A few years ago, when Sony first mentioned that a Virtual Reality headset would be released for the Playstation 4, it had its detractors. It seemed unlikely that many people would purchase the product, considering they still had issues with motion sickness and the price point sat at the level of the consoles themselves. It also didn’t have many compelling games, a problem that has somewhat been rectified since then. The only thing preventing me from getting one is the price of the games equivalent to how much time one spends with them, not that that should be the metric used when deciding on a game– it just seems like a steep entry for something that might be tossed away in the near future (see: the Xbox One’s Kinect). The PC’s Virtual Reality, for all intents and purposes, should have eclipsed Sony’s attempt.
It doesn’t look like that will be the case, however. Sony is intent on putting their mark on the Virtual Reality market, and it looks like they have some interesting ideas on how to do so. Their first curve-ball is a controller for the feet. Yep, that’s right. The Playstation 4’s newest peripheral (one the PC has had for a couple of years) is essentially just a way to move around in game. But it’s quite important considering that previously movement was allocated to buttons on the controller for tilting and teleportation, a bane for immersive experiences. The idea for this foot controller is the player will now have full control over their character’s movement, enabling them to speed up or slow down as they want. Better yet, according to their website, it is also compatible with Xbox’s Adaptive Controller, in which it becomes a foot-powered “analog stick”.
It weighs about 4 pounds, and as said on their website, “using it requires effortless movements: just tilt the device, spin it or press your feet to trigger action.” And you don’t need any set up– just plug in the USB and play. It is also touted as being rather intuitive. It states that the player will need only “a few seconds to…understand how to use it and a few more minutes to master its controls.”
So for those tired of having no “real movement” in their Playstation VR games, this is the perfect idea. By the sounds of it, the product will be releasing in April, somewhere in the range of $150 CAD. And while not all games will be compatible with the 3dRudder, Sony has said that it will work with more than 30 when it is released, and have hinted that it has their full support with titles in development about to take advantage of the new technology. The trailer is below, for anyone curious about the upcoming product.
Do you have a Playstation VR, and if so, do you think the 3dRudder will become an essential component? Let us know in the comments!
