July 14, 2008: Nintendo's upcoming Wii™ MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote™ controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.
MotionPlus thoughts: I'm glad that while everyone was expecting a related announcement from Microsoft, Nintendo have been smart enough to steal their thunder and run another step ahead. However, it is true that the market may end up fragmented with many players possibly being unable to play some games at all, or play them properly until they actually upgrade. On the other hand, Nintendo will most likely do a grand job in marketing everything so that most Wii owners end up having this at least for one of their wiimotes, thus not fragmenting the market too much.
Basically, no, it's not ideal that we didn't have this right out of the box, however it is a solution to many complaints about the wiimote's shortcomings. If Sony did fine replacing their original controller with Dual Shock, if Sony did fine replacing their SixAxis with Dual Shock 3, if it's fine for Microsoft to start looking into motion sensitive gaming (even if they don't, response to rumours has been positive), if it's fine for Microsoft to fragment the market between Live paying and non paying customers and between people who have a HDD and people who don't, then it's certainly fine for Nintendo to also improve their hardware in this way in order to better fight the competition. Just hope they get it right but given their track record, who has a reason to doubt that?
I'm excited to see what becomes of this because it can really offer an all new level of control for games which can greatly benefit from it.
Conference thoughts: Nintendo's conference seems to have been a let down for many people but Nintendo only showed their absolute new content though it, nothing which was already announced previously. They managed to include some pretty exciting bits, the most prominent of which were Wii Music, Animal Crossing: City Folk and Wii Fit Resort. Wii Fit Resort will be the title to show off MotionPlus and it includes games like Jet Skiing and a lighthearted version of gladiatorial sword fighting. The latter should be a blast if it properly showcases the new motion sensing capabilities. The possibilities seem endless at this point but details are still too few to really judge it. I'll have to get it in my hands for that.