Sony PlayStation Move: your questions answered

Sony this week formally announced its long-awaited Wii-style motion controller system for the PlayStation 3. Once thought to be called Arc, the add-on is now officially Move. And here is all you need to know about it.

What is it?

PlayStation Move is a stick-like handheld game controller that's able to detect its orientation, location and movement in three dimensions.

Sounds a bit like the Wii Remote...

It does, and it's essentially the same thing. Sony maintains Move's detectors are very sensitive and tacitly suggests the peripheral is more accurate than the Wii Remote. Whether that's the case remains to be seen, especially when compared with the Wii Remote plus Nintendo's MotionPlus add-on.

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The WiiMote doesn't have a coloured globe. What's the one on Move for?

It's used for two things. First, it gives the PS3 extra information about how far away from the console the controller is, or how close. This gives it an edge over the WiiMote. Second, it changes colour to feed game-specific information to the console.

How is the globe 'read' by the PS3?

This is where the console's Eye webcam comes into play. It watches the Move's globe during gameplay. The Move software uses the video feed from the Eye to monitor the size of the globe - giving an indication of the controller's distance from the console - and it's colour.