TGS '07: Phil Harrison on Dual Shock 3

TOKYO--At the beginning of the four days of booth babes, cosplayers, and cool new games that is the Tokyo Game Show, Sony president Kaz Hirai finally announced that Dual Shock 3 controllers would be coming to the market.

However, the Sony executive apologized for not having enough time to really go into details about this, so GameSpot caught up with Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison to find out a little more.

Harrison told GameSpot that the primary reason the company brought back the Dual Shock rumble controller was that people wanted it. He said, "A lot of people have been asking for it, and now we've done it."

He also explained that there is no learning curve required for developers to implement Dual Shock into PlayStation 3 games because the system to do so is exactly the same as the one that was used for the PlayStation 2. He told GameSpot, "That's how we were able to retrospectively upgrade." He added that gamers would soon be seeing Dual Shock support for previously released PS3 titles, including Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm.

As to how the company managed to combine Sixaxis and Dual Shock, Harrison admitted it had been tricky. He said, "The two can counterexist due to some very clever algorithms that filter out the effect of motion sensitivity and part of that is done inside the controller and part of it in the library."

When asked why there was a delay to the US and Europe receiving the new controller--Japan will be getting it in November, whereas the West has to wait until spring--Harrison admitted that honestly, he didn't know the reason. But he assured GameSpot that the company is doing all it can to bring the new controller to all regions as quickly as it can.

Talking about Home, the executive said as far as he was concerned, the release delay meant nothing had changed. He said, "We will still be opening in late November/early December for general beta testing. So, the commercial start of Home will be pushed out later, but you will still get the experience this year."

One thing that might disappoint those waiting to get a PS3--there has still been no news of a price cut. Harrison explained, "There are different consumers who buy at different price points, and that's just the way the business model we have works."