Nintendo Power hints at June MotionPlus

By Tom Bramwell Published 4 March, 2009

Supported by UK publisher chatter.

Speculation is mounting this week that the Wii MotionPlus add-on will be released before the end of June, but Nintendo remains tight-lipped.

Sharp-eyed Wii watchers at GoNintendo noted today that EA's MotionPlus-compatible Grand Slam Tennis is due out in the US on 18th June - and that a recent preview in the official US magazine Nintendo Power referred to the MotionPlus as "due out prior to Grand Slam's release".

Meanwhile, another publisher with a MotionPlus-supporting project under way has told Eurogamer that it expects the add-on to launch in June as well, although as of late February Nintendo had yet to brief third parties about the exact timing.

Speaking to Eurogamer today, a Nintendo UK spokesperson said "the release date is still TBC", and anything else was "rumour and speculation".

The MotionPlus, announced at E3 last year, enhances the precision of the Wii remote, allowing games to achieve almost one-to-one movement recognition. Games that will support MotionPlus include Nintendo's own Wii Sports Resort, EA's Grand Slam Tennis, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Ubisoft's Red Steel 2.

"With six degrees of freedom you can basically make any movement at all, and be able to track that in combination with the sensor bar and other sensors included in the Wii remote," Joe Virginia of MotionPlus developer InvenSense told Eurogamer last summer. "Add the gyroscope capability and you have the ability to work in all three dimensions of space.

"What you're looking at are golf swings; tennis rackets where you can put top-spin on balls; bowling where you can bowl curves; sword motions with forward thrusts; and in Wii Sports Resort the throttle ability."

We'll let you know more on the MotionPlus date when we hear it.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • viper_h #1 3 years ago

    First.

    Wii lol.

    Probably going to get this anyway, at whatever ripoff price Nint£ndo charge for it.

  • uglygamer #2 3 years ago

    Good news.

  • DFawkes #3 3 years ago

    "What you're looking at are golf swings; tennis rackets where you can put top-spin on balls; bowling where you can bowl curves; sword motions with forward thrusts; and in Wii Sports Resort the throttle ability."

    You can swing the club fine in Wii Sports, you can put some spin on the ball, you can curve in bowling, or use forward thrusts with a sword. I reckon you could even throttle with the Wiimote. I don't think they're making a good distinction about what it'll actually do - all these things but just better at them. I hope.

  • Sean.Aaron #4 3 years ago

    I think putting the separate peripheral out in time to support 3rd party efforts for it is a good idea; rushing Wii Sports Resort or leaving EA hanging wouldn't be...

  • LazyDan #5 3 years ago

    I really can't wait for this, from reports it sounds like basically what the Wii remote was meant to be originally, but couldn't be - most likely due to how much more expensive the remotes would've been with this improved stuff back in 2006. And yes - look at that, no cynicism at all.

    Makes a change around these internet parts.

  • Dan234 #6 3 years ago

    The Conduit has been postponed till June too and that has Motion+ too.

    Maybe the idea is to push out a load of Motion+ games at once so that everybody will want at least one of them and yet another new kind of controller will sell in bucket loads.

    Or maybe there's just a delay with the hardware...
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/09 @ 15:56

  • roz123 #7 3 years ago

    I think i will preorder wii sports 2, i can see it being another complete sell out and year round chart topper. I just hope its as good as it sounds.

  • DFawkes #8 3 years ago

    That's a good point Roz, Wii Resort is going to be like gold dust in the Arctic at first. I might pre-order too. The casuals and the hardcore will all want it, be it for the games or the WiiMotion.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/09 @ 16:14

  • CallousB #9 3 years ago

    I'm sure Wii Sports Resort will still be out by June. Nintendo is just holding back on a release date.

    I mean they only just revealed Excitebots and that's out in 6 weeks (in the US anyway).

  • jonsaan #10 3 years ago

    Oh goody. Please ensure it require extra batteries too please. I love batteries me. Oh, and if at all possible can there be a wire involved somewhere too? Thanks.
    Edited by 2 at 04/03/09 @ 17:31

  • sneetch #11 3 years ago

    @roz123
    I think i will preorder wii sports 2, i can see it being another complete sell out and year round chart topper. I just hope its as good as it sounds.

    I wouldn't worry about that, I'm sure it'll be bundled with MotionPlus, in the same way that Wii Play came with a remote, Links Crossbow Training came with the zapper and Mario Kart came with the wheel.

  • malexous #12 3 years ago

    Don't worry jonsaan, Nyko are bringing out a wireless, batteryless MotionPlus in May.

    The only thing that will sway me into buying this at release at the moment is if it significantly improves controls in The Conduit.

  • Burkey123 #13 3 years ago

    Really good news!! I can't wait for Wii Sports Resort since this is bundled with it.

  • Bremenacht #14 3 years ago

    I really can't wait for this, from reports it sounds like basically what the Wii remote was meant to be originally, but couldn't be - most likely due to how much more expensive the remotes would've been with this improved stuff back in 2006.

    Yeah, it'll be good when it can do what was originally promised. Much as Wii Sports was Ok and very good fun to begin with, it got tiresome when you discovered just how clunky the motion-control really was (except for baseball, oddly) and had little appeal for single player. I still think the best add-on for the Wii is alcohol.

    I wondered what happened to the gyro software Nintendo bought soon after launch? Maybe they found the deficiencies with the motion-sensing were hardware only.

  • Santino #15 3 years ago

    this video about motion plus is a pretty good watch in case anyone hasn't seen it yet

    http://ww w.youtube.com/watch?v=acND4sO3p...

  • Cadence #16 3 years ago

    That video is pretty cool, it still makes me think the wiimote should have been able to do all that stuff when it was first released though. Still, it didn't so there's no use complaining I guess. Hopefully now I'll finally get that light saber game I always wanted.

  • kinky_mong #17 3 years ago

    "The MotionPlus, announced at E3 last year, enhances the precision of the Wii remote, allowing games to achieve almost one-to-one movement recognition."

    So it's still not doing what was originally promised on release!

  • schnide #18 3 years ago

    @kinky_mong

    No kinky, you are not allowed to say that around these parts. People will jump on you saying that the Wiimote does exactly what it needed to in the first place, so Motion Plus doesn't add anything needed, except it makes it better, even though that still doesn't mean the Wiimote wasn't as good originally. I hope I have cleared this up for you.

    Other people would say this is embarrassing that Nintendo feel it necessary to bring this out but hell no, not me.

    Who wants to threaten my first born, first?

  • Les #19 3 years ago

    "Other people would say this is embarrassing that Nintendo feel it necessary to bring this out but hell no, not me."

    Read a decent article in gamesTM (yeah, couldn't believe it myself either) about MotionPlus. Apparently Nintendo couldn't believe MS and Sony would be so stupid not to develop waggle wands of their own and anticipated them to announce that at last year's E3. To counter that, MotionPlus was hastily (in the sense of sooner than originally intended) presented to draw attention back to the Wii.

    When MS and Sony did in fact turn out to be incredibly stupid, Nintendo's whole E3 presentation fell flat as it didn't make as much sense anymore to present MotionPlus in that early state. Which is probably also the reason why it takes them so long to release it. They're in no hurry with the Wii performing as it does.

    And while core gamers might not like it, this 'incremental improvement' philosophy based on a fixed basic hardware architecture so far pays off fantastic for Nintendo so I can't really blame them.
    Edited by 1 at 05/03/09 @ 21:56

  • mooseman721 #20 3 years ago

    Great news, should be able to get one from a shop shelf by march 2011, or alternatively from amazon trader for a 600% mark up on rrp.

  • smelly #21 3 years ago

    "Other people would say this is embarrassing that Nintendo feel it necessary to bring this out but hell no, not me. "


    You could argue the same with sony and vibrating pads?

  • smelly #22 3 years ago

    .. or microsoft with their smaller xbox controller...

  • Dan234 #23 3 years ago

    @kinky_mong

    "The MotionPlus, announced at E3 last year, enhances the precision of the Wii remote, allowing games to achieve almost one-to-one movement recognition."

    So it's still not doing what was originally promised on release!

    Was the Wii originally announced with 1:1?