Nintendo unveils MotionPlus accessory

By Robert Purchese Published 14 July, 2008

Clips to Wiimote for "unmatched" precision.

Nintendo has peeled the plastic off its MotionPlus accessory for the Wii remote.

This slots into the bottom of the controller and tracks your arm position and orientation giving off "unmatched" precision, according to the Nintendo website.

There are few other details on how exactly it works or what it does, although it boasts a "true 1:1 response" to your movement.

More information is expected tomorrow at the Nintendo E3 press conference. We will be bringing you live coverage of that from 5pm UK time.

'Nintendo unveils MotionPlus accessory' Screenshot mp

Futuristic!

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About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Jabbaa #1 4 years ago

    why would you need this? surely its usually bit too sensitive as it is?

  • el_pollo_diablo #2 4 years ago

    Is that an N64 memory expansion?

  • Munkhee #3 4 years ago

    Obviously spolier tactics for whatever MS or Sony (or both) have up their sleeves in terms of motion-sensing tech...
    Edited by 1 at 14/07/08 @ 17:35

  • Dizzy #4 4 years ago

    More precision is always a good thing. I found the Wiimote to be pretty bad for a lot of movement detection.

    Jabbaa the sensitivity you talk about is a direct result of lack of precision.

  • Killdare #5 4 years ago

    Hmm ... 1:1 movement for your onscreen Jedi's lightsabre waving. anyone?

  • ProtoformX #6 4 years ago

    Take the old "lightsaber on Wii example". Maybe now the lightsaber on screen would actually move in the same way as the Wii remote is moved rather than the current system where the game would just recognise that the remote had been moved without any idea of how or in what direction.

  • HoriZon #7 4 years ago

    They seem to make more on accessories than games :/

  • the_dudefather #8 4 years ago

    only £29.99 extra per controller ;)

  • JetSetWilly #9 4 years ago

    *drumroll*

    "And the award for announcing something that should have been in the hardware at launch goes to..."
    Edited by 1 at 14/07/08 @ 17:42

  • Turambar #10 4 years ago

    So an upgrade to make the wiimote do what it was supposed to do in the first place?

  • smelly #11 4 years ago

    *ugh*

    bad idea nintendo!

  • asphaltcowboy #12 4 years ago

    As wonderful as the lightsaber idea is... is no one really thinking about what happens if say, two lightsabers clash? You'll carry on moving 'through' and the onscreen saber is going to be sticking in place. How do you get around that?

    EDIT: And what's with all the people saying 'upgraded to what it was meant to do in the first place'? I don't think Nintendo ever claimed it would track you fully in 3D space, did they?
    Edited by 1 at 14/07/08 @ 17:44

  • smelly #13 4 years ago

    The BEST thing about the wiimote is the pointing NOT the motion sensing (which becomes tired VERY quickly imho).

    So why focus on the motion?

    gah! Beggars belief!

    Unless this comes free with a decent game.. i'm not interested.

  • DrDamn #14 4 years ago

    Yep. Lets see whether this gets the same treatment as Sony with rumble then?

    Going to be a hard sell as I suspect the majority of owners already think it does this. I suspect it will be packed in with a few mini-games to keep those attach rates up ;)

  • Farfarer #15 4 years ago

    A nice addition, although I feel it's a little late (I was, until I bought one, under the impression that the Wii did this from launch).

    Now it's no longer a core component and becomes an optional addon, meaning it could end up a bit of a flop like all previous optional controlers have been for almost every platform ever.

    I'm also wondering how they'd cope with objects passing through other objects while being moved, as asphaltcowboy mentioned.

  • Morrisseyxxx #16 4 years ago

    You lot like a good moan dont you?!

    Theres no pleasing some people. I went outside today, it was nice and sunny. Just thought you should all know that.

  • bluem4gic #17 4 years ago

    WTF this is what wiimote suppose do this already

    This is what nintendo has shown in it adverts

    I expect a price of £19.99 as standard as i dont see them giving this away free

    and I can bet there will be first party games that will this attachment i.e zelda, starfox

    hopefully they will see some sense and annouce a wii-mote with this built in as well as being rechargeable

    Get your wallets ready people get ready to spend more cash!

  • CallousB #18 4 years ago

    "Unless this comes free with a decent game.. i'm not interested. "

    Well of course it will.

    I suspect it'll come with Wii sports 2 /Wii Play 2 for the casuals..and probably a Zelda Swordfighting game for the hardcore.

    It's a great move by Nintendo IMO...Sony/Microsoft would have been crowing about their better than Wii motion controllers at e3..Nintendo throws out a small add-on and sucks the wind out of their sales.

  • Retroid #19 4 years ago

    JetSetWilly wrote:
    "And the award for announcing something that should have been in the hardware at launch goes to..."

    Nah, that's still rumble in the PS3 controllers! :D

    They also win the "In the hardware at launch and gradually taken away" award for PS2 BC ^__^

  • JetSetWilly #20 4 years ago

    Retroid - you're right, even this doesn't trump lack of rumble! :D

  • myiagros #21 4 years ago

    Presumably this means we will end up with the problem of people having to buy this accessory, or face being unable to play the latest game.

  • smelly #22 4 years ago

    "rumble is a last gen feature - motion sensing is where the REAL next gen is at"

    Sony said it themselves.. it must be true...


    (also lolling at the 360 owners on this thread - who'll no doubt be creaming themselves in 15 minutes time when msoft announce their wiimote rip off)

  • Rash' #23 4 years ago

    Will Ninty update the remote to include this tech as standard in all Wiimotes or will this be an optional extra for all concerned? The cynic in me suspects the latter...

  • Dizzy #24 4 years ago

    >So an upgrade to make the wiimote do what it was supposed to do in the first place?

    Maybe... TBH I think the "original" Wiimote is the best they could do at the time (price/tech wise). Looks like they found a way to improve on the design. Hopefully it will be standard soon with all Wiis.

  • zzyzx #25 4 years ago

    How sensitive the wiimote is right now has more to do with programming than with hardware. Sort of like how you can adjust the sensitivity of a computer mouse. Some titles are too precise, but others use some formula to smooth out wiimote movement and make it less jittery.

    The too-precise titles are *not* 1:1. Think of swinging a baseball bat with a flcik of your wrist. That probably closer to 15:1. If the new peripheral really does result in 1:1 movement, then that will solve the jittery-ness problem at one stroke.

    Tennis, Boxing, Star Wars lightsabres - all could be epic. If it works as advertised. The only other downside is how tired 1:1 movement is going to make you after an hour or two.

  • Daymare #26 4 years ago

    Extra precision also means you won't even be able to twitch without a game registering it. It will either make some of the games even harder (read: tiresome) to play ( I hate the fact Ninty didn't include a classic controller with the console as a standard, along the Wii-mote, so game developers wouldn't be forced to use it, since it's far from a perfect controller for many genres) or it will be useful for only a few games, made especially with this new accessory in mind.
    Edited by 1 at 14/07/08 @ 18:33

  • username #27 4 years ago

    I like the way you used a badly cropped screengrab of the image on Nintendo's website with the Eurogamer watermark hurriedly pasted over it for this article.

  • thiswaynow #28 4 years ago

    I wonder how many developers of near-complete motion-heavy games are crying at this news... Tiger Woods 2010 it is for me I think.

  • stevencole7 #29 4 years ago

    More plastic shit then.......

  • robg #30 4 years ago

    I so suggested doing this in a comment thread a while ago. MY IDEA! MINE!

  • daz_john_smith #31 4 years ago

    I love my Wii, but this does seem a bit redundant a bit like the memory expansion for the N64. I think poor Wii controls often come down to poor programming since I feel that all Nintendo's first party products work excellently with the WiiMote. So, I'm kinda at a loss as to what this is actually going to do that the hardware doesn't already do.

  • zzyzx #32 4 years ago

    Again - 1:1 movement means that if you twitch and move the wiimote slightly, it will be registered on-screen. But - and here's the key - almost imperceptibly. It would be easy for developers to implement some sort of threshold under which movement isn't registered at all, which would further reduce "the jitters."

    I don't think the critics really understand how much of an improvement true 1:1 motion would be over the current system. The critical thing, as always, will be whether it works as promised.

  • spekkeh #33 4 years ago

    As wonderful as the lightsaber idea is... is no one really thinking about what happens if say, two lightsabers clash? You'll carry on moving 'through' and the onscreen saber is going to be sticking in place. How do you get around that?
    You could always make the game so as that if you swipe pass the point where the lightsabers meet, you'll immediately fumble and get hit by the other guy. Whereas if you stop at the exact point, you'll gain initiative and get a free strike at your opponent.

    Wait, what? Too creative for a Wii developer? I guess we could always call it Wii Family Lightsaber Party. A series of lightsaber minigames, with game mechanics that are considerably dumbe.. easen... fine-tuned to cater to the moron... casual crowd. Yeah that sounds like a great idea. When we can tap into the casual crowd, those people are too stupi... new..., they would really appreciate the casual setting and definitely buy our game in great numbers!

    Ubisoft, I'm open to strengthen your managerial staff, please contact EG for my email address.

  • daz_john_smith #34 4 years ago

    1:1 is great and all, but thus far no one other than Nintendo has really been able to use the current WiiMote configuration at its best. 1:1 3rd party mini game compilations aren't at the top of everyones most wanted lists. 3rd party developers to need to get on board with some better ideas before more accessories/peripherals are released.

  • GrandpaUlrira #35 4 years ago

    Oh dear. Nintendo skimped on some of the motion tech they put into the Wiimote, if I remember correctly from what I saw on a website that broke down the component costs of the Wiimote, and now they want me to pay an extra 15+ quid so that I can play a few extra games?

  • FenderMaster #36 4 years ago

    JetSetWilly said

    "And the award for announcing something that should have been in the hardware at launch goes to..."

    yeah, those are my thoughts too, why wasnt this incorporated from the beginning, now for a true 1:1 Wii remote i'll have to pay alomost E100?

    (and why doesnt the classic controller have rumble?)

    Wii remote E50 + Nun-Chuk E30 + 1:1 sensor E30(?)

    hidden costs FTMFW

  • remote #37 4 years ago

    I thought I should add a post to explain what nintendo probably mean by higher precision..

    The Wii Remote can only detect rotation to two axis. Point you remote at the screen, and twist it toward the ceiling. That is one axis. Point at the screen and twist it like a screwdriver. That is axis number 2.

    Try pointing the remote at the tv, and then turning it like a helicopter blade. The remote doesn't register this motion. That is axis 3, and what I assume this add on adds to the mix. This is what the ps3 pad does already, but in a (IMHO) flawed way, since you stuck with both hands together. Oh, and the other three axis for ps3 are for movement up-down, forward-backward, and left-right movement (not rotation). I'm not sure if the wiimote can already sense all kinds of movement, but I'm guessing it can't as it's missing an accelerometer compared to PS3 pads.

    I'm personally quite interested in seeing where this takes the Wii.. many developers gave up with the wiimote and just sensed nothing more than waggle, since trying to capture anything more complex was so hit and miss.. not really a case of bad programming, just that wii sports gave a better impression of the wiimote abilities than it actually has.

  • Artemis_Matsas #38 4 years ago

    They'd better give this gizmo away for free...

  • Junglist95 #39 4 years ago

    ProtoformX & Turambar, i couldn't agree more. Maybe now we'll get the wii i thought they were going to release originally, mind you if they don't release the kinda games i wanna play i still won't be getting one (that's why i got miself a 360, this is the first generation of nintendo i haven't owned)

  • canIdoyabombsforya #40 4 years ago

    For a happier world it seems Nintendo should stop innovating and become a charity.

  • InsoFox #41 4 years ago

    seems like something that should have been on the controller in the first place, but still, it's welcome I guess

  • ChrisOTR #42 4 years ago

    Mixed feelings about this. I really like the Wii, but I do feel that Nintendo were vague-to-the-point-of-misleading about the abilities of the Wiimote. As so many others are saying, these new abilities are what I expected from the start.

    That said, it's all about the games so let's see what they announce later.

  • Mawich #43 4 years ago

    "Try pointing the remote at the tv, and then turning it like a helicopter blade. The remote doesn't register this motion. That is axis 3, and what I assume this add on adds to the mix."

    Ahem. Isn't that the axis Mario Kart Wii uses for steering? Seems to sense that pretty well already, I thought...

    One can see, though, how sticking another set of 3D accelerometers in an accessory at the end of the Wiimote could improve its precision. They might even be some other kind of sensor to complement the ones already there, I suppose.

    Will be interesting to see what comes of this, gameplay-wise, but I doubt it's got another accessory port on the bottom to plug a nunchuk into. It may even use the data channels the nunchuk uses for its own sensors.

    Come to think of it, the Wii Zapper probably does a similar trick, using the known juxtaposition of the nunchuk and the wiimote to calculate movement more precisely... I'm just wondering what they're planning that actually needs this. N64 memory expansion, sure, you can see where they used that, but I've never had any real complaints about the motion sensing hardware in the Wii. It's always looked like software problems with people not really knowing how to use the data effectively to me.

  • viper_h #44 4 years ago

    Mario Kart wii uses the accelerometers. Because the controller is held on its side, steering from right to left will adjust the pull of gravity on the accelerometers. if you do the same motion with the buttons facing upwards, nothing happens because the accelerometers are still on the same axis.