10 Big Industry Gaffs Gaming Companies Want You To Forget
8. SixAxis Motion Controls Ruin Lair And Factor 5 (Sony)
However, where the Xbox failed in its console, it more than made up for in its superb controller design - something Sony struggled with immensely with the launch of the Playstation 3. The Sixaxis was always a bit of an odd design, but its evolution was even weirder. The controller originally sported a comically garish 'boomerang' look before returning to the traditional image of Sony's controller, but with the added bonus of clunky triggers, a cheap feel and completely superfluous motion controls. The design was of course innovated on with the advent of the DualShock 3 and 4, but the Sixaxis motion element just really didn't bode well for game designers, and even became the undoing of the 'Lair' developer, Factor 5. The controller's dodgy motion movements were originally the only way to play the game, and because they were so unresponsive, well, it was unplayable. This meant that Lair ended up being a failure in both the critical and commercial sense, and in-turn squandered Factor 5's attempts to continue development on different titles afterwards. Good luck getting that Rogue Squadron sequel now.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
