The Tokyo Game Show (TGS) has kicked off, with Sony announcing a new vibration-enabled PS3 controller - Dualshock 3 - and the purchase of Motorstorm developers Evolution Studios. Of course, Sony's Phil Harrison recently described vibration as a last-generation feature - clearly the legal resolution of the Immersion dispute has changed his mind.
So what else did Sony show? Well anyone waiting for Home, Sony's online world for PS3, will be disappointed by the delayed and revised launch date of Spring 2008. Sony president Kaz Hirai also focused heavily on the PS2, with a promised expansion - new games, new markets - of the ageing console's business. Considering the fact that PS2 consistently outsells the PS3 in Japan this isn't entirely surprising but it does highlight the PS3's sluggish start. And things don't look likely to improve in the short term, with no PS3 price cut announced at the show. But with the Wii changing everything and the 360 doing the business in the US, Sony's arrogance of old has been replaced by a sharing, caring plan to provide help and feedback for game publishers. Whether this new "hug a coder" strategy will work remains to be seen but the PS3 currently needs all the friends it can get.
