Sixaxis will only rumble in America?

Sony is open to releasing a redesigned version of PS3's Sixaxis controller, according to Sony America president Jack Tretton, but it's possible that changes made in the US would not appear elsewhere, as Sony moves to a regional approach to its peripheral production.

"We used to have a narrow approach to controllers. But now we're moving to a regional approach. You will see peripherals coming from Sony Computer Entertainment America that will address the interests of the U.S. consumer," Tretton revealed during an interview with website GamesPro, adding that Sony is "certainly open to changing the Sixaxis controller if it addressed North American gamers."

With Sony finally coming to an agreement with rumble-tech designers Immersion, we're crossing our fingers that we'll soon see the much-loved feature return to Sony's controllers. But will the decision-making suitsinthe UK and greater Europebe as open to tinkering with the Sixaxis as Tretton? It'd be mad to bring something as developer-centric as rumble to only one region. Wouldn't it?

Sony UK was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

March 7, 2007

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.