Counterfit Controller Conundrum

Having recently purchased a PlayStation 3 for the first time, I also decided to buy some new controllers for it (the ones that it came with were filthy). I wanted a blue controller (I have blue ones for the Xbox 360, One and PS4) and having looked through the stock at CEX and various other retailers, I decided to make a purchase from eBay.

In retrospect I was being very naive in my choices here. What could possibly be suspicious about a brand new "official" controller for only £10? Yes, Sony discontinued production of these controllers 4 years ago, but this seller must have some new old stock they were looking to shift. Their feedback didn't suggest they were selling counterfeit goods and they were being dispatched from the UK rather than China. So I went ahead and made my purchase. When the controller arrived, it soon became obvious that things weren't as they should be.

First alarm bell rang when the controller was delivered in a plastic bag with no outer packaging. When I tried to play a game, things really began to unravel. So here are the signs your controller may be counterfeit:

1. Recessed controller indicator lights 

If you run your finger over the LED lights that indicate the controller assignment, the genuine controller feels smooth and the lights are flush with the casing. Counterfeit controllers have slightly recessed lights and the casing feels a little rough.

2. UK location is no indicator of provenance. 

To eliminate the long postage times from China, some companies seem to import a container of various saleable items and distribute them from the UK. I've come across this with sellers on Amazon and eBay; it's the same garbage you can buy direct from China, but it's sitting in a warehouse in this country instead of coming direct from the factory.

3. Too light.   

A real SixAxis with DualShock 3 weighs about 182g. My fake weighs just 134g. (Even an original SixAxis without the rumble packs weighs more at 137g).

4. No SixAxis functionality. 

Controller simply doesn't respond to changes of angle or position, despite being branded as SixAxis. This probably accounts for the weight difference.

5. Rumble pack noise. 

When in operation, the rumble pack in the fake makes a harsh noise, whereas the official controller is much quieter.

6. Incorrect label. 

The label on underside does not match the official Sony ones. The forgers seem to have been tempted into filling the centre of the label with text that isn't present on the genuine article and it is the wrong colour.

7. PlayStation logo.

The biggest giveaway for me was the PlayStation button. No self respecting manufacturer would possibly allow the branding of their IP to be anything other than exact. On counterfeit controllers the logo on the PlayStation button is slightly smaller than it should be and is aligned down and to the left. Genuine controllers feature a slightly larger logo which is dead centre.

 

Other blog posts online also note that the sticks on a fake are slightly smaller and they only have 8 directions of movement. Also, fake controllers do not have a reset button.

Having rumbled (get it?) the rouse of the seller I sent them a polite email asking if the "official Sony" controller they sold me is genuine and highlighted some of my concerns. The seller failed to respond so I decided to leave them negative feedback. Only trouble was, when I re-read my feedback I realised I had written a scathing appraisal; but accidentally left positive feedback. Damn.

So don't rely on seller feedback on eBay. Some fools can't even leave that properly. Just stick to the age old axiom of "If it looks too good to be true....."

PlayStation 3 first impressions: "Meh"

For the first time in my life, I am a PlayStation 3 owner. To be specific, I bought a charcoal black 120gig slim model. I will freely declare that during the seventh generation of consoles, I was firmly committed to Microsoft and the Xbox 360. The 360 hardware, games, accessories, operating system and foibles are all fully known to me. The PS3 on the other hand has always been a complete mystery. Until this week.

My first impression of the form factor is that the slim is a neat little box that thankfully does away with the terrible "Spider-man" font and the glossy "piano" finish that we Xbox owners scoffed at back in 2006. This version of the console looks robust and not overly fussy. There are a couple of USB ports and it even carries an optical/Toslink output which is always good to see. I am familiar with the mediocre but functional PlayStation 4 version of the operating system, but this older edition looks and feels decidedly underwhelming. When you compare this offering to that of the Xbox 360, there is only ever going to be one winner. But considering Microsoft's history in developing operating systems and user interfaces, maybe this should be expected.

Playing original PlayStation games via HDMI is one of the main reasons I wanted a PS3. I've only tried a couple of games but they seem to work well and look like they did 'back in the day' (rather than the mess the PlayStation 2 seems to make of them). The only draw back is that you can't use an original PlayStation controller, so I am continually using the analogue sticks and wondering why nothing is happening. The controllers that came with my system are basically wireless PlayStation 2 controllers: one has rumble and one doesn't (the absence of rumble was another reason we Xbox owners laughed at the PS3 launch).  Another piece of functionality I was pleased to see was the virtual memory card to load and save PlayStation saved games via a memory card adapter.  

I am keen to catch up on the first party titles that I missed out on when I left Sony for Microsoft between 2007 and 2020. Consequently, the first PS3 game I loaded was "Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction". Or rather I tried to load the game. It seems this game has some sort of issue that means it won't load unless you alter the space left on your hard drive by 700MB or so. You can download or delete anything you like; as long as you alter the available capacity. I only found this out after searching through some 15 year old forum posts. Not an auspicious start. Once this obstacle was overcome, the game started installing various components to my hard drive. I am accustomed to this happening on modern consoles but I think it only happened once or twice in all the years I used an Xbox 360 (I still use an Xbox 360, but you get what I mean).

Next I tried to load Gran Turismo 5 but had to wait over an hour for 27 updates to download and install. Then the game tried to install components to my hard drive to reduce load times. The timer for this operation soon jumped from 20 minutes to over an hour so cancelled and tried another Ratchet and Clank game: "A Crack in Time" instead.  Once the inevitable update for this had completed the game again installed some content to the hard drive; very alien to an Xbox user.

The games themselves are pretty good and remind me that a PlayStation is always more...playful, than an Xbox. There are hardly any platformers for the Xbox brand and its games library feels more serious and adult. There is no real equivalent to Spyro, Ratchet and Clank or Crash Banicoot for the Xbox; it's all COD, Halo and Gears of War. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just that I missed the type of games Sony and the PlayStation do best. 

Despite the PS3's benefits, I now know that in 2007 I made the right choice when I bought an Xbox 360. Yes, I had to buy a separate Blu-Ray player and the PS3 got rumble controllers eventually, but the 360 still feels streets ahead to me. My 360s have more memory, more I/O and a far superior operating system. But more importantly, back in 2007, I wasn't in the mood for cute music and jumping a furry animal up platforms to collect gold coins. All I wanted to do was shotgun /melee people and teabag them until they cried (this rarely happened).