Wii Accessories - Milking Potential
Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 4:28pm by Andrew
Since launch of the Wii, there has been a good amount of third-party peripherals that have been snuck into the public eye. These range from sports items, cooking utensils, and enough gun devices to create a plastic arsenal. I myself have never been tempted into getting any of them since they just seem very impractical.
Now Nintendo is bringing out three accessories of their own. The WiiFit Balance Board seems to be the best. This could be used in many games to come, and in combination with the Wiimote the options are endless. But, Nintendo is coming out with the Wii Zapper and steering wheel along with the Balance Board. These types of peripherals add almost no functionality to the great controller the Wii has.
So, why is Nintendo making plastic placeholders for the Wiimote when there are other options out there already?
July 27th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Three reasons, I think:
1) I have not seen any other “gun” simulator, such as the Wii Zapper, out there;
2) There is nothing else like the balance board out there either, and that one is not only an adapter, it actually requires some hardware within it;
3) Every third-party designer that makes a Nintendo peripherial before Nintendo sets the example ends up being of pretty bad quality, so Nintendo usually has to step in. The third-party ones coming after are the ones that get the job done!
As a side note, I’m disappointed that the turning scheme that Nintendo will use for Mario Kart Wii, from what the pictures show, is once again incompatible with Exite Truck. That game could REALLY use a steering wheel adapter!
July 27th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
My impression was the modular design of the Wiimote meant it could be adapted to all kinds of shapes with different ergonomic/fiducal effects simply through shells, while maintain all its properties: Buttons, Wireless, Speaker, Motion Sensing, Screen Tracking, Internal Logic, Batteries.
This was supposed to mean 3rd parties could readily make custom controllers packed in with the game while keeping costs within that of a regular game. As it is only the producers of 4X4 have had the foresight and eye for it.
Hopefully we should see a real change in attitudes when (hopefully) the Guitar for Guitar Hero only costs Wii owners an additional $10, while 360 users fork over $50. Rock Band too, if they decide they aren’t going to ignore Nintendo. (It’s too bad Wii doesn’t have parallel processing, half a gig of RAM and 48 unified vertex/pixel programmable shaders, because they’re absolutely necessary for a FUCKING MUSIC GAME - Pardon my French).
July 27th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Well, the Wii Zapper looks to be the best option among what there is. But yeah, the Wiihl is just lame, anyway if it comes free with Mario Kart, who cares? I don´t.
July 27th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Why did Apple make a boom box for the iPod?
A) There were people out there who bought into the idea of a premium priced apple Hi-Fi boom box
B) to stimulate the accessory market, and therefore sell more iPods
However, in Nintendo’s case they’re bundling both the Zapper and the wheel with Nintendo software. They’re essentially freebies meant to sell the software, not the other way around.
Why sell the accessories? When they’re pack-ins to begin with, then why not?
Bonus for them is they is they increase brand awareness for the Wii.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
I love ridiculous accessories. I say bring on the guns, bongos, maracas, fishing poles, steering wheels etc.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
When the NES was sold, commercials and demonstrations focused on the Power Pad and the Zapper. Why? Watching people play video games is as entertaining as watching paint dry. Zapper and Power Pad SOLD the system simply because it looked fun.
When the Wii came out, commercials and demonstrations focused on Wii Sports. Why? Watching people play Wii Tennis or Wii Bowling or Wii Boxing is far more entertaining than watching someone play the PS3 or Xbox 360.
The image of video games has been an American school kid with their face staring at the screen. The purpose of the Wii is to destroy that image.
The problem is that shooting games or driving games with the Wii-mote resorts back to the old American school kid staring blankly at the screen. It is not fun to watch such people play (as it is with Wii Sports). And when it isn’t fun to watch people play, no one wants to play it (meaning gaming won’t spread through the household).
The purpose of the Wii Zapper is to make shooting games LOOK fun to onwatchers. The purpose of the Wii Wheel is to make driving games LOOK fun to others. “This is not your father’s Mario Kart,” Reggie said implying that they want new users to play the game. The purpose of these accessories is not function but viral. Normally, most people wouldn’t buy these accessories (just as many in America probably wouldn’t have bought Wii Sports). The accessories are a viral trojan horse to help spread gaming through the household.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I have the Nyko charging station , while it saved me money from buying batterys , it also works like a charm . I would like to see Nintendo come out with its own brand wiimote charger instead of coming out with a steering wheel and a plastic gun,
I wouldnt say those peripherils are useless, but for me its just unnecessary to play a racing or a shooting game with those things..
I would like to see more Nintendo brand peripherils like, A wiimote charger, keyboard, hard drive and as we know the Wii board , these are hardwares, things that has built-in fuctions and all have a necessary purpose..
July 28th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
The Zapper - If the pack in games are worth $20, I will take the piece of plastic that comes with it for free.
Steering Wheel - If they charge me more than $50 for MarioKart, I will not be happy.
Balance Board - WiiFit looks cool, but it seemed they stole a bit of it’s thunder by presenting it after two crappy peripherals during the E3 presentation. I am really interested to see optional controls for the balance board in other games. I suck at strafing in FPS shooters, but leaning to strafe would be a no brainer.
Predictions - The plastic gun and circle attachments will go the way of R.O.B.B.I.E. the robot and WiiFit will go over well for Japan and parents with obese children. The Balance Board could be the biggest surprise since the Wii if it can be used as an optional controller in other games.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I remember Iwata or Nintendo’s lead electrical engineer mentioning the Nyko battery chargers, and they said that they’d rather leave it to Nyko and other 3rd parties as Nintendo has far less experience in that field and they wouldn’t be able to price it as cheaply.
But don’t take my word for it.
July 31st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
kinda off topic remember the power glove that thing sucked, but people still bought one. was it due to fred savage’s awesome performance in the Wizard or just the fact we thought it would be cool to control a game with the wave of your hand. wait that’s what they invented with the Wii, maybe they’ve been working on this technology all this time…