Sony rushed out a press release earlier in the week, thinking they had won an award for their SIXAXIS motion sensing technology in the PS3’s wireless controller. Howeverit has been surprisingly discovered that the award was for the historical innovation of Sony’s Dual Shock – an award shared by Nintendo’s D-Pad controller!

Australian website Hydrapinion has discovered that Sony won a Technology & Engineering Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) *not* for the SIXAXIS motion sensor in the PS3’s controller, but for their now discontinued Dual Shock technology.

Seamus Byrne wondered, as did many of us, that when Sony supposedly won the award for SIXAXIS, exactly what the wording of the award was, and why Nintendo hadn’t also been awarded for their Wiimote and Nun-chuck combination.

When he contacted NATAS, he first heard from Cheryl Daly of NATAS, who seemed to verify that the award was indeed for SIXAXIS. But a follow-up from Christine Chin at NATAS set the record straight.

According to Hydrapinion, Chin’s message in full was: “I understand you had contacted Cheryl Daly, Director of Communications at NATAS to confirm if Sony won for their PS3 controller. This is incorrect, Sony won for their dual shock analog controller”.

Chin continued that: “The award is from the Video Game Technology Group. It was nominated by our internal group and considered along with the Nintendo D-Pad both of which were considered Emmy worthy for the development of the generation of controllers that followed the classic joysticks. I would like to confirm that Sony did not win for their PS3 controller, they won for their Dual Shock Analog controller”.

So, there’s hope that Nintendo will win an award for their innovative Wiimote in the future, while future judges will be sure to remember Sony’s unfortunate misstep. Still, let’s not forget that SIXAXIS is still an excellent feature, with Microsoft yet to come up with a similar technology for the Xbox 360.

Lesson to be learned? Never, ever assume anything, and always double check. As my father’s uncle used to say… measure twice, cut once. Good advice!

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Entry was posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 7:04 am under Technology.

Read more entries by Alex Zaharov-Reutt.
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