PlayStation Move sharp shooter Origins – Part Two

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PlayStation Move sharp shooter Origins – Part Two

In part one of our look at the origins of the PlayStation Move sharp shooter, we saw how the peripheral began life as a side project at Guerrilla. In the second part, we learn how the Guerrilla team received valuable help from their friends at Zipper Interactive.

Guerrilla’s proposal for a Move-based peripheral was sent to SCE Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida and the Sony Product Design group, who circulated it among other studios for input. The proposal met with very enthusiastic reactions. “When we saw the foam-board-and-duct-tape mockup, we were like ‘Cool, let’s make that!’” Sony Product Design Manager Ennin Huang recalls.

It wasn’t long before Guerrilla was contacted by developers from other shooters like SOCOM 4, Time Crisis: Razing Storm and Dead Space: Extraction. Zipper Interactive Game Director Seth Luisi, who’d already been looking into a PlayStation Move-based control scheme for SOCOM 4, took a particular interest in the project. “Seth strongly felt that a gun peripheral could bring an additional level of immersion and realism to the table,” Guerrilla Game Director Mathijs de Jonge says. “Like Killzone 3, SOCOM 4 was still in its early stages, so the timing made sense for him as well.”

PlayStation Move sharp shooter (origins) for PS3

With each iteration, the design evolved away from the StA-11.

The Zipper team suggested several highly useful additions to the gun peripheral design. “For instance, they wanted players to be able to reload without taking their hands off the navigation controller,” Mathijs explains. “This could be solved by adding pump-action mechanism to the fore grip. Also, they noted that many tactical shooters, including SOCOM 4, featured weapons with multiple modes of fire, which would require the inclusion of a fire selector switch.”

With basic shape and functionality hammered out, the gun peripheral entered the prototyping phase. “Every six weeks, a new plastic gun peripheral would arrive from China for us and the team at Zipper to comment on,” Guerrilla Lead Concept Designer (and resident weapons expert) Roy Postma says. “And with each iteration, you could see the design come into its own more. The style of the weapon became more neutral, less Killzone-specific.”

Enhancements included a more ergonomic angle for the fore grip, an adjustable and collapsible stock instead of the foldable one, and overall weight reductions to facilitate prolonged play. “Sadly, some features fell by the wayside during this process,” Roy says. “We originally wanted to have an ammo counter display above the stock, but it just proved too costly.”

The color of the weapon changed too, evolving from the gunmetal grays of the original design, to a jet black version, to the more neutral grays of the final product. “From a legal and marketing perspective we had to impose some constraints,” Ennin says. “The black version looked menacing, but would have violated most countries’ gun laws.” Even the first grey prototypes proved difficult to get through customs, as Mathijs found after a demonstration at a conference.

Meanwhile, the teams at Guerrilla and Zipper experimented with Move control systems for their respective games, figuring out sensible settings for dead zone, aim assistance and controller sensitivity. “Initially we wanted to map a lot of in-game actions to player gestures as well,” Mathijs says, “but that turned out to interfere with player aim too much. So we restricted it to short, simple movements like thrusting the gun peripheral to perform a melee.”

PlayStation Move sharp shooter (origins) for PS3

The final production prototype in all its glory.

The gun peripheral went into full production in the run-up to Killzone 3’s launch. Early hands-on reports of the device – now dubbed the PlayStation Move sharp shooter – were almost unanimously positive, with many reporters expressing pleasant surprise at how solid and natural the peripheral felt during play.

“In terms of control methods, nothing feels more natural than the sheer simplicity of ‘Point, Aim, Shoot’”, Ennin says. Mathijs concurs: “The peripheral made Killzone 3 immediately accessible to people who had never played a Killzone title before. Some reporters even stated that they preferred to play Killzone 3 with the sharp shooter instead of the DualShock 3, because they felt more immersed. That was a huge compliment for us.”
But it wasn’t until the week before Killzone 3’s release that Mathijs realized his other goal for the sharp shooter had also been achieved. “I was watching the PlayStation commercial for Killzone 3 and the sharp shooter and I suddenly realized, you know what – Kevin Butler looks absolutely badass holding that thing! That’s when I knew we’d fully achieved what we set out to do.”

The sharp shooter is available now as a standalone accessory and as part of the SOCOM 4 Full Deployment Edition.

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214 Comments

  • EIMADD__DRONEHHF

    what is the point of putting all this junk on this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

    Tell us about NGP

  • Love how it came to be from the STA-11 to the MP5K look alike to ..dun dun.. the sharpshooter.
    Sony please ignore some of these ungrateful people, there’s a lot of d0uches around here, all they care is about online and the store.

  • why didnt they keep the sta-11. thats all kinds of bad ass rolled into one.

  • guys they said full service would be back by the 31st. if they’re smart they’ll have it up by then, other wise they’ll have yet again a very angry user base. i really hope sony learned that people dont like being lied to.

  • by the way they said “full service” by the 31st. there was no estimation. if any one remembers the outage when they said this then you’ll understand why if its not up we’re going to feel betrayed and lied to yet again by our good old friend sony.

  • WHOA SWEET!!! I want this….

  • Traded in an unopened Move for a Kinect thank you very much.

  • I want one, when will it be in store’s?

  • You guys should work on making Call of Duty Playstation Move compatible. That would be awesome =D!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I think this is pefect, But all though…. Killzone3 for Playstation Move is sota.. Difficullt. The Sensivivity is extreme even if you set it on low. And it’s kinda hard to control during game play.

  • Guys! Complaining that you want the store back isn’t going to speed anything up! These guys have to make sure that the store is top notch before they can put it back online so that people like “everyone who is whining about the store” don’t have to do so anymore! I also think that most people just want the store back for the free stuff promised.

    What!? Is the blog not supposed to post anything else anymore up until the store goes back. Its really ignorant to say stuff like “We don’t care about this stuff, bring the store back”. You are not the only individuals that comes here and some of us are developers and are in the creative industry so inspiration and research are ALWAYS welcome. This was or rather is an interesting post. It cannot always be about tournaments and/or new games and/or dlc.

    C’mon guys! A gigantic majority of us here is above 12! Can we start sounding like that in our comments!

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  • Very nice article. Whiners Get Lost! Even when the store goes up your still gonna have to ask Mommy and Daddy to buy something for you anyhow. Only “KIDS” Whine! (Get the hint? Grow Up!)

  • So, I’m curious. Anything you’re willing to tell us on plans for that rail up top? Can we expect bluetooth scopes with video feedback of what you’re “aiming” at? Or anything to that affect?

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