other than the fact that they’re trying to squeeze out more money from soccer moms and kids who probably have owned a Wii and have already adjusted their mindset to Nintendo’s family-friendly approached that has been established since, I don’t know, 1989? I can understand their rationale: get new gamers on board with the Move so that they grow up to be a hardcore mindset in the future, and even have mom, dad, your little siblings and whatnot join in on the fun. But if Sony’s PR and marketing people made the Move their huge focal point in pushing out the PS3, it’s going to cost them. Not only will it come off as misinterpreted and inadvertently push away the hardcore gamers, casual gamers will also misread their message and ask “Why pay US$300 for a PS3 with the Move when I can shell out for something US$100 less and does the same thing?” Just something to think about.

The Shoot: A likely Playstation Move "killer app", but only if Sony plays their marketing cards right.

Granted, there are reports claiming that it performs better than the Wii’s controller and I do admit that I’m intrigued at how cool The Shoot (working title of the PS3 equivalent of Duck Hunt) and SOCOM 4 plays and work. However, if you’re getting a PS3,  you are getting it to play AAA good-looking games and watch Blu-Ray movies, not waggle your controller around and pointing at stuff. Hell, I’m even more worried about future titles to already-established IPs (Uncharted, God of War, Infamous) where the developers (and even producers) are having icky thoughts about shoe-horning Move-only controls just because they can. The one thing that ruined certain Sony titles for me was the implementation of the SixAxis motion (Uncharted 1, Killzone 2, Lair). Since videogaming history love to repeat itself, you can bet that a seemingly good game will be ruined because someone didn’t implement the Move schemes properly.

Put it this way: only the most devoted of Sony enthusiasts are the only ones who give a crap about the Playstation Eye and Playstation Home. If it’s a consumer’s first time buying the PS3, I doubt that the aforementioned things will enter their minds (usually it’s Blu Ray, God of War, or Uncharted). It’s better for Sony to stick to their strengths (power, long-standing franchises, indie stuff from PSN like Flower, and Playstation Classics) and push on through there rather than capitalize the Move too much to the point that it could potentially take over their modus operandi and shoot themselves on the foot, right?

At best, Sony should just keep the Move as a sideline that shines bright every now and then. While we’re on the subject of apparatuses, let’s jump back to the Playstation Eye: can you name me any other game that fully made that apparatus memorable (face-capturing doesn’t count) apart from Eye of Judgment and EyePet?

On the upside, at least it’s out in the open behind media events. Time will tell if Sony’s other adversary, Microsoft, can get ready to show off their hand in the motion control game just in time for this year’s E3.