Digital TrendsTechnology news and Product Reviews

PlayStation Move vs. Nintendo Wii: Under the Hood

Nick Mokey By

On the surface, Sony’s new PlayStation Move looks like an obvious Nintendo Wii copycat, but things aren’t as simple under the hood. Here’s why Sony’s upcoming PlayStation Move system will offer the most precise motion control to date.

Sony has transformed a swank event space in downtown Seattle into a sea of make believe. Journalists smack ping-pong balls, wield swords and buzz the hair off imaginary scalps. Five years ago, this demo of Sony’s upcoming PlayStation Move motion controller might have elicited giggles and raised eyebrows from the grown men and women men milling through, cocktails in hand, but this is the post-Wii age. No one bats an eye.

And that might be a problem for Sony. The glowing neon balls are new, but we know the concept all too well. Sony’s PlayStation Move looks a lot like an overhyped, late-to-market version of the Wii.

So why isn’t it the Wii, again? Despite the overwhelming similarity, Sony’s Move controller does add a new dimension to the motion control we know and love. Here’s how.

The Magic is in the Ball

Ask any of Sony’s code maestros just how the Move is different from the Wii and they’ll adopt the same look of veiled exhaustion. They’ve heard it more than a few times tonight.

“We have these!” one Sony dev grins after pausing for a moment to decide how to cover it for the hundredth time. He holds up the colored balls on the end of the Move controllers.

He’s not exaggerating. The ping-pong ball look-alikes at the end of the Move controllers are precisely what set Sony’s technology apart from anything Nintendo or even Microsoft will offer. While the accelerometers inside the controller act much as a Wii does, the balls provide what Sony calls a zero point – an absolute location in physical space for the system to peg all the other data to.

A what?

Sony engineer Anton Mikhailov compares the inertial sensors in a Wii remote to walking in a dark room: You know how quickly you’re walking, and can feel yourself turn, but without seeing your surroundings, you have only a vague idea where you actually are, even if you’ve navigated the room a dozen times.

“The problem with inertial sensors is that they tell you where you’re going, but not really where you end up,” Mikhailov explains. Although the Wii’s infrared sensor bar gives the remote some pointing ability, the triangulation used to roughly plot the Wii remote’s location results in some uncertainty. “You don’t know with the Wii sensor bar whether you’re turning – like in the pointer scenario – or moving. Because of that ambiguity, you can’t discern whether you’re moving in space.”

In contrast, the colored ball used on the Move remote tells the PlayStation exactly where you’re standing in front of the TV. Simple left and right movement of the dots can tell the system where you are on an X and Y axis, while the size of the ball tells the system how close or far you are from the TV – that critical Z axis. Attach all the accelerometer and gyroscope data to that point in space, and you have the Move.

In Case You Missed It:

Showing 34 comments

  1. Body versus mind: Gaming and your health | SNID- Master in Social Networks Influence Design at 1:37pm 6th March 2012 [...] study found that there was no substantial difference in activity between the two groups; the accelerometers found that the active gaming group averaged 25-28 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical [...]
  2. Body versus mind: Gaming and your health at 9:06pm 5th March 2012 [...] study found that there was no substantial difference in activity between the two groups; the accelerometers found that the active gaming group averaged 25-28 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical [...]
  3. lol at 3:43pm 13th March 2011 The Wii MotionPlus does away with the question of accuracy completely, considering it now comes with the console. Nintendo are always the innovators when it comes to controllers - for nearly everything you expect in a controller nowadays, you've got Nintendo to thank. Everyone else has historically copied the blueprint, or "played catch-up". There is no question that this is an embarassing about-face for Sony and Microsoft. Whether it brought in irrelevant questions of a 'casual' audience and credibility or not, it sold by the bucketload, and now others want in on the pie. Unfortunately, the 'casual' argument (presumably not an issue with Sony and Microsoft's equivalents) and a focus on HD technology cultivated a snobbery towards the Wii. This snobbery meant the console recieved little support where it mattered, and many great games came from in-house. So it's a fanboy article, gagging to see what the Move can do for the PS3. Fair enough. But questions of technical superiority are not only too late in light of Wii Motionplus, they're also missing the point - even Microsoft compromised on the technology for Kinect. I too, am a bit biased, in that HD graphics are not going to blow my brains. What both Kinect and Move need are 'killer apps' that will utilize the technology effectively. Depending on your stance, and whether you're a bit of a snob, this could have been achieved by Nintendo with Wii Sports immediately. I would say it was in fact the Motionplus which has gone underused, seemingly released to shut people up. "Casual games" and "Shovelware" ahoy. If the Move gets an era-defining game that properly uses the technology, then it'll have been worth it. If not, Sony will need to innovate.
  4. Osama Bin Laden at 5:56pm 26th December 2010 They both are great systems but I prefer the wii because of it's games and gameplay.
  5. Gerudo Link at 8:50am 22nd December 2010 And the 3DS? Yeah. next year broas. It hasn't even launched yet, and won't for another 3 months, yet we already have Metal Gear Solid, TWO Resident Evil Games, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Dead or Alive ;)... But back to the point, I think you should compare this article with the WiiMotionPlus.
  6. Gerudo Link at 8:48am 22nd December 2010 WHAT TO YOU MEAN NO GOOD TITLES? Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid other M (minus the story), Goldeneye, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, Donkey Kong Country: Returns...just off the top of my head...
  7. broas at 9:59am 14th December 2010 maybe but with more accurate motion. titles like resident evil 5 gold edition. will be able to use the move. wii hasnt had good titles this year. and what abot the 3d??
  8. Brolan at 8:07am 10th December 2010 Wii is still sold out in my local gamestop. I asked the manager, and he said that sales of the wii have not slowed between this xmas and last. I think the move will do about as much damage to the wii market as the psp did to the ds. That is to say, NOT MUCH
  9. SonyandMicrosoftFan at 9:07pm 6th December 2010 Sony and Microsoft own!!! Nintendo Wii was good when it only had to battle against Eyetoy but now with PS Move and Kinect, it`s starting to get well... worse by the day. Get a Kinect and PS Move if you can!!!
  10. Top 10 gifts for gamers: Hottest hardware, accessories and peripherals at 2:00am 6th December 2010 [...] a new controller that offers a different way to play games. Similar to the controllers found on the Wii, Sony has taken that idea and created a controller that is technologically far superior.When both [...]
  11. ikshu at 2:52pm 27th November 2010 Wii is more accurate
  12. Guest at 2:29pm 10th October 2010 Everybody is going to buy a PS3 because the PS Move is just like the Wii but with HD graphics.
  13. Anonymous at 5:24pm 20th September 2010 On my comment above, i accidentally made "nintendo" "wii". So dont mind me. I meant Nintendo made its own market
  14. Anonymous at 5:22pm 20th September 2010 As Wils said wii made its own market. It went beyond what other systems could do. And about the graphics, WHAT IS THE DEAL?! It doesnt matter if the wii has worse graphics, it matters if the games are good or not and the price. Sony is just jealous and bleeding dollars cause of the wii so they now made a so called "perfect wii" But the thing is that the wii is 4 years old. That tech was kikass 4 years ago. If wii wanted to it could make a better version. But it doesnt. It will just cost more and be worse for the buyers. Wii thinks more about the buyers, prices and fun rather than unneccacary graphics that will make the wii more expensive. Sony is all about the graphics and hd, and etc. It took ps3 3 years to get a decent price compared to wii. And the games and controllers still cost a lot. Dont forget that ps3 started with 700$ price. Nintendo all the way.
  15. Kinetic vs. Move: Who is the winner? | PixelVulture at 5:04am 27th July 2010 [...] and both will offer gamers a gesture-based controller for their respective systems. While the Nintendo Wii might have a place in the conversation, the new controllers are add-ons to their respective [...]
  16. PlayStation Move vs. Microsoft Kinect at 2:00am 26th July 2010 [...] and both will offer gamers a gesture-based controller for their respective systems. While the Nintendo Wii might have a place in the conversation, the new controllers are add-ons to their respective [...]
  17. Wils at 3:31am 20th June 2010 Or perhaps Motion Plus was released because Move was a threat? Either way, the Motion Plus is what the Wiimote was supposed to be to begin with. There is no arguing that Nintendo created a new market with the Wii. They baked a delicious pie and now Sony and MS both want to take a bite. I don't think anyone is foolish enough or ignorant enough to truly believe Move is a Wii-wannabe. On the other hand, Nintendo defenders here are quick to jump in to tell people that Motion Plus CAN do what the Move does. Which begs the question: do you have hands on experience with the Move to compare the 2? Sure, perhaps the Motion Plus can do all the things the aurthor said in that quote; but a quote is just a quote, it contains part of the reality and not the reality itself. Proving the quote wrong is thus completely irrelevant.
  18. James at 3:14am 17th June 2010 LOL "You can take a ping-pong paddle and twist it around in your hand, watching the item do the same.The Wii cannot do this"Yes it can, Nintendo released WiiMotionPlus last year so it can do this. Sony just copied nintendo's ideas and has copied games such as mario and mario kart and made them into "open" games such as little bigplanet and modnation racers. I honestly think that if nintendo is releaseing a new portable console this year, next year will be the new wii so it will have HD, better online and videochat.
  19. Blue Rocks at 10:00am 2nd June 2010 Why was the comparison between the PS Move and the original WiiMote? Why not between the PS Move and the Wiimote with Motion Plus? It would seem to be a better comparable. Or was the choice of comparing new, as of now unavailable, technology against four year old technology done on purpose as to favour one over the other?

    What is next? Compare the new PSP2 with the DS Phat? Or how the PS4 will kick the megabytes out of the original Xbox?
  20. Orlando web design at 11:13pm 7th May 2010 Wand-based motion controllers may be all the rage now, but I'm waiting for the next-gen version of the
  21. dang at 8:25am 21st April 2010 Hm, I haven't seen the Wii use a camera to show you on the TV, and then super-impose objects in your hands with any Wii game. I think you might be confused with general functions of the Wii and Wii remote.

    Re-read that sentence. "... takes a live feed of you..."
  22. Ob at 4:35am 21st April 2010 I don't deny being a fanboy. Anyone can be one if they so choose. I was just pointing out bias, one-sided fanboyism. The Wii revolutionized gaming , capturing non-gamers in their millions, but they didn't get it completely right. I never liked the Wii & would prefer the Move over it, but being a PS3 owner would suggest that, but I like the idea of having full control over a table tennis racket, detecting my movements across the table & away from it, rather than just backhand, forhand. It would be interesting to see what non console owners are going to do. You can point at the price, but you'd be able to play games like GOWIII & GT5 and do motion control on the same system.

    I understand what you said, that "Now because of Nintendo's success Sony's trying to make a "MOVE"." Didn't I say "Move was brought about mainly because of the success of the Wii..."? My point was, WHAT THE HECK DID YOU EXPECT THEM TO DO? Just sit there and do nothing while they're losing their business, in the same industry? No serious company does that, so why all the "this copied this" talk now? You don't do that anywhere else.
  23. Jeff at 3:00am 21st April 2010 This article is so slanted it hurts.

    "Anton fires up a technical demo. It takes a live feed of you standing in front of the TV and superimposes virtual objects into your hand. The remote becomes a mallet, a globe, a sword. And every single motion translates fluidly to the screen. You can take a ping-pong paddle and twist it around in your hand, watching the item do the same.

    The Wii cannot do this."

    This isn't even based in reality. Wii Sports Resort does all of these things. Did you start getting into games YESTERDAY, Digital trends? Did Sony pay you a lot of money to write up a hit piece against the Wii Remote? Do you feel ashamed for being an intellectual toady?
  24. Arby at 3:31pm 20th April 2010 @Gonzobot, You're a little bit misinformed in regards to the technical details. I totally understand both Wii and this Move from a technical standpoint and Move *IS* an advancement over Wii and *IS* more accurate, but you are completely right in your "big whoop" point. Wii is old news now. It's played out (at least in my home). So really Sony challenge is to come up with something really huge (in software) to top everything Wii has done already.

    I feel the same abotu Natal. Yeah you can kick at things, but beyond that "demo", do we really want to be crouching in front of our TVs to dodge bullets in "Call of Duty Natal"?
  25. Joe Lachiana at 2:34pm 19th April 2010 I almost died when I read about clay sculpting. If it comes down to this prepare for the great video game crash 2012.
  26. Gonzobot at 9:28am 18th April 2010 So what they're selling is a Wii with the MotionPlus already inside of it?

    I mean, its the same thing, using visible light cameras instead of the Wii's infrared sensor system, and where you hold the light instead of the camera. Then they're throwing raw system horsepower at it to things that nobody's bothered to do on Wii yet (like clay sculpting...WOOO that sounds like the killer app Sony needs to take the top again, amirite?)

    Looks like we can all start expecting the PS3 shovelware now. Get ready to pay eighty dollars for a flash game from the internet!
  27. PD at 6:05am 18th April 2010 LOL do you douches have lives? What does it matter if he puts it on 2 pages...you get to click an extra time, which is much less time than you used to complain.
  28. Joel at 5:39am 18th April 2010 I think this could finally bring the mouse/keyboard feel to fps on a console. If done right.
  29. Cash for Games at 4:20am 18th April 2010 Ob, Your the fan boy. Sony could of put this controller out (if) they were working on it when their brand new PS3 was introduced but THEY DIDN'T have it!! Sony's original controller for PS3 looked like a Boomer rang. Sony was being sued for patent enfringment thus we got something called "Sixaxis" non vibrating piece of crap. Sony wanted you to focus on Graphics and Blue ray. Now because of Nintendo's
    success Sony's trying to make a "MOVE". So what if Nintendo put out Waggle control. Nintendo also put out an affordable game system with "FUN" selling games that make you want to waggle while playing.
  30. Doh at 12:46am 18th April 2010 Do you reallyneed a page 2 for such a short article?
  31. Me at 12:09am 18th April 2010 Nick Mokey, thanks for putting your small article on 2 pages to provide yourself with more hits. you sir are a phony and a ripoff. good day,
  32. Matthew11 at 11:45pm 17th April 2010 I should point out that if you have every tried to play a Wii in a room with a lot of sunlight or sun setting you find the same problem, the cursor gets jittery or completely random on the screen, considering most people close the curtains or use a basement to avoid these problems I consider it a non issue. The bigger issue is the developers, it is likely anything built for the Move will be designed to be ported to the Wii as well to get a bigger market, this will cause the Move to fail as most of it's consumer base already has a Wii and frankly the price point is to high to bring new people to the PS3. That being said, if it manages to last a year or more, we might see some exclusive titles come out, but even then there is not likely to be much innovation. Hardcore titles will want to be both Xbox360 and PS3 compatible ans still use the old controllers as not to require people to pick up new hardware. This is the same failing that doomed they original Eyetoy to a few game titles.

    Unless they can come up with a price point of a system with a regular and a Move controller at under $200 to match the Wii, there isn't much hope. Even if they can, so many people have already chosen the Wii as their system and Sony has nothing to compete with the WiiFIT which has been used as an excuse by tons of gamers and kids to convince wives/girlfriends/mothers to buy something they would otherwise not allow. I hope it succeeds, however, unless they come out with a killer app or add-on quickly that will pull people in, it has little hope.
  33. Andrew Kent at 12:21pm 16th April 2010 Good article, balanced by pointing out the reliance on the ball.

    From my personal experience with the 360 webcam and the You're In The Movies game I can see the appeal of movement oriented controls. They are neat, they are fun. They are worth closing the blinds or maybe hanging a sheet behind you to enhance detection. But at the end of the day I sit down to play Bad Company 2 and there is no movement oriented system I can envision that is market viable to provide me with the response and quickness of a physical controller.

    Bottom line this stuff is fun and worth it to a point, but a controller is a controller is a controller and gaming is built upon a mechanical interface with a human.
  34. Ob at 4:44am 14th April 2010 Wow TC, spoken like a true fanboy. Now if you could just put that narrow-minded allegiance to your piece of electronics you view as god for a sec, consider the fact that just because a said company releases a product first, that doesn't mean they weren't the only ones working on something similar. If companies building on other fantastic ideas is "BS" as you so eloquently put it, then we should only have the iPhone as the only touch interface phone, with all it's issues. Maybe Windows should be the only graphical user interface based OS. Maybe id software or whoever came with an FPS before them should've patented the "FPS" idea. No Crysis, Counter-strike, Bioshock. YAY! I'm all for the idea of Ford being the only cars around. Like, why would you even want a Lamborghini?

    But you wouldn't call those "BS", right? Only PS Move, because you're a fanboy.

    Now I'll admit that Move was brought about mainly because of the success of the Wii, causing Sony to bleed dollars, but this video here shows Sony's Richard Marks demo-ing the Eyetoy combined with a sphere-like controller...hmmm, sounds familiar. This was done about 8 years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpNdkm9s8AY
Close Suggestion Activision fights Back, Sues Former ‘Modern Warfare’ execs
View Article