SIXAXIS defended by Harrison

As well as having a frankly absurd name, the PlayStation 3's SIXAXIS controller has also come in for some criticism owing to the omission of force-feedback technology, that nice little rumble in the heat of the action that PS2 owners will have become accustomed to. Speaking to UK PS3 blog Threespeech.com, Sony Europe boss Phil Harrison defended the feature's omission stating, "I think that the next generation interfaces that can be created built on SIXAXIS motion sensitivity give tremendous gameplay benefits that far outweigh a reactive vibration function."

Who needs rumbling appears to be the message here, Harrison explaining that whilst vibration offered a single channel of feedback, the motion sensing functionality will add many layers of interaction with the game, out-stripping the benefit of the popular rumble. This might be true, but gamers might none the less wonder why we can't have both features on the controller.

Indeed, Immersion, the company that owns the force feedback patent, has in the past insisted that the feature could be integrated as part of the SIXAXIS controller, alongside the motion-sensing. In response to this idea, Harrison agreed that it might be technically possible, but that Sony had strict budget and manufacturing constraints which made such an integration problematic. More on this as we get it.