Here’s a piece of good news for Wii Fans – Rather than anticipating more impressive motion controls in the next version of one of the world’s most popular game console, the successor of Wii will be smaller and cheaper, according to the “father of modern videogames”. In an interview with Popular Mechanics, Nintendo gaming mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto said that the next Wii, also known as Wii 2, could be more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient than the current version.
When asked if he envisions future Nintendo consoles will include motion controls due to their popularity, he replied:
“With both the Wii remote itself and Wii Motion Plus, what we’ve been able to do is introduce an interface that is both I think appealing and at the right price for a broad audience. And while we don’t have any concrete plans for what we’ll be doing with hardware in the future, what I can say is that, my guess is that because we found this interface to be so interesting, I think it would be likely that we would try to make that same functionality perhaps more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient.”
One of the obstacles Nintendo faced is the escalating cost of its controllers. The recently announced bundle that includes the Motion Plus add-on has climbed to $70 ($80 separately). As a result, I expect the price of Wii 2 to drop only a little, and consumers will still purchase the game console if Nintendo improves its motion-sensing technology.
However, Microsoft’s upcoming Project Natal seems to be the next killer, and may beat both Sony and Nintendo all thanks to its state-of-the-art motion sensing technology. Dubbed as a “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience” by the Redmond-based tech giant, Project Natal enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images.
As of June 30, 2009, 52.62 million units of the Wii have been sold worldwide, edging past rivals Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in terms of worldwide sales. The distinguishing feature that makes the Japanese game console to be popular is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detect movement in three dimensions. Another distinctive feature of the console is WiiConnect24, which enables it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode.