The Nintendo Wii has claimed market leader in not only the United States, but the world and Japan. There is no end to this Wii-buying frenzy with 666,000+ Wiis sold in the US this past June. Nintendo’s “Blue Ocean” strategy has worked and they are attracting the casual gamers with titles like Wii Sports and the hardcore with Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
It’s clearly evident that innovation still matters. Although motion control existed prior to the introduction of the Wii, the control scheme was never effectively introduced to the mass market in a plausible form (lol @ light gun games and the Sega Activator). When Nintendo’s little white console came along, it changed everything. The new Wii remote wasn’t the end of it either; Nintendo flaunted “Miis,” little avatars used for certain games as well as messaging using the Wii’s online capabilities.
At E3 2006, we witnessed Sony playing copycat and stuffing motion controls into the PlayStation 3 controller (at the expense of rumble). This recent E3, Microsoft followed in Nintendo’s footsteps and revealed (or rather, confirmed since everyone already knew) their Avatars, the Xbox 360’s own version of Miis which will be used for certain games as well as the new Dashboard.
For the past year or so, we’ve been hearing rumblings that Microsoft has their own motion sensor controller in the works, codenamed “Newton.” There was also a rumor that Motus Games‘ Darwin controller was indeed the Newton controller, but it seems like it’s simply a third party peripheral. We didn’t hear any of that during Microsoft’s press conference, either.
Regardless of what Sony and Microsoft may publicly say, they internally acknowledge the success and the appeal of the Wii. It’s cheap and simple to play. For tennis in Wii Sports, you simply swing the controller. What PS3 or 360 title is as simple as that? The PS3 and 360 interfaces come off as intimidating as well (from my experience watching others play their 360s or PS3s for the first time), and first-time gamers will feel challenged by the systems. Sony and Microsoft have probably learned from the Wii and are incorporating some of its features in their next consoles.
Waggle controls, therefore, will be in all three next-gen consoles. The SIXAXIS controller already has a (fail) form of motion control, so it’s undeniable the PlayStation 4 will feature improvements and enhancements. The 360 is still rumored to get motion control sometime soon, maybe even possibly at the Tokyo Game Show.
It’s too bad, however, that the Wii library isn’t strong. Much of the library consists of cheap, bargain bin titles or PS2 ports. It has only a handful of good games that also take advantage of the Wii’s unique capabilities, which are limited further by the console’s lack of power. Maybe Sony and Microsoft can do a better job of getting developers to actually make good use of the Wii remote too and also get them to sell. The Wii has a horrendous software attach rate. Third parties don’t really make all that much, save for Ubisoft and its endless amount of bad titles.
The waggle controls haven’t impressed me too much; the only games I actually like are Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Medal of Honor 2: Heroes, and Boom Blox, at least in terms of their controls. Everything else simply doesn’t execute motion controls very well. I’m not looking forward to it in the next generation, but hey, developers can surprise me.
What’s your take on waggle controls? Will you hate it? Do you still think it’s gimmicky or do you believe that it is the future? Share your thoughts on today’s Breakfast Talk.
This post is tagged breakfast talk, microsoft, nintendo, playstation 3, sony, waggle, wii, xbox 360
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Depends on perspective and target audience, lol.
I’m pretty oldschool (and was formerly competitive), so I eschew motion-sensors or waggle controls. I prefer a nice standard controller.
However, to the casual crowd, having waggle-enabled controllers will attract them like steaks will to a hungry rabid pitbull.
Still, Nintendo is hoping to step it up with MotionPlus. So I don’t know how that’s going to turn out.
Every time I’ve tried to try out a Wii game at an in-store kiosk (the latest being Boom Blox), I have had to step back and then I had to learn the controls. Pressing down and holding A before doing a throwing motion is not intuitive if you don’t go through the tutorials first.
Thankfully, not every experience I’ve had with motion control has been bad as I seemed to enjoy Wii Sports while Super Swing Golf did not fare as well because of my arm imbalance affecting my swing. It sure would have been nicer to have had MotionPlus then.
I don’t have a problem with motion controls if they are integral to game play like in No More Heroes, which I would like to play, or some of the PS3 Sixaxis games where you steer by tilting like Lair. However, I dislike the gimmick-based minigames and other things like the Xbox 360’s Totemball where using the Vision camera to move made me hella tired, both physically and emotionally. Holding a regular controller doesn’t frustrate me; instead, it makes me feel more in control over the action than merely steering by moving my hands and hoping it works as intended.
I like the IR pointer for Trauma Center but aside from that, waggle can go suck big fat one for all I care.