SONY WON'T CHUCK THE BOOMERANG AWAY

"It seems that the PS3's bizarre boomerang controller won't be redesigned for CES

An un-named Sony executive, speaking to Famitsu, has poured cold water on rumours that the games giant will unveil a redesigned PlayStation 3 controller at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He did, however, admit that by the time it reaches CES, the controller might show "minor changes".

The general consensus states that the boomerang-like PS3 controller's design seems wildly impractical and, when it unveiled the PS3 in May at the E3 Show, Sony was at pains to state that it was merely a concept. Sony enthusiasts are certainly hoping that it will be treated to more than mere tweaks before the PS3's launch.

Controllers have recently proved to be something of a pain in the proverbial for Sony which, in March, was ordered to pay San Jose technology company Immersion $90.7 million in patent infringement damages relating to its PS2 Dual Shock controller. Cannily, Microsoft settled a similar case out of court with Immersion in 2003 for $26 million, at which point it also acquired a 10 per cent stake in Immersion. At least the widely reported threat that Sony would be forced to halt sales of the PlayStation 2 in the US never materialised.

With a putative launch date of Spring 2006, Sony is cutting it fine as far as PlayStation 3 design tweaks are concerned, so it will be interesting to see what emerges at CES, which takes place between 5 and 8 January 2006." [link]