Liar Liar. The movie may be hilarious (Carey’s best), but it also brings across a message. It may be scattered across Jim’s almost-orgasmic facial expressions and Krista Allen’s heaving chest, but it’s there. Lying is wrong. Nobody likes a liar. Some people seem to think lying is a professional sport; they go about it trying to set a world record.

“Yeah, I told my Mum I’d be home at 9. I’m not coming back.”
“Wow, a level 16!”
“I prefer the term ‘bullshit artist,’ sounds cooler.”

Earlier in the week Sony received an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Sixaxis, their upcoming PS3 controller. Yes, an Emmy. Specifically, the Technology and Engineering Award. What does this have to do with lying, I hear you ask? Well, Sony thought they won the award. They even went to the trouble of having a press release made up, praising themselves for their efforts, when in fact they didn’t receive the Emmy at all. From the press release, “The overwhelming consumer demand and critical acclaim for PS3 is a testament of the platform’s strength and the industry’s desire for a true next-generation entertainment system,” - Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Let’s give some background on Sixaxis. Seeing as it nearly won an Emmy, it had to do something right. Sixaxis has wireless connectivity (done before - Wavebird, Xbox 360 controller), “motion-sensing technology that allows it to sense both rotational orientation and translational acceleration along all three-dimensional axes, providing a full six degrees of freedom” ie: tilt the controller and the onscreen character will tilt. Don’t get too excited though, technology like that has been around since the Game Boy Colour, which was released in 1998. To put that into perspective, Seinfeld aired its last episode on 1998. Yes, Sony is using technology when Seinfeld was still airing new episodes. Sixaxis also has a USB port, but they’re so common these days I wouldn’t be surprised to find my toaster has 3 of them.

Let’s get to that Emmy. Amidst all this chaos, something had to win the Technology and Engineering Award. Nintendo and Sony ended up sharing the award, for Nintendo’s D-Pad and Sony’s DualShock controller, respectively. The category? “For the development of the generation of controllers that followed the classic joysticks.” Seeing as Nintendo created the modern day controller (analogue joystick, rumble), I don’t see how DualShock should deserve the award; every feature has been present on a previous controller.

Back to my earlier point about lying. Did Sony lie? Well, that’s debatable. A clever marketing ploy or were they simply misinformed? I don’t see how the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences could get something like this wrong, you don’t see Katherine Hepburn nominated for any awards do you? No. And why? Because she’s dead.

Time to get hypothetical. After the crying shame that was the PS3 ‘Boomerang’ controller at E3 2005, Sony had been pushed back. Relegated, if you will. A new control scheme was announced. A revolutionary, next-generation controller. Nintendo’s Wii remote took the gaming world by storm.

Sony didn’t like this. Just like a pimp won’t have his hookers screwing who they please, Sony weren’t content with having the majority of the gaming community (who, to be fair, they basically owned) fawning over Nintendo’s new product. I’m not going into whether Sony adding the motion tilting to Sixaxis was due to the Wii-mote, but you can’t deny the similarities are there.

Give us your opinions on Sony’s controller, and whether you think the Emmy bungle was a selling point or slip-up, below. I’m off to watch a Krista Allen movie.

- Aaron Kleemann