Tag Archives: Wii MotionPlus

Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has said that WiiMotion Plus was almost dropped for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

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Huh? Wii MotionPlus is out already? Could’ve fooled us.

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Ubisoft’s put out a new video for Red Steel 2, which is below.

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Ubisoft has confirmed that Red Steel 2 will hit European retail on March 26.

It was revealed through a new video released today, and posted below the break.

A while back, it was announced for release in the US on March 23.

Watch onward.

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Shigeru Miyamoto has said that the next Zelda game for Wii will use MotionPlus in order to provide more realistic sword combat and targeting.

“In this (installment of the series), we’re using MotionPlus to make you feel much more like you’re actually fighting while holding a sword in your hand,” Miyamoto stated during an October 30 Q&A session, per Edge.

“In the previous game, you aimed at things by pointing at the screen, but this time we’ll use MotionPlus to create a much more convenient targeting system and a more pleasurable playing experience.

During E3, Miyamoto stated that he would like to see the next Legend of Zelda game be exclusive to WMP, but there is still no word on whether that will be the case or not.

More through the link.

Nintendo just said its black Wii bundle, which includes Wii Sports Resort and Wii MotionPlus, will release in Europe on November 20.

British and Irish punters will get it on November 6.

Americans get the new black kit on November 16, as previously announced.

PR after the break.

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Nintendo’s to offer a Wii Sports Resort bundle containing an extra MotionPlus unit for $60 in the US, starting October 12.

This will apparently sit alongside the current pack, which contains one MotionPlus add-on for $50, until stocks run out.

No word if anything like this is happening in Europe.

Ghostfire Games has announced that its WiiWare title, Rage of the Gladiator, will be the first-ever WiiWare game to support MotionPlus.

The fantasy-themed, first-person fighting game allows players to accurately swing their weapon in either horizontal or vertical attacks using WMP.

You can still play the game without WMP though.

The game is expected sometime this fall.

More over on 1UP.

An unnamed retail source has revealed to MCV that the UK’s current Wii SKU is to be replaced with new bundle that included Will Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii MotionPlus.

However, it is not believed that the new bundle will be less expensive than the current offering.

If the report is accurate, this will be the first time MotionPlus or Wii Sports Resort has been officially bundled with the Wii console.

More through the link.

Wii Fit Plus will launch in the US on October 4, NoA’s Reggie Fils-Aime said at the 2009 GameStop Manager Conference today.

The exec also announced new US colours for DSi, the Wiimote and Wii MotionPlus. As of September 13, DSi will be available in white and pink: the machine’s currently on sale in blue and black in the States.

The Wiimote and Wii MotionPlus will get new black SKUs.

PR after the break. We’ll check on a Euro date this morning.

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Standalone sales of Wii MotionPlus are already close to 1 million in Europe, Nintendo said today.

The peripheral has been bundled with the likes of million-selling Wii Sports Report, but “separate sales” of the add-on “have exceeded 936k sales across Europe since its launch,” according to a press release issued this morning.

MotionPlus launched on June 12 in Europe.

Wii Sports Resort has been out in Europe since July 24, and it has already sold 600,000 copies.

That’s 100,000 more than the States.

Topping the UK all-formats chart for two weeks running, during its first week the game became the fourth largest selling Wii title to date with second week sales growing another six percent.

The game comes bundled with Wii MotionPlus.

More over on GI.biz.

Nintendo has announced that since its launch on July 25, Wii Sports Resort has sold over 500,000 units in the United States.

“Through Monday we sold one copy of Wii Sports Resort roughly every 1.5 seconds continuously since it launched in the United States,” said NOA’s Cammie Dunaway, “This tells us consumers were eagerly waiting to get their hands on these fun activities, and it’s a great start for a game that will have long-lasting appeal.”

Wii Sports Resort includes archery, Swordplay, table tennis, basketball, golf, bowling, Air Sports, Power Cruising, Frisbee, cycling, canoeing and wakeboarding and comes with Wii MotionPlus.

Loads more through the press release.

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It’s the report that keeps on giving. Wedbush Morgan’s exhaustive state-of-the-Union paper – Money for Nothing: How Ancillary Revenues Can Extend The Console Cycle – reckons a 2010 launch of an HD Wii SKU could bang PS3′s “comeback” chances right up the chuff.

The company also reckons we’re likely to see a Wiimote with built-in MotionPlus.

From the document:

Our vision is that Nintendo will wait until the cost of a console with technical specifications similar to the Xbox 360 (1080p output at 60 frames per second) is sufficiently low that it can launch close to the $199.99 price point. We would expect such a console to be fully backward compatible with the current Wii, but would expect the new console to have additional features and functionality. It is possible that Nintendo will redesign the existing Wii controller (the “Wiimote”) to include builtin Wii Motion Plus, and also possible that the Wii Plus (our best guess for the name of the Wii HD) will include a hard drive.

In our view, if Nintendo can offer such a device by year-end 2010, it will be in a position to seriously damage Sony’s chances of a comeback this cycle. We would expect publishers to support such a move, given that the cost of porting an Xbox 360 game to the new Wii Plus HD format would likely be lower than the cost of building a ground up Wii game (we estimate under $5 million). Should Nintendo be able to convince publishers like EA and Take-Two that the Wii Plus should be supported by the entire EA Sports catalog and by the next installment of Grand Theft Auto, it should be in a position to successfully convince consumers that the Wii Plus is the last console they will ever need to purchase.

Want some more from the report? Good. Because there’s an epic amount yet to go.

Eurogamer’s posted its re-review of EA’s Grand Slam Tennis, bumping the score from 5/10 to 8/10.

The site said last week it was to reassess the game after it found the Wii MotionPlus-enabled sports title to be sluggish on its Wii debug unit.

Reviews, eh? Millions of words through the link.

Shigeru Miyamoto has told Wired that the reason the new Zelda game was show at the Q&A at E3 instead of the press event, is because it’s still a ways off.

“Media briefings, for us, that’s a place where we’re going to talk about our business for the coming year and the products that we’re going to release over the next 12 months or so,” he said.

“The development of Zelda has been focused strictly on the gameplay structure at this point. We haven’t devoted much in the way of efforts to things like graphical representation, and story, and those types of production elements.

“Because of that, we thought it was just more valuable to continue have the team focus their energies on creating what will be a very entertaining gameplay system, rather than have them waste their energies creating a trailer to announce a game at E3 very far in advance.”

As far as the new Zelda using Wii MotionPlus, he says at this point it’s a given.

“The goal at this point is that we would make Wii MotionPlus required in order to play Zelda,” he told the site.

“The bigger hurdle for us is not really whether people have a Wii MotionPlus or don’t have it, it’s whether or not the experience is one where people will think they want to have a Wii Motion Plus in order to experience it.”

Hit the link for more.

The immediate growth opportunity for Wii exists in capturing the core gamer, Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has told CNET.

“The near-term opportunity is the consumer who owns an PS3 or an Xbox 360 and has been bad-mouthing Wii to their friends,” he said, talking at E3.

“We can reach that consumer with games like The Conduit or Tiger Woods with Wii Motion Plus.”

Fils-Aime said that players will go onto buy other first-party Nintendo games once they’d made the plunge.

“We think we win over the Halo audience with something like The Conduit, a multi-player, online, shooting experience, or Dead Space Extraction,” he added.

“And you know what? Once those people buy into Wii, they’ll go buy Mario Kart or Wii Fit Plus.”

Don’t worry, though. There’s plenty in that interview about going after non-gaming consumers. Read for the Lord.

Below is Nintendo’s E3 press conference presentation of Wii Sports Resort.

The footage focusses on how Wii MotionPlus really changes the way you play the game.

Check it out.

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EA interviewed tennis legend John McEnroe in a mailer sent out to the press, and while it does indeed advertise Grand Slam Tennis, there are a few interesting tidbits in it.

For one, this is John McEnroe’s first appearance in a videogame, and he seems rather excited about it.

“I’m pretty excited to be with some of the younger guys and how we match up,” he said. “I’ve waited a long time—50 years young—so I’ll see how I match up against the Nadals and the Federers; probably not real well but maybe this will help my chances.”

Best part was when he was asked why he wanted his famous 70′s ‘fro to be his look for the game. He responded like most athletes would looking back on their prime.

“Can you blame me? It was a magical time though I’m probably biased since it was the time I was playing. But the late 70s into the mid-80s especially was a great time in tennis, it seemed to be exploding in popularity. We did do things a little differently, a lot of characters out there. I think you’ll see even me with my shorts a little shorter than the other players. We had some wild looking hair and the headbands.

“People remember that and I look back on it fondly, not every hair style but there’s a couple others that I could live with. The most famous of the matches, particularly that Borg match in ’80 Wimbledon, the way he looked in his outfit and my puffy hair look, it’s probably more appropriate I would say to have that one.”

You can read the full thing over on GoNintendo.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has told Edge that he thinks MotionPlus could sell as many as 10 million units this year.

“I think around 20 percent of Wii owners in the US and Europe will have bought Wii Sports Resort, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 or EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis,” which will come bundled with the Wii Remote add-on, “so that’s around eight million,” he said.

“I think another two million will buy MotionPlus with new consoles.

“I expect MotionPlus to be a sneaky success (like Wii Fit), and ultimately attach to at least one third of the [Wii's] installed base,” he added.

MotionPlus releases in June. Full thing through there.