Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has never been shy about speaking his mind, and this week in San Francisco he aimed that famously loose tongue at Sony’s motion controller. While at the Game Developers Conference, the Gears of War lead designer took a swipe at the look of PlayStation Move, comparing the glowing wands to ice cream cones that light up and admitting he could not stop giggling at them.
The comment came across as Bleszinski’s usual brand of ribbing rather than a detailed technical critique, and the full context of the remark is still thin on the ground. Even so, it is exactly the kind of offhand line that travels quickly, especially coming from one of the most recognizable faces tied to Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
The Glowing Orb Behind The Joke
For anyone who has not handled one, the Move controller is a handheld wand topped with a soft sphere that glows in a choice of colors. The PlayStation Eye camera follows that orb to work out where the controller sits in the room, a setup that early impressions of the hardware last year admitted looked a little silly, even if the wand itself felt light in the hand. Sony launched Move in September, pitching it as a more precise option than both the Wii Remote and Microsoft’s camera based Kinect.
Sony has also been busy giving Move more to do for core players. Killzone 3, which landed last month, supports the controller alongside the standard pad, and Sony has continued to court developers to build games around the wand rather than tacking it on as an afterthought.
An Xbox Champion Whose Studio Still Ships On PS3
Bleszinski’s loyalties are hardly a secret. Gears of War remains one of the Xbox 360’s flagship exclusives, and Gears of War 3 is due on September 20. A dig at the rival wand from someone so closely associated with Microsoft’s console will surprise few people.
It would be a stretch, though, to paint him as anti PlayStation. Epic’s newest release, the People Can Fly developed shooter Bulletstorm, arrived on PS3 alongside Xbox 360 and PC just last month, and Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 underpins a long list of games on Sony’s machine. Teasing a piece of plastic is a long way from writing off a platform.
Whether PlayStation fans take the joke in good humor is another matter. Bleszinski is one of the most visible developers in the business, and remarks like this tend to light up message boards and comment threads in a hurry. We will keep an eye on how the reaction plays out over the coming days.