Unofficial periphiral maker, Blaze, have announced the ‘Blaze PS3 Motion Freedom Controller’. Catchy name, no? They have seemingly beaten Sony to the motion-sensing punch by creating what you see above; a controller that bares a striking resemblence to the Wii Remote.
Boasting ‘full 3D Motion Sensing technology’, Blaze have said it features full-function control with direction pad and a vast array of button controls which will ‘thrust players into the heart of the action’. There is no mention in the Press Release of whether it will work with existing games (I can’t see how), but they have mentioned two titles in particular: Sega Superstar Tennis and Tiger Woods Golf; both of which are already out and available to buy. There is also no mention of price or a release date.
But Sony’s ‘Wand’ does feature one thing that the Blaze controller, at first glances, doesn’t. The colour changing orb on the top of the official controller allows for integration with the EyeToy and together, your actual movements are tracked with precision and are represented on screen like-for-like. Our resident guru, Djhsecondnature, has advised me that this is known as ‘One-to-One’ tracking. The Blaze would appear to be the same technology as the Wiimote which uses accelerometers to calculate the movement, which will possibly lead to it being less responsive than Sony’s periphiral.
On a personal note, I like the design. The Wii controller works perfectly so a simple ‘copy’ does make sense. Sony’s own ‘Wand’ is common knowledge now and having only seen a few demos of it, including this one and this one, it is hard to talk about the pros and cons of one over the other, although, as mentioned above, Sony’s may offer another dimension to the game.
