Razer and Sixense Release SDK for Motion-Sensing Controller

At this year’s CES, one of the coolest products being shown off at the show was the result of a joint venture between Razer and Sixense. It also happens to be a product that I completely managed to avoid while at the event (I am still kicking myself over it). It’s a motion controller that actually works really well, and everyone I know who had seen it first-hand couldn’t believe just how cool it was.

I’m not the kind of person who enjoys motion-controlled games, which is one of the reasons my Nintendo Wii has seen so little use, but even this intrigues me. If you’re not all too familiar with it, you can check out Razer’s video page which has numerous demonstrations. I personally recommend the third one down, for Left 4 Dead 2.

Why I’m talking about this now is because Razer and Sixense shot out a press release yesterday announcing the introduction of their motion sensor’s SDK on Steam. For developers who want to implement the ability to take advantage of the motion controller, the SDK is all that’s required. The press release notes that the SDK makes things so simple, that the developer doesn’t even need to use or see the controller.

It’s also stated that upgrading currently-released games is also easy. As one example of this, when Razer worked with Valve to implement the support into Left 4 Dead 2, it took less than two weeks. If implementation is half as easy as the company claims, then we might just see some rapid adoption, and not just for FPS titles, but for a wide-variety.

There’s still no official launch date for the motion-sensing controller, and it can be assumed that this isn’t because it’s not ready, but because there isn’t enough top-rate game support out there for it right now. The release of this SDK should definitely expedite the process.

Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, Calif. – March 9, 2010 – Today at the Game Developers Conference, Razer, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, and Sixense Entertainment, the developer of superior motion control technologies, announced that the Ultra-Precise Motion Controller SDK (Software Development Kit) and FPS (First Person Shooter) utility library are now available for download from Steam, the leading platform for PC games and digital entertainment.