North America and Europe will finally get to rumble

Feb 27, 2008 08:07 GMT  ·  By

PS3's controller, the Sixaxis did not really enjoy a big popularity among the gamers since it lacked the rumble feature everybody loved at the previous PlayStation consoles. At first, Sony denied that such a feature is still needed and continued to promote the Sixaxis with its gyroscoping capabilities that allowed players to tilt the controller up, down, left and right to control the game. Still, it was only a matter of time until the DualShock 3 was going to be officially released. And time is ticking away as we speak.

Sony has just announced that it plans to release the wireless controller for the PlayStation 3 in North America and Europe sometime during this April and announced that gamers will have to pay a hefty $54.95 for it.

As we got used with by the previous DualShock controllers, this device will also use a force feedback technology that will cause it to buzz and shake in the player's hands, based on its in-game actions and adding that extra bit of real feeling we all thrive for.

Still... it was a pretty long trip to get the DualShock 3 up and running. Immersion Corp and Sony became involved in a lawsuit, with the first claiming that the console manufacturers violated its patents. Sony paid $82 million for this, but then appealed the decision. A complete settlement was done in March 2007 and the ex-foes became close friends, with Sony's Kaz Hirai announcing that two companies are working together in order to incorporate rumble features for the PS3 games.

So, here we are now, close to get the DualShock 3 and having over 100 PS3 games that are able to support it. A few of the big names that will be able to use the new controller include Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, DMC 4, Kane and Lynch, UT3, Assassin's Creed and the FIFA franchise. So it's definitely not going to be a miss this April when we'll get it. And if we miss... well, we'll definitely feel it.