If you've ever played a console MMORPG like EverQuest or Phantasy Star Online, you know how much of a pain in the butt is to try to communicate with someone without a keyboard. Problem is, if you want to hook up a keyboard, you still have to either pilfer one from your PC or rummage around for an acceptable USB solution elsewhere. Luckily, Logitech feels your pain, and after delighting conversationally-challenged Japanese online PS2 gamers for almost a year now, they've decided there's enough of you starved for conversation to make it a reality here in the U.S.



The NetPlay Controller, a amalgamation of a DualShock 2 and a keyboard, has finally been officially confirmed by the Fremont, CA-based peripheral house as an official U.S. product available with the nebulous release date of "this spring."



What's interesting about the peripheral isn't so much that's it's a keyboard and controller in one, though one look at the design (which, admittedly is far more comfortable that you'd imagine), but that fact that it really is a full-fledged keyboard (complete with full-sized keys) that's actually detachable should you feel the need to just use a keyboard and a real controller, complete with dual vibration and analog buttons.



At the moment, the only games that officially support the add-on are EverQuest Online Adventures here in the U.S. and Final Fantasy XI in Japan. However, since it is technically a USB keyboard, it should work with any PS2 games that support a keyboard (or, for that matter any PC that has a USB port). We'll have full hands-on impressions when we give the controller another go at E3 later this year.