Wii Motion Plus - Who benefits?
It's been almost two years since the launch of Wii and many third-party developers still haven't got to grips with the motion-sensing technology of the Wii Remote and we've been inundated with games that lack innovation or make full use of the technology.The announcement of Wii MotionPlus earlier this year, which will make motion-sensing more accurate, certainly suggests that Nintendo didn't get motion-sensing right in the first place. The bad news is that this upgraded Wii Remote could prove to be a headache for developers who have only just got their heads around the Wii Remote's motion-sensing functionality as it is now.
Indeed, some third-party developers were angered by the fact that Nintendo sprung the announcement of Wii Motion Plus out of nowhere without prior warning, meaning that implementation of the improved technology into future games will take longer to perfect that they - and we - would have liked. Initially, we can look forward to first-party games, such as Wii Sports Resort, to showcase the technology - probably extremely well - whilst third party devs will be back at the drawing board trying to get to grips with the tweaked controller precision and tracking.
Nintendo say that the Wii MotionPlus accessory(pictured below), which clips onto the base of the existing Wii Remote, 'redefines game control', by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. This means that movement of player's arm should be captured more precisely during games, ultimately making for a more immersive game.
Whilst I can understand third-party developer's dismay at Nintendo withholding the information about Wii MotionPlus from them, the attachment is surely going to be better in the long term for gamers. The question is: when?
Continued overleaf...