Reportedly, the delay gives third-party developers more time to create game titles using Move's capabilities. Sony said 36 developers and publishers are supporting the platform, and it expects more than 20 Move-related games to be released in its 2010 fiscal year.

'Unlike Anything on the Market'

The success of Nintendo's Wii video-game console has been built, in part, on its unique motion-sensing controller, allowing multiple players to bowl, wield a tennis racket, and other interactions. Sony is touting its new controller as "offering a motion-based, high-definition gaming experience unlike anything on the market."

Accompanying Move's launch will be the Move sub-controller, which enables what Sony described as "intuitive navigation of in-game characters and objects," and the Eye camera to detect precise movement, angle and position.

Sony said the three components provide a level of accuracy that, by implication, Nintendo's Wii does not. The controller has a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, a terrestrial magnetic field sensor, and a color-changing sphere that the camera can track. More than one blogger has described the device as looking like a toy flashlight with a colored ball on top.

The company said this "unmatched" resolution of movement allows the PS3 to track fast as well as subtle movement. A user can swing a tennis racket as with the Wii, but can also paint with a virtual brush.

Feedback -- such as different colors on the controller's sphere or rumble -- responds to the game action. Transmission to the console is via Bluetooth, and power is supplied by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The controller kit is expected to sell for under $100.

'Trying to Play Catch-Up'

Next up in the motion-controller competition will be Microsoft, whose entry is currently called Project Natal. But Microsoft takes the competition one step further by losing the device entirely. A camera allows users to control games with their hands and body motion without a controller or joystick. Microsoft has said it plans to release its system by the 2010 holiday season.

Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group, noted that Sony's Move controller "ignores the fact that Wii's technology is, at this point, several years old." The real question for the PS3, he said, is how its new motion controller will "stand up against Natal?"

He added that Natal is seen as the next big thing, and Sony's Move "has the feel of the company trying to play catch-up."

As for Nintendo's next step, Gartenberg pointed out that the company has "done well with its Wii fitness board," but it's not yet clear how the Wii will respond to either the Sony or Microsoft controllers. Growth for game consoles, he said, is dependent on getting other members of the family involved, and that is a key motive behind the motion controllers -- as well as new forms of social networking being integrated into the game console.