Early uses of motion controllers included the
Sega AM2 arcade game Hang-On, which was controlled using a
video game arcade cabinet resembling a motorbike, which the player moved with their body. This began the "Taikan" trend, the use of motion-controlled hydraulic arcade cabinets in many arcade games of the late 1980s, two decades before motion controls became popular on
video game consoles. The
Sega VR headset was an early unreleased VR device with built-in motion tracking, first announced in 1991. Its sensors tracked the player's movement and head position. Microsoft's first controller with tilt detection was the Sidewinder Freestyle Pro for PC. Released in 1998, it could map the tilting of the controller to two analog axes, essentially replicating an analog joystick. Another early example is the 2000
light gun shooter arcade game Police 911, which used motion tracking technology to detect the player's movements, which are reflected by the
player character within the game. The
Atari Mindlink was an early proposed motion controller for the
Atari 2600, which measured the movement of the user's eyebrows with a fitted headband. The
Sega Activator was based on the Light Harp invented by Assaf Gurner. It was released as an optional accessory for the
Mega Drive (Genesis) in 1993 and could read the player's physical movements using full-body motion tracking. It was a commercial failure due to its "unwieldiness and inaccuracy". Motion controllers became more widely distributed with the
seventh generation of video game consoles. The
Nintendo Wii console's
Wii Remote controller used an image sensor so it could be used as a pointing device along with an accelerometer to track straight-line motions and the direction of gravity. The Nunchuk accessory for use in a second hand also featured an accelerometer. A later line of accessories and refreshed controllers labeled with the
Motion Plus feature added gyroscopic sensors to track all three axes of rotation independent of whether the controller had line of sight to the sensors bar. The
PlayStation 3 launched with the
Sixaxis controller included, which featured three-axis accelerometer motion tracking and a one axis gyroscope while not including the
haptic feedback (vibration) seen in other modern consoles citing interference concerns. Both features were included in the later
DualShock 3 controller refresh. Several wand-based devices with accelerometer and gyroscopic sensors followed, including the
ASUS Eee Stick,
Sony PlayStation Move (adding
computer vision via the
PlayStation Eye to aid in position tracking), and
HP Swing. Other systems used different mechanisms for input, such as Microsoft's
Kinect, which combined
infrared structured light and computer vision, and the
Razer Hydra, which used a magnetometer. Nintendo and Sony would adopt motion tracking using gyroscopes and accelerometers as a standard hardware feature in successive generations starting with their handheld consoles the
3DS and the
PS Vita, both of which had the required three-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes. In the
eighth generation of video game consoles Nintendo and Sony included those sensors as a standard feature of their two handed game controllers, the
Wii U GamePad and the
DualShock 4. The consoles also had support for some devices in the previous generation of motion controllers depending on individual games.
Valve's Steam Controller was designed solely for use with PC's and required its Steam software. Its
6DOF sensors were made available for use by games published on
Steam, and options available to users allowed the use of its gyroscope as a pointer control. Its motion tracking features would later be adapted for the
Steam Deck. A wave of
virtual reality headsets released in the 2010s adopted forms of 6DOF motion controllers; the
HTC Vive was bundled with wand-like controllers, while controllers known as
Oculus Touch were released initially as an optional accessory for
Oculus Rift in December 2016, and became part of its standard equipment in July 2017. Both controllers are tracked using infrared emitters placed in the play space. Oculus later switched to an "inside-out" tracking system for
Oculus Quest and
Rift S, where the controllers are tracked by cameras in the headset itself. The
Nintendo Switch hybrid home/portable console and its included
Joy-Con controllers feature 6DOF sensors in each controller in the pair as well as in the main body of the console. The optional
Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and
Poké Ball Plus controllers also feature 6DOF sensors. In the
ninth generation the Sony
PlayStation 5 continues to provide similar motion tracking for the included
DualSense controllers, while supporting the use of older generations of motion controllers when playing backwards compatible games. ==Notable controllers==