It’s tiny. It’s brilliant. It single-handedly turns the Wiimote from a gimmicky controller into a truly 3D motion-sensing tool. And should it receive proper developer support, I believe that the Wii MotionPlus will finally bring gamers the Revolution they promised, four years ago. But Nintendo may not be the only ones driving that revolution…
In an interview with Eurogamer, gyroscope maker InvenSense disclosed today that their deal with Nintendo is not exclusive, and hinted that other companies may have approached them to develop ‘relationships’ of their own:
“Of course we’re incredibly pleased - delighted would probably be a better adjective - that Nintendo approached us… but it’s not an exclusive relationship,” Virginia told us.
“I can’t get into details about other folks that are interested in this technology, but as you might imagine of course there is more interest out there.”
No names were named, but rumors persist about Microsoft’s attempts to create a Wiimote rival; Motus Games seems to have already done so; the oft-delayed WildTangent Orb is rumored to have a motion-sensing controller in the works… and on Wednesday, ASUSTeK Computer announced their own Wiimote wannabe. Might one of these have the diminutive IDG-600 gyroscope buried within their plastic shell?
August 8th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Sadly, this won’t work with older Wii games. I can only hope that if The Force Unleashed allows full Wiimote control over the lightsaber, LucasArts has thought to support this great little device.
August 9th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Yeah - support of old games for motion+ would mean new programming, no easy task and no big surprise that it’s not happening. Pretty amazing some of the stuff it can do though.
I’m really commenting to say how I love the new look of the website. Here I go: I love the look of the website!
That was fun.