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Rumble is finally coming back to PS3,

After the DualShock 3 was officially unveiled during the Tokyo Game Show, Sony confirmed to GameDaily BIZ that the rumble technology in the new controller is the same as what's in the old DualShock 2. That said, certain editors have claimed that the DualShock 3 rumble is definitely improved and Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton believes the DualShock 3 is more advanced as well.

But what does haptics company Immersion, which licenses the technology to Sony, have to say about it? GameDaily BIZ spoke at length with Immersion CEO Vic Viegas about rumble for PS3 and whether Immersion's next-gen vibration technology will find itself being used by gamers soon.

Regarding the recent confusion over DualShock 3, while it's possible that SCE in Japan did not fill in SCEA on all the details, Viegas said, "If Sony said it's the same, then that's correct. To clarify, the relationship we have with Sony is that we provided them with a patent license, so they can develop technology and make improvements on their own and that would be covered under our patent portfolio – they have the rights to do that. ... But if they say it's the old technology, I'll take them at their word."

That said, Viegas couldn't be happier that rumble is coming back to PS3 and he's confident that it'll be used in some great ways on the platform. "The games that have been used to showcase [the rumble] have come from Yamauchi-san, the producer of Gran Turismo, and Kojima-san, the producer of Metal Gear Solid, and those two individuals and their teams are experts at haptics. They're very creative and we've worked closely with them... they're very capable of developing some great effects and integrating those effects well within the game. There are actually good ways to integrate [rumble] into gameplay, so it feels good and crisp, and [some developers] might not put as much focus on haptics so it won't feel as good," he explained.

It's all well and good that Sony is bringing rumble back, but one might think this would be the perfect opportunity to implement Immersion's next-generation vibration technology, which offers a richer experience with both stronger and subtler rumble effects. Immersion has not had any recent discussions with Sony about this, however.

"We've had discussions in the past, but nothing recently," Viegas said. "We have demonstrated the new technology... let them look at the developer tools, we've communicated the simplicity of the designs... so they're well aware of what we have available, but those discussions were quite some time ago."

Viegas remains "very optimistic" that Sony will one day decide to upgrade to the next-gen vibration. "Immersion is very motivated and very interested in working with them to bring the next generation of gaming technology because the gamers deserve a full, immersive environment where you can match high-fidelity graphics and sound with high-quality haptics. We're hoping [the DualShock 3] will be just the first step towards integrating the next-generation technology," he said.

Immersion doesn't believe it would be a cost issue for Sony either. "I believe it's actually less expensive. The old technology utilizes two motors to create the complex set of sensations, whereas Immersion's new TouchSense technology utilizes a single motor, but we drive the motor in unique ways so that you can get stronger yet crisper effects... So you save on at least one motor, there's less power consumption, and you may save on other components and circuitry," Viegas explained. "The developer tool is complete and ready for use, so the cost to implement is less expensive than the old tech and further, Immersion is already committed that we won't charge anything extra for the next technology. We have a standard royalty rate... we don't want to make this more expensive and give anyone a reason not to implement it."

Another potential avenue to bring this more advanced rumble to consumers would be to go through third-party peripheral makers, but ultimately Viegas feels it's better to deal directly with Sony: "We've had very brief discussions with third parties about [the new tech] and they're quite interested, but I believe that in order for this to be implemented and really fully utilized, it needs to be done at the platform level. You want to have an SDK in the hands of a developer that's powerful and works across all peripherals, you want support in the console itself, so while it's simple to do I think it's important that you do have the support of the console manufacturer. If you do this directly with a third party, you'll probably have quite a challenge to get the developer to embrace a new and distinct SDK supporting probably a single peripheral or a single third party."

One of the reasons the new and improved rumble tech has not yet been embraced, Viegas believes, is simply that consumer awareness is not high enough yet. "[Gamers] may have gotten complacent with [the old rumble tech] and they're happy with it, but they would be happier if they had this next-generation rumble... And [since gamers seem pleased] there may be some resistance at the OEM level to make any changes at all," he noted.

To that end, Immersion is finally about to invest a bit more in sales and marketing to help spread awareness about their new tech. "We're about to kick off a new program that puts dedicated Immersion resources at promoting, demoing and showcasing the new rumble capability – putting it in the hands of the development community, gamers, and also making direct efforts to work with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo," Viegas said.

Beyond the video game sector, Immersion lately has been working with mobile firms as well. In fact, Immersion currently has agreements in place with three of the top five makers of cell phones (Nokia, Samsung and LG) to incorporate its VibeTonz technology into handsets. The vibration feedback works not only for gameplay in mobile games but it's also handy for user interfaces such as touch screens on phones or PDAs. As you might assume, Immersion's mobile vibration tech could be a great fit with gaming portables as well, especially with the DS touch screen.

"The effects and strength you can get with a small motor is really amazing... you really feel the staccato of a machine gun, you really feel when you're pressing on a piece of glass on a touch screen that you're pressing a low profile button... This would translate quite easily to the Nintendo DS, PSP or almost any mobile device," Viegas said.

Of course, Nintendo has its own brilliant team of engineers and it does not license any vibration tech from Immersion; they've developed their own proprietary solution for the Wii (and past consoles). It's entirely possible that Nintendo may be thinking of ways to add a vibration sensation to future DS iterations with their own technology.

That said, Viegas remarked, "We've made it clear that we want to work with them as close as possible and we've shown them quite a few new technologies that we think make their products a little bit better."

In the meantime Nintendo continues to utilize its own proprietary rumble technology – a fact that no doubt irritates Immersion, and could lead to litigation down the road if any patent infringement is ever discovered. "We have not yet formally taken a position on whether it's infringing or not infringing any of our IP," Viegas said.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/immersion-ceo-talks-ps3-rumble/70993/?biz=1