In a recent interview with CVG an EA employee stated that motion sensing is a ‘messy’ technology. What does he mean? Read on to find out…

Jay Balmer, associate producer for EA’s new skateboarding sim, Skate has been talking about motion sensitivity issues involved in developing the title. Speaking in a recent interview with CVG he had a number of interesting things to say about the technology and what it means for game developers. With regards to the PS3 first of all:

“If you’re well-behaved with the controller, the motion control will be super cool. It won’t just be steering [in Skate]; we’re going to put a lot more into the motion controls than just steering,”

Talking about motion control as an interface, he commented:

“But it’s very messy…All of the sensors are active and all reporting information at the time, so we really have to find a way to filter what comes through on the motion controls so that everyone can have fun with them…Like I said if you’re well behaved with the controls they work great but if you’re jerky or jumping around the signal becomes very messy,”

“It’s the reality for the Wii, as it is for the PS3,” says Balmer. However, he still feels that motion-sensing is a good thing for gaming even if there are some initial problems. The new challenges that motion sensing controls on the PS3 and Wii pose for developers will no doubt see them scratching their heads for some time to come. We’d like to think that they can overcome them and deliver a fantastic motion-control experience without such issues arising. Surely it is only a matter of time before it is perfected and fine-tuned to death? We shall see, until then, enjoy waving your arms about like an idiot whilst playing Wii and rotating about to a lesser extent on PS3.