With Wii mania consistently waning over time (August alone yielded its worst sales figures since launch), now appears to be an appropriate time for the remaining console giants to muscle in on the motion control market in attempt to add an additional splash of panache and longevity to their respective platforms.
With Kinect still a couple of months away for an undoubtedly stratospheric launch, Sonys PlayStation Move - the Japanese juggernauts latest foray into land of envelope pushing peripherals - is poised to hit shelves with a bang.
Attaching itself to your PS3 via the PlayStation Eye (packaged with the starter bundle or snapped up separately for the tidy sum of £24.99), Move is arguably the closest pixel junkies have come to true 1:1 motion control in this current console cycle.
Harnessing stupendously brilliant accuracy, Move pinpoints your exact space (and depth) in three dimensions, instantly usurping the clunky response of Nintendos fun box. Although larger than the Wii Remote - and horrendously goofy looking thanks in no small part to the daft glowing orb attached to its end - the controller itself remains comfortably within the confines of Sonys suave controller design ethos.
Set up is simple too; merely a case of plug and play, but the unfortunate side of the launch is that despite the slick hardware, the accompanying software is its greatest flaw. Sports Champions (the best of the bunch) is a shameless riff on Wii Sports; the cuddly EyePet is aimed squarely at the ankle biters; Start The Party is nothing short of soul-destroying mini-game monotony and Kung Fu Rider - despite showcasing Moves ability to handle complex controls - is ultimately an expensive exercise in crafting total nonsense on a Blu-ray disc.
PlayStation Move has the potential to take pole position in the motion control race, but while the hardware itself excels, the software stumbles. Ultimately, this is not an essential day-one purchase, but still an ingenious piece of kit that comfortably and confidently ushers in an intriguing new era for PS3 and motion controllers.