Today at their GDC press conference Sony officially announced the name of its motion controller which until now had been codenamed the Arc. Introducing the Playstation Move. Not only was the name made official today but Sony also had builds of the device on the show floor for the journalista types to have a play on. All this, pictures, video and pricing after the break.

Sony currently has several games on show using the Move controller and has stated that it is so precise that it responds as fast as a Dual Shock 3 controller. Impressive stuff, however reports from the show floor suggest that this claim isn’t entirely true just yet. It must be made very clear at this point however that the device on show at GDC is a pre-alpha built of the final product which is set to ship at some point this year however in testing several common complaints have arrisen.

Its fair to say that the games on show, some built purposefully to demonstrate the device and others (SOCOM 4) adapted to take advantage of its features are likely to have been somewhat rushed, lacking refinement. Many who have played with the device have reported sub-par response to player movement far inferior at this stage to that of the Wii and whilst the games on display are likely a very early reflection of the device’s potential, most are still outputting canned animations. That means no true 1:1 motion detection just yet.

There is no doubt that 1:1 motion detection is certainly where this peripheral is heading and I have no reason to doubt that combined with the power of the PS3 it will certainly be achieved, but right now, no-go. One sword fighting game on display in particular demonstrates this shortcoming quite effectively. Many gamers have been longing for a game which pits you, the sword swinging, death delivering protagonist against other blade equipped bad-guys which offers on-screen movement reflective of what users are doing in their living rooms. Instead however, Sony is demonstrating a sword-battle game that outputs in canned animations following slash movements from users, a little disappointing considering the technology demonstrated all the way back at E3.

Its great to see Sony moving forward with their motion controlling peripheral and its even better to have at least some indication of what the final product will look and feel like in the public domain. By all accounts the device and its sub-controller counterpart, much like the Wii’s Nunchuck is very light yet sturdy not dissimilar to Dual Shock 3 controller. The Move requires a Playstation Eye to operate and Sony has announced a series of options for users wishing to flail their arms in their living room. You’ll be able to get Move in three ways: in a bundle with a PS3, standalone, and in a starter kit targeted at “under $100″ with the PS Eye, a controller, and a game.

This pricing is very aggressive and is undoubtedly targeted to compete directly with Microsoft’s upcoming Natal peripheral, of course no official price point yet exists for this device or indeed for the Move controller as a standalone.

Now for the good stuff.

via Engadget and Joystiq