There’s an Emmy for that?

The word “Emmy” seems to conjure up visions of red-carpet parties, television stars and annoying Melissa and Joan Rivers interviews. Beyond that Peabody Awards knock-off show, hosted by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS), there are dozens of categories for technology, engineering and related sciences that are overseen by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).

Hold the phone! Don’t those two groups sound exactly the same, save for the word “national”? Well, in the mid-1970s, there was a big battle over the rights to membership among the NATAS body. Those who felt primetime TV was more important than intelligent programming formed a new group for the television sciences, but couldn’t be bothered to change the name. They simply dropped the “national” from the title and started their own academy and awards ceremony. Now ATAS gets all the attention for the Emmys, having dumbed down the awards process enough for Joe Teeveewatcher to enjoy.

Gamers and other people with lives reaching beyond the cable networks know that true Emmy glory comes from the folk at NATAS and their prestigious awards. It’s not all gaming, though. In fact, computers and cutting-edge technology developers from all fields have a good shot at winning an Emmy. Microsoft has taken home a plethora of these awards in the past for their leading innovations with Windows, Internet Explorer and anything else Bill Gates has pioneered. This year, they took home a joint award with Apple, Adobe Systems and RealNetworks for advancing the streaming media architectures-in other words, they’re being handed trophies for those constantly streaming videos that are now all over the internet.

The award categories change most each year, with this year hosting the award for “Peripheral Development and Technological Impact of Video Game Controllers.” This may sound a bit obscure and esoteric, but this award carries some serious weight in the gaming business. This year’s awards were formally announced on Jan. 8.

Sony made some big waves when, a week before the ceremony, they released a statement claiming that the new SIXAXIS controller for the PlayStation 3 had won the award. This led to a huge outbreak of pissed-off Nintendo fanboys who felt that Sony had merely emulated the motion-capture technology of the Wii remote (Nintendo’s new controller) and hadn’t really changed anything from the previous console. In Sony’s defense, both they and Nintendo began developing the motion-sensitive controllers around the same time, though Sony didn’t advertise it as well. This award has conjured some fierce contention by both sides of the Nintendo-Sony war, given that this is the first time the award has been presented since the release of the original PlayStation in 1995, when Sony became a major player in the gaming world.

However, after a few days of online rioting and angry people shooting off letters to both Sony and NATAS, it became clear that Sony misinterpreted something. They had been notified that they were going to win the award for peripheral development, though no one at NATAS told them what for. Like other awards ceremonies, the winners are called some time leading up to the actual event and told to show up, but aren’t told what they might win for. In this case, Sony got a little too excited and figured their new controller was up for the award and immediately started boasting about it in the press.

Oops. The SIXAXIS hasn’t been too well received in the gaming community because of the its USB battery-charging system for wireless support, the lack of games supporting the motion-sensitivity, and the total lack of a vibrate function. The SIXAXIS is so named because it offers six degrees of freedom to gamers-up/down, left/right and back/forth. It connects to the PS3 through Bluetooth and uses rotational and translational acceleration sensors along all three dimensions to detect when the controller moves around, then controls the game accordingly. However, unlike the Wii remote, this feature hasn’t been earning much play in the games out so far, meaning that it’s mostly a distraction-and sometimes a problem when gamers move the controller around in excitement, only to be thrown off course in a race or lose the ball in a sports game.

Sony was desperate to reverse the bad press, so they started making noise about their “award-winning” controller as soon as they heard they had won an Emmy. As it turns out, the DualShock controller model that has been in use since the PS1 days got the award, in an even tie with the D-pad from the old-school Nintendo NES/Famicom days. That speaks to how often the award is given out, and also puts egg on Sony’s bragging face.

Naturally, the Microsoft and Nintendo faithful have been calling Sony out as liars, but Sony insists that they were never told what specific controller was getting the award, nor were they told that Nintendo would be splitting the award with them. After this whole fiasco, alongside the PS3 being hailed as over-hyped, over-priced and under-fun, Sony hasn’t been off to a good start in the seventh gaming generation. Nintendo beat them in sales during the holidays and gamers with a PS3 on reserve are getting impatient.

The good folks at Sony are going to need something good to happen soon, or the Nintendo-Sony war will be over, with the original top dogs of gaming goodness back to their reign. In a short gaming analogy, Mario has come back for another round and this time whooped Crash Bandicoot’s ass.