MotionPlus not Wii exclusive – technology to move to PS3, Xbox 360?
The MotionPlus peripheral for the Nintendo Wii could be about to make gamers interactive experiences more fulfilling. But as well as heading for the Wii, it could surprisingly also be on its way to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
When Nintendo unveiled the new MotionPlus add-on for the Wii Remote at E3, most of us rightly assumed it was an exclusive for the Wii. I’ll admit that I reported on it thinking it was actually an in-house product made by Nintendo itself. But not only is it a third-party peripheral, the company behind it has revealed that its deal with Nintendo is “not an exclusive” one.
The Wii Remote is a fine device, and one that is almost wholly responsible for the success of the Wii in this generation. But the motion sensing functions of it can be improved upon, something which the newly announced MotionPlus add-on does. The MotionPlus sits on the end of the Wii Remote, and turns it in to a device with a true 1:1 response to body movement.
The developers of the MotionPlus, InvenSense, recently spoke to Eurogamer about the device, what it could do for gaming, and its relationship with Nintendo. Company spokesman Joe Virginia revealed that other companies have also approached the company about the technology, although he unfortunately wouldn’t name names.
Of course we’re incredibly pleased – delighted would probably be a better adjective – that Nintendo approached us… but it’s not an exclusive relationship.
I can’t get into details about other folks that are interested in this technology, but as you might imagine of course there is more interest out there.
This does of course open up the possibility that motion sensing technology of this kind could be on its way to one of Nintendo’s rivals. There have long been rumours that both Sony and Microsoft are looking at cloning the Wii Remote for the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively in an effort to grab a slice of the casual gaming market that Nintendo is scoffing right now. This would seem to support that speculation.
As for the Wii MotionPlus, Virginia waxed lyrical about how the technology could alter gamers experiences. He said:
With six degrees of freedom you can basically make any movement at all, and be able to track that in combination with the sensor bar and other sensors included in the Wii remote. Add the gyroscope capability and you have the ability to work in all three dimensions of space.
What you’re looking at are golf swings; tennis rackets where you can put top-spin on balls; bowling where you can bowl curves; sword motions with forward thrusts; and in Wii Sports Resort the throttle ability.
After hearing the technical details, I’m actually a little more intrigued about the MotionPlus than I was before. It could be about to give Wii gamers a much improved experience with games such as Wii Sports, but even better than that, it could also be heading for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Bring it on.
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12 Responses to “MotionPlus not Wii exclusive – technology to move to PS3, Xbox 360?”
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August 11th, 2008
Something like this could make companies in many different fields interested. It would be foolish to think MS and Sony aren’t two of the interested companies though.
I just doubt they would have much success with an add on motion controller like the Wii has. These things never take off. Next gen I do think it is likely that both Sony and MS (if they both decide to make a next gen console) will make a console from the ground up with a motion sensing controller.
Seems like more of a long term interest for MS and Sony.
August 11th, 2008
I just can’t bring myself to care about motion controls.
-Arvis
August 11th, 2008
Motion Sensing sucks i love Dualshock 3 and Sixaxis but the Wii controller is gay pathetic boring for serious nerds.
August 11th, 2008
I personally think that if they could have a motion controller that is perfect for Shooters I would be intrested.
August 11th, 2008
On a side note did you guys hear about Nintendo claiming that the Wii sold the most 3rd party games out of all consoles and then Microsoft bitch slapped them with this response. I took it form Gameindustry.biz:
Last week, Nintendo of America’s vice president of corporate affairs, Denise Kaigler, defended the Wii’s third party sales saying, “We are selling third party games and they are doing very well, and better than our competitors.”
But according to NPD information obtained from Microsoft by GamesIndustry.biz, that Nintendo claim appears to be wrong:
Total third party sales for the Xbox 360 since launch is currently 67,929,999 units, followed by the Wii at 33,394,311 units and the PlayStation 3 at 19,976,325 units.
Third party sales for the Xbox 360 since the launch of the Wii and PS3 is 54,065,728 units, still almost double the Wii’s 33,394,311 units.
If you take the total number of units sold and divide that by the number of titles released since November 2006, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are selling more units per title on average than the Wii. This puts the Xbox 360 at 217,252 units per title, the PS3 at 156,065 units and the Wii at 132,517 units.
“No matter how you slice it, the Wii third party game story is not a pretty one,” commented David Dennis, group manager of corporate PR at Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business.
August 11th, 2008
CAD,
It’s things like this that make me warm up to Microsoft, just a little. They’re always ready to step-in and defend REAL, traditional gaming, the way it’s meant to be played.
Good find and encoraging numbers, to be sure. But are we surprised?
-Arvis
August 11th, 2008
I don’t know but aren’t you guys also forgetting that the company mentioned in the article isn’t the only one behind the “motion plus” add-on you forgot to even mention anything about live motion the other company behind it.
August 12th, 2008
Meh I agree with Arvis.
Motion control is overrated because its never going to be like you’re chopping a man in half because you don’t get any force feed back so its kind of ‘empty’.
CAD : The wiimote was fun as an aiming device in Metroid prime, altho it has its draw backs with turning… What they need is a wii mote with an analogue stick on it.
It also made resi 4 way more fun for me than on the ps2/gc.
August 12th, 2008
I have always wanted to play Metroide on the Wii.
August 12th, 2008
the motion plus will remove some depth to the games. let’s say in tennis, stats like serving power, forehand, backhand strength, angle of shots, amount of spin applied to the ball, will be removed because everything will be computed on how hard you swing the remote and physics will be applied.
means that most children / ladies that will play will definitely have lower stats than men because they do not swing hard enough.
this will also affect the campaign mode where you will develop and train your character for the stats to increase and take on nadal after a few years of training. with this, no more stat do develop.
hmmm, come to think of it, maybe we can still have those stats, it will just add / multiply the stat to your actual swing.
August 12th, 2008
lol @ “Motion Sensing sucks i love Dualshock 3 and Sixaxis but the Wii controller is gay pathetic boring for serious nerds.”
August 12th, 2008
But it’s clearly evident that the PS3 swings the bigger cock compared to 360’s small tweener