Wii AccessoryPlus? A rumination on white plastic with Jack & David
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 10:20am by David
David: Wii MotionPlus = $20? Yeesh.
Jack: when people actually use it, that’s going to become a sweet spot price point
my prediction anyway
David: yeah, but is it just another zapper?
an afterthought for devs?
games won’t ever require the damn thing.
Jack: all i can say is it will be different this time. and that Nintendo might counter that trend by having publishers include it with games as a bundle
voila, problem solved
David: I think they’re going to treat it like their other accessories.
the Nunchuk is the only successful Wii add-on.
Jack: it was included in the box though
David: they’ll put it out with one game and then ignore it. Zapper, Balance Board, Wii Wheel
oh wait, you can use the Wii Wheel with Excitebots
Jack: believe me. when people play around with this thing, and it starts to create some buzz, then you ‘ll also start to see MS and Sony ramp up their rumor machines about their accessory
the balance board continues to top lists though. how is that a failure?
plus, EA is going to have a big fitness push this summer with their new exercise game
David: i’m just saying from a “buying in” perspective. I still haven’t bought a Balance Board because there aren’t games that use it that appeal to me.
Jack: and the zapper, well, that’s not really an accessory, just like the wii wheel isn’t. neither adds anything to games, and there are no games that are designed specifically for them
i don’t use my balance board either. but that’s irrelevant to the fact that there IS a market for it.
David: right, Wii Fit requires the board, so that’s a little different. I’m just saying I’d like to see more 1st party support from Nintendo for their own plastic. They should be going nuts with WiiWare minigames for the Board and the Zapper.
Jack: i see MotionPlus as a risk, sure, but there will be games that are simply impossible to play on other systems that will be designed from the ground up for it. Related to the Balance Board, we may not understand it (and that includes many of Infendo’s readers), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for it. This is proven by the month-over-month top 10 sales finishes
it all comes down to how the Wii was first introduced, and how it surged in popularity: word of mouth and people putting the controller in their hands and experiencing it for themselves
the same thing will happen with MotionPlus, and I see Tiger Woods (a third party title, of all things!) leading the way
David: well, let’s see what our readers think…
April 14th, 2009 at 10:40 am
it’s a platform!
April 14th, 2009 at 10:49 am
@deepthought: EA seems to think so, given their fitness-related plans this summer, no?
April 14th, 2009 at 11:01 am
About motion plus: well, after all, this is what we expected from the wii-mote from the start, isn’t it? I see this like a new opportunity to bring the “revolution” proposed by wii from start. And I don’t know you, but I’m waiting for that revolution to come over us
.
About the balance board: I still use my wii fit almost every day, so it’s not a failure on my case. But I’m still waiting for those crazy games that are only possible with the board. Where are they?
About wii wheel: I really, truly believe that wii wheel makes mario kart funnier, so it’s a success.
About wii zapper: It’s just a stupid piece of plastic
. Just kidding, I’m just not into shooters.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Third party games for the ballance board exist, Shawn White, Rabbids, Wii Ski and snowboard, Tetris Party and Marble Saga hardly sounds abandoned to me.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:41 am
[...] Here is the original post: Wii AccessoryPlus? A rumination on white plastic with Jack & David [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I think the motion plus will be great. I think Lucas Arts was actually complaining that Nintendo didn’t let them know about it before they released Clone Wars on the Wii. So we’ll probably be seeing a nice lightsaber dueling game in the future. Not to mention all sports games will be able to take advantage of the motion plus as well.
The balance board is also pretty good. There is only so much you can do with it since its a board. You have skiing games, fitness games, balance games, etc., but that’s pretty much all you can do with it.
The zapper is the biggest rip off since the Xbox360 (sorry little anti-microsoft humor there. Seriously though the 360 is a good system). I grabbed a bunch of toilet/paper towel rolls and some tape and fashioned my own zapper. Granted it doesn’t look amazingly nice, but it does the job. The funny thing is that I made it and I don’t even use it, so I’d probably never use the zapper.
Finally the wheel. Its fine since it comes with mario kart, but to buy it as an extra accessory is pointless. Its a mini wheel that you hold in your hand, and you hold it on the left and right sides. Gee! nothing else in the world can let you do that… oh wait you can hold the wii remote exactly the same way without the wheel.
All those other accessories (the plastic mini bats, racket, club, lightsabers, etc.) is a huge waste of money also. They are all pointless. I sure as hell don’t want to change an accessory every time I play a different game.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:49 am
When first announced they said to expect a very attractive price point. $20 is not attractive, it is the price of several games! I was expecting it to cost $10 or below, but I think it is too expensive. Now a complete Wii controller will cost ~$80! I consider it bad, but if it really adds to the games then I see it selling millions… but I’m disappointed with the current price point.
Best!
April 14th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Couple thing I want to mention before stuff that’s relevant to the post XD. The wii wheel does make a difference, it’s way more comfortable that just holding the controller sideways, and it put the b button in a much better position, and less than $10 for the motion plus thing is just plain unrealistic they aren’t going to sell the thing for the cost of a meal at mcdonalds, hopefully they’ll start packing them with controllers though.
Anyways! They’ve been handling motion plus pretty well so far, unlike every other accessory for the wii there’s actually more than one game that uses it coming out in the near future, which makes it much more enticing. Nintendo is handling it like they actually want it to be successful, probably because it will help them hold off the more powerful systems for a couple more years.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Motion Plus: Worth $20 just for 1:1 golf, in my opinion, regardless if any other games use it. That said, I don’t expect to see many useful applications and don’t plan on buying more than one of the Motion Plus add-ons.
Balance Board: Wii Fit is pretty sweet, although definitely not for everyone. Raving Rabbids TV Party rocks with the balance board, and it’s the only way I would consider playing Shaun White. Several WiiWare games provide additional novelty value (Tetris Party and Equilibrium being the most interesting I’ve tried)… But if Wii Fit doesn’t appeal to you then the board probably isn’t worth owning.
April 14th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
lol ARE YOU GUYS COMPLAINING BECAUSE YOU ARE BORED? Seriously, it’s one to one motion controls. It is the thing that the hardcore wanted and if casuals can pay 80 dollar for wii fit then why can we not pay $20 for 1 to 1? I mean really get your self a recharge stand for your remotes and you can save $20 to buy one.
Ir shooting is fun right now but full 1to1 would be nice.
April 14th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
i’m not sure the definition of platform, or how to interpret EA’s releases but….
for the wiibored- there are 18+ million sold and shaun white and rayman2 are each below 2 million sold. is there anything that uses it thats even captured 1/4 of the wiibored ‘install base’? can it be a platform if no one uses it for anything besides wiifit?
for this motion thing – well lets face it: i was just making a joke. but hey- $90 wiimotes. nickle and dimed man. nickle. and. dimed.
which reminds me of the conversations about nintendo’s pricing point. spending some time in wallmart over the weekend convinced me that the 360’s $10 premium only applied to any AAA new game. then they drop to $30- and fast. mirror’s edge is a great buy there. so the pricing looks competitive to me there!
point being, i liked your idea about a lower price point being good for the market, but was not convinced that it was the top price of new games that seems to matter. a range of prices, including a range of AAA games, is the 360’s current strategy and provides great options to cheaply pick up and play a console. i was actually more impressed with the segmentation ’strategy’ that this seemed to imply, whether purposeful or not. mario galaxy and zelda are still around 50 bucks. dead space and farcry2 are down at 40 (few bucks less on each titles at amazon).
for my interests, were i entering the mkt, i’d be glad to pick up a premium priced 360 game and a cheaper AAA 360 game over the wii plus its games around $50. especially since wiisports isn’t an interest to me.
wasn’t really on topic… but it was on my mind so i thought i’d share
April 14th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Eh. I’m getting Wii Sports Resort, and then I’m getting another MotionPlus later. I’ll leave it on until I have to play Mario Kart Wii.
Didn’t Nintendo say that a lot of their games from then on would be developed with MotionPlus?
To Ubisoft: Red Steel 2 for the win!
April 14th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
$20 is fair and it’s what everyone with a reasonable understanding of packaging and shelf space expected. No way they’re gonna bother with a $9.99 item. Thats a few cents more than the shitty purple rubber wii-mote condoms cost, are you people serious? You actually expected $9.99? Wow.
But yeah, I’ll be buying it with Resort, day one. Looks great. If it gives me more of the joy I got from Wii Sports those first few months with my Wii, I’m all-in for sure.
And as for balance board games, have you tried Shaun White Snowboarding? I think 1up gave it a 10. My wife is having a great time with the fitness games. I think the balance board is a great success. Isn’t there also a skiing games and as I recall Skate It supports it as well. I mean, you’ve got solid Ski, snowboard, fitness, skateboarding games for it, what more did you all want?
April 14th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Wii Motion Plus will be a tough call – I have high hopes for it, but I recognize the depressingly limited support for the balance Board – I’m hoping that the potential of this device will encourage developers to step up to the plate, but I’m not banking on it.
Although the Wii Wheel and Zapper are little more than useless pieces of plastic, they have their place. After a few months of on-and-off Wii Wheeling, I have to admit that I don’t think it ads that much to the game, although it can be more comfortable. I find the “official” Wii Zapper to be a badly designed hunk of junk, I prefer the home-made cardboard box pistol variant:
When calibrated properly in House of the Dead: Overkill with the cursor option removed, the “pistol grip” brings a certain arcade feel to the game that “remote style” controls lack. And considering I made mine for free, that’s not bad – but more than $5 for a piece of plastic that, in most cases, won’t significantly change your gameplay experience? Silly and wasteful.
April 14th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
OMG sean wins at life
the king of wiimotes (great taste and less filling!)
April 14th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I think Motion Plus will catch on unlike the zapper because its essentially required to produce the core gameplay Nintendo promised at launch. Its a pity we have to pay extra for it, and we’ve waited so long, but at the end of the day, I’d rather have it now, as opposed to the arrival of Wii Too.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
@ Sean:
eBay that $#!t!!!!!
Regarding the Zapper:
I like it. And I’m a core gamer. I’m gonna get MotionPlus.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
“Jack: all i can say is it will be different this time. ”
What else you see in your crystal ball there?
I’d say that being skeptical is actually the intelligent thing to do, given Nintendo’s track record with accessories/add-ons. I got rid of my Zapper a long time ago and haven’t missed it a bit, and I’m not exactly kicking myself for not getting a Wiiboard.
I’m taking a wait and see approach.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Hey Res, that’s completely fair, but it’s in my nature to take risks, make predictions based on trends and evidence before me, and stick my neck out on the line, as opposed to playing it safe. So we have a difference of opinion on this, that’s perfectly normal.
But, all evidence supports that I’m right, and that, yes, it will be different this time. Biggest piece of evidence? Easy: Nintendo is throwing this thing out into the wild without a first party title on launch day. So, unlike the Wheel, Zapper or Balance Board (the former two not actually being peripherals at all, since they add literally nothing in terms of new control schemes), there isn’t going to be a Wii Fit, or Mario Kart, or Link Crossbow training carrying the weight.
Instead, you have no less than three third party titles due out with the MotionPlus with controls that were specifically designed to support that accessory. In fact, I’ve already seen commenters from several major video game news sites that appear to be “coming around” on the “gimmicky” motion controls they shunned but a few months ago. After these games hit–and they’re third party titles, with not a Nintendo first party launch title in sight , did I mention that?–I imagine the reviews will vary on this theme: “I can’t see myself playing a golf or tennis title without motion controls ever again.” And, call me a shill, but I imagine many developers who’ve spoken with Nintendo and developed these titles are probably pretty psyched about developing games using these new controls.
Last piece of evidence is complete speculation. GameStop, and possibly third party developers, are no doubt dealing with Nintendo right now about how they can best bundle MotionPlus with upcoming games, thereby eliminating some of the risk of “yet another white peice of plastic on the market.” Many people, rightly or wrongly, think $20 is too much. Ironically, that’s actually great for Nintendo and EA, etc, because it means they can bundle the MotionPlus with a game and sell it for $60 and the game is going to fly off the shelf.
Nothing about this behavior suggests to me that Nintendo’s “track record” is in play at all here. Unlike those other accessories, third parties are actually ahead of the curve, with titles ready for launch.
But again, let’s just ignore all that because it’s easier to call me in the tank for Nintendo.
April 15th, 2009 at 1:28 am
That’s ok, I’ll just ignore that once again you prove how emotional you get over all this because once again you get your panties in a wad when someone doesn’t 100% agree with you.
You want to have faith that this is going to be totally awesome, you go right ahead. I’d say your “evidence” is in the eye of the beholder, as well as plenty of conjecture. To say “all evidence” points to you being right is quite a bit of a stretch since most of it is subjective.
April 15th, 2009 at 2:26 am
If the Wii Fit board is a failure, then what does that make the PS3? Because they’ve sold about the same.
To say anything is a ripoff is an “eye of the beholder” thing. Crossbow Training was very successful, and the Zapper itself selling about 4 million. Sure it’s just a plastic shell. So? Don’t use it. You can even fashion your own if you like, just don’t get the smug attitude that you are better because you made one out of cardboard. I mean yeah, you sure showed Nintendo and the Walmart crowd whats-for, right? *rolleyes*
I think the Motion Plus is a great idea, and a necessary control expansion for the real future of games. People saying it would split developers and markets… well.. history doesn’t bear that out. The Playstation controller as we know it always had those dual analogs, but the original model had no analog control at all. It wasn’t until three years after the damn thing was released that analog control was added. Did it split the market? No, the Playstation 1 went on to break sales records.
This is the stuff that can and should make waves. And Nintendo is probably gonna start using their obscene profits to start flexing more of this muscle.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:34 am
“That’s ok, I’ll just ignore that once again you prove how emotional you get over all this because once again you get your panties in a wad when someone doesn’t 100% agree with you.”
Just wanted to quote you, in case anyone missed the hilarity. Thanks for being you!
April 15th, 2009 at 10:51 am
MotionPlus is how Nintendo will fight for the expanded market. Nintendo was ready to wage this war at E3 2008, so it tried to 1-up (haha) Microsoft and Sony before they had the chance to announce their own motion controllers.
As we all know, those motion controllers were never announced.
Wii is changing hardware cycles. Since graphics are no longer a major factor and have reached a point where they are ‘good enough’ for the average consumer, the new focus has become user interface.
The Wii doesn’t need a hardware revision to evolve in this way. It only needs an accessory, the MotionPlus, to upgrade the user interface.
If Sony or MS tried to attack the expanded market with their own motion controllers and new value propositions, MotionPlus would be how Nintendo would combat that.
Neither MS or Sony have put focus on that direction, so they will continue to fight for an increasingly shrinking core market. Meanwhile, Nintendo, with Wii and MotionPlus, will have a firm hold over the expanded market, and it will continue to have success.
As for the release date of M+, it’s a little odd, but it makes sense. Third party games supporting M+ will be available around that time, and dedicated players will buy M+ in advance for those games. For everyone else, MotionPlus will be bundled with Wii Sports Resort, which of course is the sequel to one of the most popular games in the past 20 years.
So long as Nintendo continues to convey the value of Wii and the value of MotionPlus, and so long as it keeps offering new value propositions, it’ll be fine.
I am interested, however, in seeing how Nintendo plans to broaden the appeal of WiiWare and Virtual Console. I haven’t seen Nintendo communicating the appeal and existence of these revenue streams to average consumers.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Hmm. My English is sucking today. Sorry.
April 15th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
“Easy: Nintendo is throwing this thing out into the wild without a first party title on launch day.”
Jack, that’s an inference with faulty logic. Meaning, it’s unsound. It’s entirely possible that Nintendo is contractually obligated to EA et al. to have motion plus on the market by a certain time, but that Resort is just behind schedule.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
@daverage,
“its essentially required to produce the core gameplay Nintendo promised at launch.”
Except that it’s not. Nintendo never promised 1:1 control. Please link to where Nintendo promised 1:1 control. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
@ used
Daverage- i’ve got this one for ya!
” relies on wireless technology with built-in motion sensors to translate movement directly onto a TV screen.”
Hall, Kenji. “The Big Ideas Behind Nintendo’s Wii”. BusinessWeek. Retrieved on 2007-02-02
This is typical of how the wii was introduced to the world. What was hidden was the accuracy of this “translation.” It’s not a smoking gun, but let’s face it- everyone expected a bit more from the wii. otherwise wii boxing wouldn’t have been so critisized. because it would have worked. nintendo lead us to believe it would work.
i’d look for a better quote… but i’m running late for dinner. and then there’s studying to be done!
April 16th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Yeah, keep looking. That quote is absolutely accurate. The Wii mote does translate movement to the screen. And Wii boxing DOES work. Works just fine. Try going through the training mode. Don’t worry, I’ll keep waiting.
April 16th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Also, just found that quote at BusinessWeek. Those words weren’t even written/spoken by anyone at Nintendo, but by the journalist writing the story. Very deceptive sir, very deceptive.
April 16th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
hahaha- you think this is like a scandal or something- i cited to the person and where it is.
keep waiting and avoiding the fact that the wiimote had greater expectations, fed by nintendo. who knows if there’s a quote out there, but you know that everyone was lead to expect more.
but keep your waiting vigil going. your righteous stand against the evil conspiracy! oh the deception! your smugness being all the vindication you apparently need. you know, you could light a candle if accusing others of deception isn’t enough melodrama for you. oh! or light yourself on fire! no one could ignore that!
April 16th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
so ive got some time bored in class- but here’s why i’m mocking you a bit. youre trying to shut down conversation. you issue a challenge as if that’s the test we should all respect.
no one wants to go look up quotes for you. mine was easy to find, but we’re not running research projects for you.
why don’t YOU give us the quotes of what nintendo said if you really want to educate us.
and don’t act like this mythical quote’s existence or nonexistence negates everyone’s impressions of what nintendo was going to deliver. if nintendo mislead us a bit, got our hopes up higher, without explicitly saying x,y,or z- well they knew what they were doing!
bottom line, don’t smugly try to shut down conversation with challenges that you aren’t even stepping up to do yourself. you can wait, or maybe you can go find what nintendo said instead of telling us to do it for you.
and accusing someone who cited everything of deception? i’m still grinning! so much unnecessary drama!! point of order senator! point of order!
April 16th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
“why don’t YOU give us the quotes of what nintendo said if you really want to educate us.”
First, I never claimed a desire to educate. Nice try.
Seconde, it’s simple (strange that I have to explain it even, but oh well), I’m not the one who made the false statement. If you have the never to make a statement, you should have the ability to back it up.
You don’t, so you turn to this “melodrama” nonsense. I don’t need to light a candle, because the quote doesn’t exist. You know it and I know it, that’s why you are squirming.
And yes you were deceptive, you passed off a journalists comments as Nintendos. Simple as that. Lame as that.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
never said it was nintendo’s. cited the source. even said it wasn’t a smoking gun. you’re completely off base.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Used – “Please link to where Nintendo promised 1:1 control.”
Deep – “@ used
Daverage- i’ve got this one for ya! (read: Yeehaw! Look at me!)
” relies on wireless technology with built-in motion sensors to translate movement directly onto a TV screen.””
So I ask for a quote attributed to Nintendo from DaveRage and you step in and call the ball only to provide a quote from…….a journalist? And never mention its from a Journalist? Without a link by the way. Deceptive. Pure and simple.
Nuff said. Moving on.
April 17th, 2009 at 8:56 am
name after the quote is who said it. pretty deceptive, huh?
still waiting for the quote that shows how nintendo really introduced the wii.. wait wait wait….
April 17th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
“name after the quote is who said it. pretty deceptive, huh?”
Absolutely. I totally assumed you quoted someone from Nintendo since that’s the only quote that would have ANY relevance to the discussion. So yes, very deceptive.
And you can’t prove a negative (what nintendo DIDN’T say) with quotes einstein. If someone says they promised 1:1 control, no number of quotes I show that don’t mention 1:1 control could ever prove anything(this should be obvious). The only way to prove or disprove this is to either produce or not produce a quote where Nintendo promised 1:1 control. And so far, all we’ve seen is said quote NOT being produced. But for that, I’ll wait patiently. Hell, since you mention it, I’ll even light a candle if it helps. In fact, I’ll bookmark this page and come back every so often to see if you can come up with anything besides lame excuses and weak sauce attempts to turn this around on me. While they don’t actually achieve much, they are good for a laugh so feel free to continue to entertain.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
“I totally assumed you quoted someone from Nintendo”
ta dah!!!!!!!!!
wait wait wait wait….
April 17th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
hows about let’s compromise. if you want to say i could have been clearer- that’s fine. but there was no intent to misrepresent facts- this was not “designed to deceive or mislead”, per some defintion of “decieve” i found (and which, for the record, was NOT written by nintendo
).
i don’t think you should disprove a negative. just show us something representative of what nintendo really said to let us know that the expectations were wrong. (as i said before
) (it is possible to argue persuasively against a negative- i had to do it in a paper recently, but good lord it’s not fun!)
but don’t give other research assignments you wont do yourself. heck, just don’t give others research assignments. it’s smug and designed to create an artificial end to the conversation. as if any answer without your quote means your right and theyre not. Ridikulus!
April 17th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
“ta dah”
Imagine a guy goes into a store and asks for a coke. The guy behind the counter hands him a diet pepsi. The customer says, “hey, this is not a coke, it’s a diet pepsi. I asked for coke, so I assumed you’ve give me a coke.” Then the guy behind the counter says “Ta Dah!”.
That’s you. That’s hilarious.
Like I said, your responses are pretty entertaining, but as much as I got a chuckle out of “Ta Dah!”, I honestly think you can do better. Maybe sleep on it, get a fresh start, a good breakfast, THEN type something. Yeah, try that.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I like compromise, but this isn’t about a research project, it’s about someone backing up a claim. If I made the original claim and someone asked me to back it up, you can bet I would, or I’d admit I was wrong. In fact, I’ve done just that before. I made a claim and someone asked me to back it up. In doing the research to prove myself right, I discovered that I was mistaken. I tipped my hat to the guy and moved on, smarter for having been called out. I actually thanked the guy for forcing me to rethink my assumptions. Everyone needs to be called out now and then. It keeps us honest. If I say something as if it’s fact, (like using the word “promised”) I not only welcome you calling me out, I expect it.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
haha- you acknowledged you assumed what you’re accusing me of lying about. therein lies the vindication of “ta dah!”
honestly, couldn’t have laughed louder than when i saw that!
wait wait wait…
April 17th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Maybe that’s part of the problem, I never accused you of lying. I said your quoting a journalist to prove something about what Nintendo did or did not say, was deceptive. And it was. It was deceptive because, OF COURSE anyone would assume it was a Nintendo employee saying it. Any other quote would be meaningless to the discussion. So I’m glad you got a laugh out of it, but there was nothing funny involved.
Imagine if I asked you to prove that someone in the Obama administration said No Child Left Behind was a failure. And you righteously offer a quote as proof. You attribute the quote to a man no one has ever heard of, but don’t post a link. Only that quote is from a journalist, not anyone in the Obama administration. With a name only, no citation of their position or job title, and with no link for the reader to check for himself, people are left to assume it was someone in the administration, since it was offered as proof of what the administration said. That would be deceptive, but it wouldn’t be a lie. And because this is the internet, I don’t make judgements about peoples intent. I don’t know if you MEANT to be deceptive, but that doesn’t change the fact that it WAS deceptive. One can be UNintentionally deceptive.
April 19th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
wow, you guys totally ruined the fucking conversation. thanks!