Jet, the original peripheral was called the EyeToy, and was just the camera, and yes, it was out years and years ago back on the PS2, and in a way I'd say that was probably the 1st foray (unsuccessfully) in to motion gaming. Nintendo may or may not have drawn on that as an idea for motion controllers.
I keep reading that Sony started research in to motion controllers before nintendo but nintendo brought it out 1st. Given the difference in precision, I'm wondering if it was a QA process that kept Sony's Move on the backburner for as long as it was.
From a technical standpoint, I'll just quote Gamepro
Quote:
Thanks to its more ergonomic shape, the Move's controllers are more comfortable in your hand than the Wii-mote/nunchuck combo, and the PlayStation Eye, which acts as the sensor, is both more accurate in its tracking and easier to balance on top of your TV than the Wii's. Moreover, the Move's Z-axis tracking is not only superior to the Wii's (just the fact that it exists is enough for that), it allows more flexibility in your movements, allowing you to move closer to your TV in order to put more power into a bowling throw or to back up in order to absorb a powerful slam at ping pong. The camera also incorporates real, 3D body movement as well, leading to a more intuitive sense of realism.
Beyond the Wii comparison, though, the Move impresses from virtually every technical perspective: both the accelerometer (which tracks how fast you're swinging the controller) and the angular rate sensors (which track in which direction you're moving the controller) are, to quote My Cousin Vinny, dead-on-balls accurate. Tracking is crisp with very low latency, and motion is represented as you'd expect in real life, meaning assimilating to new games is simple. The Move's controllers even include a magnetometer and complex inertial sensors to track its position by dead-reckoning, allowing the PlayStation to know how the controller is moving, even when it is obscured from the PlayStation Eye (for example, when you reach behind your back to grab an arrow from your virtual quiver)
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To give you an idea, I was playing the gladiator game, and for shits and giggles I looped my fingers through the wrist strap and started swinging it in a figure 8 crisscross fashion in front of me and my avatar swung it at ease like he'd been doing it all his life.
It made me giddy thinking of the 1st star wars light saber simulation that uses this hardware.
Furthermore you can use this to navigate the XMB, I must say it should seem quite impressive to the causal viewer as I navigate my collection of movies and tv shows with the mere casual flick of my wrist.
Here's a dry run video I did of the Time Crisis demo, I didn't get myself in the shot (except a brief cameo), hopefully i'll figure out a better angle to shoot from in the future.
I've played a few wii titles on both convention floors and at with a few friends at their homes, but I always viewed it as too casual of a system for me since it did not posesses the accuracy and speed in the control that I wanted, nor the graphic capability I'd desire for an immersive experience.
Right now the launch selection is "ehhhhh?" The sports champions one that it's bundled with has enough milestones for you to aim for to keep you busy for a while. Eyepet is a total childs game but I still played through the demo with no qualms about doing so just because the experience was unique.
Some existing games are adding support (like Heavy Rain, MAG) while Sony is pressuring devs to integrate support in to upcoming titles. Also upcoming, Killzone 3, SOCOM, LittleBigPlanet2, TRON. They're very positive it will be adapted quickly since they said on average it's been taking the 3rd party devs an average of 2 weeks to build working Move compatible prototypes for existing games. It makes me hopeful for things like Bad Company 2 or Modern Warfare etc...
One nag, some games are designed to be played on the floor (EyePet) while most are designed to be played standing, so depending on the game, you may have a small amount of set up time, but I guess I'm used to it considering I have to dig out the drum set every time I want to use it for rock band or guitar hero, as a comparison. Just keep that usb wire to the camera untangled from any others and it wont take but a moment to move it around as needed.
edit: full list of titles I found.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/06/16/fu...tles-surfaces/
I wasn't going to buy MAG before, but this might push me to give it a go.