By Andrew Liszewski

You remember Immersion right? They’re the rumble-technology company that scored $90.7 million from Sony for patent infringement. Well it seems they’re spending that money wisely on developing the next generation of force-feedback technology and the good folks over at GamePro got a chance to try out the company’s new offerings and walked away suitably impressed.

Besides rumbling effects that are stronger and more detailed than what’s felt in current controllers the technology is also lighter and smaller. While most rumble effects rely on 2 motors Immersion’s next-gen offerings will only need 1 which will also help reduce battery consumption on those wireless controllers. Other innovations include a lightsaber effect which caused the controller to pulse realistically when the saber was deactivated (they have experience with a real lightsaber to refer to it as realistic?) a heavy recoil effect that trails off when firing rockets and a more subtle weapon-switching rumble that hints at the size or calibre of the next weapon based on how the controller jolts.

While this does seem pretty cool I don’t think any amount of rumble will compare to what the Wii can offer in terms of lightsaber game play. That is of course if LucasArts ever gets a Wii-friendly lightsaber game released.

[Immersion Corporation] VIA [GamePro]