In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained that the company’s love affair with expensive add-on peripherals may be coming to an end — but you may want to consider at least one of their recent endeavors in that field. Yesterday, Iwata provided hope that the Wii MotionPlus will be both cheap, and entirely worthwhile to purchase.
From the perspective of many who consider themselves hardcore gamers, Nintendo had a very poor showing at E3 2008. Rather than Mario, they gave us MotionPlus. Rather than Metroid, they showed off a noise-filtering microphone. Zelda fans are no doubt encouraged to play more Wii Balance Board games.
However, while I love Nintendo’s core titles to death — and yearn for the days when I didn’t need a suitcase to lug around my peripherals — I’d argue that these particular new toys are exactly what hardcore gamers have been looking for. What is the one key thing missing from Super Smash Bros. Brawl? The ability to talk trash with your friends as you royally kick one another’s keister. Why haven’t hardcore Wii games taken off? I’d lay odds it’s because the imprecise Wiimote doesn’t allow for controls any more complicated than point n’ shoot, at least until now.
Nintendo isn’t abandoning hardcore gamers — rather, they’re finally addressing their complaints, and doing so without foolishly promising titles they can’t deliver.
But can Nintendo deliver games that take advantage of these new options, either? Would-be MotionPlus developers are now playing chicken with the 10-million-plus Wii owners who may or may not buy the peripheral: the former unwilling to produce content for an uncertain audience, the latter unlikely to buy in if the content isn’t there. Nintendo may court the casual crowd with the Wii Sports Resort pack-in, but hardcore gamers may not bite… and developers may not necessarily be able to wait until that title’s Spring release date to find out if the investment is worthwhile.
Nonetheless, president Iwata hinted Monday that the Wii MotionPlus will be an integral part of the company’s strategy going forward:
WSJ: Will Wii owners be forced to buy a Wii Motion Plus for each controller they own to play newer games?
Mr. Iwata: There will be games that will be enhanced by the Wii Motion Plus as well as games that can only be played with it. Users will need four if they have four controllers, but we’re going to try to offer it for as little as possible. We haven’t announced the price yet, but the cost of making the Wii Motion Plus is not that much, so I think we can make it very affordable.
While it’s important to consider that some things might be lost in translation, I find the phrase “users will need four if they have four controllers” very telling, and should Nintendo succeed in making the unit inexpensive (and/or build the gyroscopic device directly into our Wiimotes), I have faith that hardcore gamers, and hardcore games, will soon follow.
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