Motion Controls
A Little Wii Backstory
CVG have a great article about the story of the Wii. The whole thing is definitely worth reading, but I found this particularly interesting. Tom Quinn (above) is the man who invented the technology in your Wiimote today. He invented it for aeronautical reasons, as a method of auto-stabilising his aircraft, long before he pitched it as a gaming tool to Nintendo in 2001. Quinn actually aproac...
Did Wii kill the joypad?
By the end of the year, both Xbox 360 and PS3 will have added motion controllers to their lineups. In case you’ve forgotten, they’re the only consoles left using joypads as a primary input device, leaving many to wonder: Is this is the end of the thumb pad’you know, the one Nintendo invented? “Not exactly,” was the general answer I came up with, in a report published this w...
Nintendo “embarrassed” by Wii copycats
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime said he wouldn’t dare rip off the competition like Sony and Microsoft are doing with Wii. “I think we would have been embarrassed to do what our competitors are currently doing,” he told Kotaku, when asked what his company’s next console might include. “So, all I can tell you is t...
Are we really satisfied with the Wii?
Are we really satisfied with the Wii? Should we be? Shouldn’t Nintendo be trying harder? It’s a question IGN’s Matt Casamassina brought up in his December editorial Nintendo is Lazy and You Don’t Care. Although not the only, or the main point in his editorial, Casamassina repeatedly cites both The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy as the “epic...
Nintendo Wii beats Microsoft Natal to camera-based motion controls for current gen consoles
Jenny McCarthy and Ubisoft help remind us that camera-based gaming is already here with the new Your Shape fitness title that’s out this week. It’s interesting to note that this is a rudimentary form of what Natal is expected to deliver. Then again, PS2 had the EyeToy and I even had an Intel webcam back in 1999 that had the same basic functionality, nearly the same time Jenny was j...
The future of motion control is exciting
I shudder to think where video games would be today without Wii. There would still be games worth playing, but the focus on control, new ideas, and the realization of fresher experiences wouldn’t be as pronounced as they are now. Like d-pads and analog sticks, motion control is now standard. Well, sort of. While Sony and Microsoft are expected to launch their motion controlling gadetry for P...
Epic Games still whining about ‘Wii dominance’
Oh, Mark. Come now. Games with color and some silliness now and then aren’t going to make your balls shrivel up and die. Live a little! Regardless, it’s the horsepower fallacy all over again. Wii’s motion controls are kiddie and weak, and once the “powerful” Natal arrives (with Sony’s still unnamed “Motion Controller” licking at its heels for hypothe...
There might be something to this Wii MotionPlus thing…
First party Nintendo titles? MotionPlus don’t need no stinkin’ first party titles. It’s sold 500,000 units since launch on the strength of Tiger Woods alone (and to a lesser extent Grand Slam Tennis). A bit less than half of that was sold in Tiger Woods bundles. The ravaged economy, responsible for the current slump in gaming, has had the RPG-esque “no effect” on Moti...
The long-term impact of motion control
If someone’s not complaining about Wii in the short term, they’re complaining about Wii in the long term. G4 on Wednesday ran a shallow piece about the effect that Wii, and to a larger extent, standing up to play games may have on future generations. A father of three wrote in, citing the tired “Wii is for kids, real gamers play 360/PS3” elitist slant, but he jokingly share...
The simple importance of rumble
As the battle over who’s going to corner the market on motion controls continues to heat up, and companies beat their chests again over how it’s going to be the more powerful setup that will win the day, I couldn’t help but think that it’s going to be something incredibly simple (and old) that’s really going to be the deciding factor. Naturally, this simple thing was ...
Deep motion-controlled thoughts
I love playing golf, but for some sad reason I can’t wait to stay inside this summer and play fake golf with the 1:1 motion controls found in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. Did I mention that was sad yet? Just a few more months to go…
EA might bundle MotionPlus with Grand Slam Tennis
My prediction that Wii Motion Plus’s “delay” had something to do with third parties was bolstered today by a rumor regarding EA. Apparently, the publisher is planning to bundle its upcoming Grand Slam Tennis title with MotionPlus for a respectable $60. That’s only $10 more than what the title would go for by itself. To further expand on my prediction, I’ll say today t...
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