SCEA doesn’t think it “makes sense,” to do away with standard game controllers

By Stephany Nunneley

Sony doesn’t plan on ditching a standard controller any time soon, according to SCEA’s Dr. Richard Marks.

“I don’t think it makes sense,” he told Gamasutra regarding the possibility of Sony going full-on motion controlled like Wii. Marks believes the traditional gamepad is still needed, but at the same time, motion controllers are less-intimidating to some audiences.

“I said that pretty much from the beginning that we’re not trying to get rid of the gamepad,” said Marks. “The gamepad is a really good abstract device. It can map to so many different things. It doesn’t map one-to-one to those things, but it doesn’t need to for a lot of game experiences.

“[The traditional controller] is still intimidating to some audiences, some people, and so, those people might like Move better. So, I think having both offered to [different] kinds of people that want to play is the right choice right now. I think the DualShock, it’s just better for some experiences, but the Move is better for other ones.”

As far as Kinect was concerned, Marks said he is supportive of any innovation hitting the market, but he thinks camera tech has a ways to go before it can offer what a standard controller does.

“You need a lot more fidelity [in camera technology] to get the kind of control that you can already get out of the gamepad or Move even,” he said. “I think to do some of the more subtle things, it’s just not possible right now. And I think it might be a ways off because buttons are very exact.

“They know exactly what the person intends, they push a button or they don’t. And that’s a tough one to replace with some kind of other gesture.”

You can read the full feature with Marks through Gamasutra.