Here’s what we know so far about Nintendo’s new precision Wii MotionPlus attachment for the Wii controller:
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.
We’ll obviously know more tomorrow, but for now let the speculation begin! [Thanks, Ross!]
Makes sense.
Lightsaber battles here we come.
1:1 Lightsabres or Master Swords, it could be a very good year indeed, if they have something up their sleeve to take advantage of it properly.
I can’t wait for tomorrow!
Bug fix?
I wonder if they will be coming out with new remotes that will have this feature built in??
Sexy Reggie Fils-Aime battles, here we come.
Not buying unless this is REALLY good.
I’m sick and tired of Nintendo pumping out lame accessories that don’t do anything. Like the plastic place holder — *excuse me* zapper — and the steering wheel. I got the same immersion from the Wheel just by playing the Wiimote sideways. Wiifit doesn’t count obviously because it actually DID something.
This is good news, but it makes me think of something I said before. Below, I’m quoting my response from the Infendo article “Top 10 things that annoy me about the Wii”
“I’m not always sure if motion control accuracy issues in some games is entirely the developers fault. I think Nintendo may not have nailed this technology as good as it should be. I say it may even be a 65/35 balance. 35 percent being the fault of the Wiimote. Do any of you guys have this suspicion?”
This new attachment makes me feel that my opinion is valid.
This better become a built in feature. I’m a little bothered about attaching an attachment and then attaching my nunchuck to that attachment. Also, why on earth is it curved instead of flush with the Wiimote? Aarghh!
I also wonder if it will improve the control of already released games.
This is GREAT news. Anything that will improve the already awesome Wiimote is welcome in my living room. Leave it to Nintendo to do something completely unexpected…and a day early at that. Cannot wait for tomorrow as to hear what the 2 companies I actually care about have up their sleeves…Nintendo and Sony of course.
The Zapper and Wheel were shells. I can’t believe the level of bitching that has exploded upon the announcement of this thing. People really have no clue how the Wiimote works still, do they? The Wiimote has no ability to track position, it never did. It can figure out where it’s pointing relative to the IR sources and how fast and what direction it is moving. With this accessory, it appears the Wiimote will now be able to track its position independently, allowing some really cool new stuff, namely 1:1 motion and position tracking. If Wiifit doesn’t count among the lame accessories, neither should this, because it definitely “does something”.
No excited with this, pass.
this is great news no more will i smash unsuspecting controllers for their lack of motion response. this might be a good fix for an annoying problem. i do agree with this being built in i don’t like the idea of the attachment to attachment scenerio.
I bet that even with this uber upgrade, most developers will still suck when it comes to doing what Nintendo did so well with an included game.
I’ll be buying the new Tiger-rehashed-Woods if it support this accessory.
Hopefully Clone Wars will supports it.
Also, it seems a new Wiimote Sleeve will be released to contain both the Wiimote and this? Look at the pic…
I don’t think they would do this (essentially, admitting that their initial product sucked) unless it was a significant improvement.
This is how I expected games to behave in the first place, with the sensor bar simply informing the remote of the TV’s relative position. If they can now *accurately* track acceleration in all 6 degrees of freedom (x,y,z,roll,pitch,yaw), then we ought to see some great games on the horizon, where the controller *is* the sword (no more needing to point at the screen like Red Steel).
This is a Good Thing(TM).
Now let’s see some games that fully utilize its potential.
If it’s the next Zelda…
i reckon new wiimotes will have this built in, but this is for everyone else. if they get the price ight or bundle it with something like punch out of zelda or bloody quickly get it into the force unleashed then this will be awesome.
I’ll reserve judgment for now; it’s obviously far too early to say until we’ve tried it. I appreciate Richter’s comment although didn’t we all think (possibly naively) that this is what the Wiimote would do anyway when it was first shown. At least Nintendo are not standing still and are bringing the technology up-to-date. I really hope future Wiimotes have this built in (WiimotePlus?) and while we’re at it a better speaker and some kind of rubberised corners rather than the – let’s face it – ugly jacket. Too many attachments spoil clean lines! Will there be new jackets too? :s
On the subject of the Wii Zapper and Wii Wheel – the Wii Zapper is an abomination and tars the great name of Zapper from the NES days. I like the Wii Wheel – it helps make the driving experience feel more natural and I find it easier to use and better to make smaller adjustments with than just holding the Wiimote sideways. It’s even got me playing the previously unplayable Excite Truck so that must be something.
Does anyone know if GameTrailers.com is streaming the Nintendo E3 press conference live tomorrow? It doesn’t specifically say so on the site. Is anyone else planning to watch it? If so, where?
I”m watching the Microsoft conference via G4 now….
…Nothing to say about this performance upgrade.
I feel like this is admitting that the original design couldn’t keep up. I also wonder if there is more to it than a simple attachment. Baseball in Wii Sports provided near 1:1 movements during batting and it was pretty quick, why is an attachment necessary?
This is what I expected from the Wii Remote in the first place (1:1 movement tracking). In a way, it’s sad that they need to release an annoying update just to meet our initial expectations…. but I am glad we’re getting this technology after all.
Agreed on a lot of things -
Excited about the possiblities
hoping for a WiimotePlus w/ this built in (though I don’t know if I’d upgrade remotes or buy the accessory – depends on price/looks/how the attachment feels I s’pose)
I don’t like the looks of this now… obv made to make a dogbone shape when connected with the wiimote shell. Without it, it looks kindof goofy, I think. I much prefer the clean lines of just the remote – def not remote+sleeve+motionplus(godforbid +nyko wireless nunchuk)
There’s also some lively discussion going on in the Infendo forums about this topic – people who are really excited should swing by and comment!
http://www.infendo.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=41339
This accessory looks like it will actually enhance the Wiimotes capabilities instead of encasing it in a cheap plastic shell (Wii Wheel, Zapper).
This doesn’t mean jack unless other developers can make good games that support this effectively. I’m not that excited. :\
“This doesn’t mean jack unless other developers can make good games that support this effectively.”
Pessimistic, but oh so true.
“I can’t believe the level of bitching that has exploded upon the announcement of this thing.”
I know niehter can I. The amount of butthurt from both sides had been incredible. And by incredible I mean us, being the only two butthurts here. Would you like to form a squad? The butthurt squad?
Won’t this attachment make the wiimote incompatible with the Mario Kart wheel?
no, because its pretty clear that this attachment will only be compatible with new games, due to the added pile on numbers and calculations that will now be sent to the game.
mario kart i reckon wasnt porgrammed to handle this (though maybe nintendo will drop the bombshell of upgrading first party titles via WFC to be compatible combined with the storage solution (ok now i’m dreaming))
i think tommorrow when they show punch out and drumming via wii music it will all make sense. i hope
1:1 would be an improvement in “wheel games” like Mario Kart
This is a “good thing,” indeed. It’s a little annoying that it’s going to cost more to get, and I hope the first game to use this “comes with it,” like wii play came with an extra remote.
The best thing? GLOVEPIE INTEGRATION.
I love using my wii-remote on my PC and this will make it better.
Hell, I wish nintendo would just release their own wiiremote program for the PC. That way everybody can enjoy it. (Glove pie will not function in Israel apparently. Adding political statements into your programs is weird.)
I wonder if this has anything to do with Wii Music. I fully expect Nintendo to announce games to make use of this device tomorrow.
On second thought, I still don’t understand how this can enable 1:1 motion tracking. In order to achieve real 1:1, you need position AND rotation info. The Wii remote has always offered accurate rotation info (with the exception of YAW).
To accurately track position, those new accelerometers in the MotionPlus better be DAMN good to be able to track distance deltas in 3D space. Anything that depends on the IR sensor (like they mentioned MotionPlus is), still won’t be 1:1 unless you’re pointing at the screen. I’m confused. Hopefully more info comes tomorrow.
I can’t believe no one said “MEGATON!”
MEGATON!!
there, I said it, LOL!
seriously, it could be either awesome or lame, depends on how much it really improves the wiimote and how they’re going to use it.
We have to wait and see…tomorrow we’ll know.
If it can do what Nintendo claims, it must provide accurate position data. The current Wiimote provides essentially vector information (for fellow math nerds out there). A vector in physics terms provides direction and scale (if it’s not normalized), but no position. Without that, it’s impossible to do an accurate 1:1 representation of movement. How would you be able to account for something as simple as moving closer to the screen and staying there? Clever games can reproduce part of the effect by using the acceleration in a direction (think moving switches in Metroid Prime 3), but that’s too limited for something like a first-person 1:1 lightsaber duel. How they’re determining the position is going to be key to the quality of the effect. The first thing that springs to mind is some sort of radar/ultrasound type system, but there’s no way that’s feasible (at least not without adding a bunch of reflectors around the room, which would just be ridiculous). Guess it’s just wait and see at this point.
I’d be more excited if the attachment was compatible (somehow) with already existing games. Better WiiSports Boxing, anyone?
It really all comes down to games that take advantage of the new tech.
Bullcrap.
If the remotes don’t work close enough to 1:1, give me a recall, don’t sell me more junk. It better come free with games. A lot of games.
Richter,
There are some people who are better at math than you, and these people designed this attachment.
Motion tracking (position and orientation), from a given initial position-orientation 6-touple, can be calculated using accelerometers. This is what the Remote uses, and it’s also what guided missiles use.
I took a grad-level class on robotics back in the day.
Sounds to me like an addition for a newly improved Wii sports 2..?
@ Dmt
well this apperently isnt a hollow plastic weight s and avtually connects to the wiimote so i welcome it.
Wii well was good tho
plastic place holder… nah
Niko perfect shot: AWESOME
and yet again, nintendo comes out of left field and announces something no one thought they ever would. nintendo really means business this gen. i think that this is in direct response from the rumors that MS and sony were working on their own motion controllers. obviously, for motion controls nintendo is king in both software and hardware and everyone is going to play catchup. they obviously are the experts with the most experience in this field. in conjunction with the new wii balance board, this makes things very exciting for them. i wouldn’t be surprised if the rumored ‘punchout’ shows off this new tech. 2 wiimoteplus in hands, and the balance board. awesome……..
Wouldn’t you all jump for joy if Nintendo gave these away for free to all registered Wii owners? I know I would.
Since they probably won’t, I’m hoping for a price no higher than $9.99. That’s fair to all of us who have bought a Wii and extra Wiimote already. Since there has to be a Wiimote 2 coming, they shouldn’t ask too much for this.
With this new attachment it’s probably time to buy 4 more rechargable batteries also.
Awesome, but really should have been built right into the original Wiimote
Considering my education only went as far as Calc 2, Linear Algebra and Advanced Trig, I really hope there are some people better at math than me. That said, wouldn’t that sort of technique only give you a position relative to an arbitrary reference frame (namely, where the remote started)? If you wanted some sort of discreet position relative to the viewport, you’d have to have a fixed reference to work off of, right? Or am I not thinking of this the right way?
This is what I thought the Wii remote was going to be in the first place. At least they’re catching up to the hype now a few years later.
I hope this will be used in a new ground-breaking Zelda game, mimicking the jump from A Link to the Past to Zelda 64 in magnitude.
how does the nunchuck plug in?
woo hoo!!
jevon
I don’t believe you’ll be able to use more than one attachment at a time.
If you look closely on the Picture (use this : http://www.gfdata.de/archiv07-2008-gamefront/wiimotion.jpg)
you’ll see, there is a covered plug in the back of the motion+, so nunchuk plug in will be possible. (Would be a really silly decision to prevent that)
Wii Sports 2!
Finally a real topspin in the tennis game.