Despite the delivery of a largely underwhelming press conference at last week’s E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles, Japanese gaming giant Nintendo did manage to unveil one noteworthy addition to its ongoing portfolio of innovation; namely the new MotionPlus gameplay dongle.
Nintendo mulling over whether to integrate MotionPlus enhancement into its Wii Remote device. Image: Nintendo.
Designed to easily click onto the existing Wii Remote controller, the MotionPlus adaptor should enable game developers to incorporate substantially enhanced movement-based sensitivity into Nintendo’s already ground-breaking device, which will, in turn, create even more immersion for Wii gamers.
While the MotionPlus dongle looks set to be released to retail as either a standalone extension or as a bundled extra included in the upcoming Wii Sports Resort game package, Nintendo has intimated that the technology could also be integrated as standard into future Wii Remotes.
“As to looking at whether or not it will be an attachment or built-in -- we’re always looking at how hardware should evolve and where we should take it,” offered Nintendo’s Katsuya Eguchi at an E3-hosted developer roundtable. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a definite direction to give you today, but it’s something we’ll be looking at.”
Eguchi’s comments come after Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime took to the stage during the company’s E3 presentation and highlighted the advantages and advancements related to MotionPlus by putting it through its paces in Wii Sports Resort.
Fils-Aime also promised that a single unit of the evolved dongle add-on would come complete with the updated sporting release, which is the highly-anticipated sequel to one of Nintendo’s most popular Wii titles to date.
Quick to curb any suggestion that Nintendo’s unveiling of MotionPlus is an admission that the original Wii Remote is not up to standard when it comes to accurately gauging player movement, Eguchi insisted that development of Wii Sports Resort simply led the company to push its own boundaries.
“Of course, you always want more, and as we were working on [Wii Sports Resort], we thought it would be nice to have more than what we had… But we’re not dissatisfied at all. We’re very happy with what we did.”
During its E3 press conference, Nintendo used a Wii Sports Resort Frisbee mini-game to show gathered attendees how the MotionPlus adaptor relays vastly improved player movements back to the screen.
An on-screen (Mii) character holding the Frisbee displayed an unerring accuracy when twisting, tilting, or swinging its hand, wrist and arm in unison with the player holding the extended Wii Remote. That extended precision enabled the on-screen character to deliver a perfect representation of the player’s fluid throw speed and angle, which, when delivered correctly, resulted in a cartoon dog scampering enthusiastically into the distance in an attempt to catch the whizzing disc.
Although the eventual Wii Remote integration of MotionPlus is likely to give developers plenty of scope in their efforts to extend the innovative reach of Nintendo’s hugely popular Wii console, Eguchi also suggested that the device might best serve “as an attachment we only use for certain software.”
Wii Sports Resort is currently scheduled to hit retail in the spring of 2009.
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