As far as the internet is concerned, sony’s upcoming motion controller is to be called arc. It started when VG247, citing unnamed but reliable sources outed the project’s name. It continued recently when THQ boss Brian Farrell referred to the device as “Arc” in an investor’s meeting. Sony even registered the domain www.PlaystationArc.com back in October. Sony though have been quick to cool down talk of the Playstation Eye-assisted motion tracking gizmo, saying “We haven’t announced the name of our upcoming Motion Controller. Arc was a rumored code name for the product.”
This is awfully reminiscent of what happened with the PSPGo! before E3, and it’s pretty likely that after all of this downplaying of Arc’s actual name we’ll watch Sony’s E3 presentation where Jack Tretton will walk on to the stage and say “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you….Playstation Arc!” Of course, one thing a lot of people have failed to realise is that it’ll be pretty difficult for Sony to trademark and use an input peripheral named Arc. Why, you ask? Well, somebody else already owns it. Who you ask? Microsoft. If it’s not Arc, and it’s not Gem or Sphere, then we’re back to playing guessing games. What do you think it will eventually be called? I’m still hoping for “Sony LoveWand,” | 
1:15 pm
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February 5, 2010
1:37 pm
Whatever they call it, it can’t be worse than naming it after a coastal city in RSA.
February 5, 2010
1:40 pm
You mean a Province in SA?
February 5, 2010
1:49 pm
1) Natal is a province, not a city…and because I have my pedant pants on today :
It’s a project name – Microsoft’s code names are normally after cities (Chicago for windows 95, Memphis for windows 98, Whistler for XP, etc).
Natal is named after the city in Brazil, and also symbolic of a rebirth. or some hippie bullshit like that.
Anyway, when it releases, it won’t be called “Natal.” Lord alone knows what it will eventually be called.
February 5, 2010
2:10 pm
if you going to be pedantic, natal is not a province of south africa anymore… is it actually known as kwazulu natal, we now have nine provinces since the new democratic government.
natal is a portuguese word for christmas. vasco de gama landed their on christmas day, hence natal.
February 5, 2010
2:13 pm
They renamed Natal?
Tell me die Transvaal still stands?
February 5, 2010
2:18 pm
To continue the exercise in pedant ping pong, Natal comes from the Latin word for birth. Its Middle English usage predates its entry into the Portuguese vernacular – and has the same meaning in French, Italian and Spanish. :)
Your turn.
February 5, 2010
2:25 pm
touché
i gracefully concede defeat. my knowledge of etymology is no match for yours.
although, if you spell natal backwards, you get latan… which is very close to latin. thats got to count for something :D
February 5, 2010
2:30 pm
They could have called it Amanzimtoti then? “The Place of Sweet Water “Zulu”) Oh wait Amnzimtoti isnt classed as a city as it doesnt have a Cathederal? LOL
February 5, 2010
3:53 pm
The best name I’ve heard so far is ‘The Sony MotionGlobule’.
February 5, 2010
4:02 pm
I think Arc is quite a cool name. Def better than Natal.
February 5, 2010
5:45 pm
Whatever they call it won’t change the fact that it looks retarded.
February 8, 2010
7:53 am
we all know this is just for casaul gamers anyways so why are we so worried. Its not like im gonna be controlling sack boy with my wand anytime soon anyways. Ill stick to my old school controller
February 8, 2010
8:42 am
Just to join in with this pedant orgy.
Microsoft do not in fact normally name code names after cities, the city thing appears to be a Windows specific ideaology.
In fact if you read through their list of code names on Wikipedia you will see that they are pretty varied. The Visual Studio codenames for example are normally named after mountains surrounding the main Microsoft compound in Redmond and I don’t know of any city in the world named Jasper… the famous RROD free model of the Xbox 360… which RROD’d
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_codenames
February 8, 2010
8:55 am
We’re no longer friends.
February 8, 2010
9:16 am
*Looks at Wikipedia
Did you know that KwaZulu-Natal has a varied yet verdant climate thanks to diverse, complex topography?
Did I just win?
February 8, 2010
10:06 am
I was not aware that slaves were allowed to be friends with the boss… I guess you learn something new everyday
February 10, 2010
8:06 pm
Well ARC looks something close too my wife’s LILO :p