Making Move Work was Harder than Expected, says Designer

It's not surprising to hear that PlayStation Move went through countless revisions before Sony settled on the design we all hold in our hands today: budget constraints, technical demands and more all contributed to Move's final form. Designer Yoshio Miyazaki, one of Sony's chief designers on the PlayStation Move project, spoke to Famitsu about how difficult it was to get the controller into a working and distributable state.

I didn't think that using sensors like this would prove to be so difficult. It's a simple matter to get a reading from a sensor and send it to the PS3 host, but the sensor readings can change depending on temperature and other environmental conditions. The question became how to keep the sensor readings as consistent as possible in a wide variety of environments, and that was very tricky.

The overriding challenge was for Miyazaki and team to keep the cost to consumers down below ¥10,000 (£78, US$122) for the PlayStation Eye, Move Controller and software. At first this seemed an impossible task, says Miyazaki, but by reducing the number of parts in the controller and switching materials the team brought the controller in well below the ¥10,000 guideline.

PlayStation Move launched in Japan on Thursday, with the Starter Pack consisting of a Move controller, PlayStation Eye and Beat Sketcher retailing for ¥5,980 – around £47 or US$73. Looks like it's hats off to Miyazaki and team.