Tilt control wasn't last minute

Sony's European boss David Reeves has denied claims that the PS3's tilt sensor controller was one of Ken Kutaragi's back-of-a-beermat-before-the-conference specials - upholding Sony's company line since E3.

"We've had a positive reaction to the controller and obviously some people have asked if it's a last minute thing," he told MCV. "It's not - it's been planned for around two and a half years."

Backing up his point, Reeves noted that you have to keep a device with that many patents involved quiet or someone will try and file a patent to stop it.

"We have already had some positive feedback on it from publishers," he added - presumably in the time since E3 finished, because virtually everybody who went on record about it at E3 denied any prior knowledge.

Indeed, even Incog, the developer behind WarHawk - the only game at this moment in time that's been demoed using the tilt sensor - confessed that its demo had only taken a fortnight to come up with.

Speaking to us on the evening of Sony's conference, Incog's Dylan Jobe - the chap who demoed the game on-stage - told us, "We've really known officially for about a week and a half, and we did the final tuning just a couple of days ago."

Expect the debate to continue raging then - with the only sure-fire way to lay it to rest surely a strong showing at Leipzig's Game Convention this August or the Tokyo Game Show in September. With a, er, slant toward tilt sensing, naturally.

PlayStation 3 is due to launch worldwide this November - with the European version to cost between EUR 499 for a 20GB model and EUR 599 for the 60GB model.