Move protoype had trackball, thumbstick

By Fred Dutton Published 6 December, 2010

Original design only did everything.

An early prototype for Sony's Move controller featured a thumbstick and a trackball, among other bells and whistles.

The revelations come courtesy of a Sony patent dug up by PlayStation Lifestyle.

Regarding the thumbstick, the patent clarifies, "In some embodiments, the joystick 114 is used to control aspects of a game console such as manipulating an onscreen cursor. In other embodiments, the joystick is used to control movement or actions of onscreen avatars."

The trackball is perhaps the more interesting idea though. Apparently, it was to be a detachable module, allowing for interchangeable add-ons such as a button cluster that could turn the wand into an old-fashioned joystick (see fig. 4a).

The patent goes on to reveal unfulfilled aspirations for the sphere on top of the controller too. In the prototyped version it could act as both a pressure sensor and a controller in its own right (see fig. 5a).

Alas, as we know, these features didn't make the final cut. It's not clear why, but it's possible Sony's bank manager stepped in. The kind of magic tricks mooted by the design sound like they might not have come cheap.

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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