http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail … hEO9zBvyPH

"Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo’s commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing."

Groundbreaking new peripheral or needless add-on?

I'll get back to you on that tomorrow once we know anything about any actual software using it.

I imagine improved motion recognition could only be a good thing but it does sort of give the impression that they didn't get it right the first time. It also means that a new player setup, with remote, nunchuck and now this (not even including a classic controller) will likely be rather costly.

But I guess it depends on the games. Or more likely, given that it's nintendo and quantity isn't their thing, the game. Perhaps a Pilotwings.

I wouldn't be surprised if this device came packaged with a game that would need to utilize true 1:1 control.

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Still need to hear the specifics on this but it seems like a bad idea.  First of all it's like they're admitting that the Wii remote's controls don't cut it as is.  Second of all there's the risk of fragmenting their user base.  If it comes packed with a game that's fine but what if other games utilize it... will it be essential for gameplay or will the normal remote work with different controls.  Third how is the nunchuck going to connect.

You would think they would have sorted all this out but we'll see.

I was wondering that as well, but then I noticed that there's a pass-through on the bottom of the accessory.

The risk of fragmenting their audience is a real one, though. Unless, of course, they package it with Wii Sports 2.

Nintendo has done a pretty good job thus far, so I can't see them messing it up now.  I'm sure they're going to package it in with some game. 

Also, I think it's fine that they "didn't get it right the first time."  It seems like they were still working on refining it, and I've enjoyed a lot of stuff that has been released so far.  This will just make it even better.

a higher quality spinning precision gyro would make for extremely accurate motion recognition (just like an attitude indicator on a plane), but i imagine it would burn through a pair of AA batteries pretty fast...

In a few hours, I'm sure we'll know which game this is going to come with that's going to make this worth it, but I do hope they simply build it into to all new wiimotes going forward since that would just make more sense -- leave the add-on for those with the older remotes.

As for predictions, this has the Star Wars Lightsaber game written all over it.  What else would need extra motion precision (I assume this device will do nothing for the pointer)?  Don't get me wrong, I know Wii Music and Samba de Amigo will certainly benefit from this (assuming the latter is programmed to take advantage of it), but if this isn't for lightsabers, I'll be shocked.

Did I call it or what?

Device looks good enough in action, but I'm pretty disappointed that this isn't coming for 9 months or so (the adapter... Wii Sports Resort looks pretty boring)  Seems odd that they would announce this so far in advance though.  Maybe they thought the Darwin was from MSFT and not a third party and wanted something to go against that.

It would be really interesting if they redid the original Wii Sports games with MotionPlus control, included them in Wii Sports Resort, and included that and the accessory itself with Wii systems from next year.  Tennis and golf speak "resort game" much more than sword fighting anyway.

Would be a good way to keep system sales going and broaden the appeal of Wii Sports Resort to current Wii owners.

The more sensors the merrier, I don't think it's a bad idea.  If they wanted to impress me, they could have it enhance the motion detection for pre-MotionPlus games.  Some of the Wii sports games were less than fluid when it came to control.

The WaveRace minigame looks like it would be a hell of a lot of fun.

Because the thing eats batteries, is why it wasn't included at launch, at least according to this:  http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/0 … tery-life/

Nintendo's keen on giving good battery life ever since they took forever to make the GB go C.

Battery concerns or not, the reason this is coming later is simply to generate incremental revenue.  I generally don't think that much of Brian Crecente, but his pre-E3 comment on GT TV that Nintendo is increasingly looking towards peripherals to drive sales seems very accurate to me.  Note that two new peripherals were announced: the WiiMotionPlus and the speakerphone mic.

^ Good points actually.  The Wii has a lot of peripheral attachments, and the one everyone clamors for them to release, more storage, Nintendo fails.

All Nintendo needs to do is release a firmware update that makes SD HiCap cards work on the Wii and allow stuff to boot from the SD card.  That's it.  Problem solved.