Nintendo "Thinking" About New Wii Remote With Wii MotionPlus Built-In

Now that the fungineers at Nintendo have increased the smile efficiency of the Wii Remote via a brand new accessory, the Wii MotionPlus, what's in store for the vanilla Wii Remote? What if I don't want to purchase a reasonably priced copy of Wii Sports Resort, but want that 1:1 motion control the Wii MotionPlus promises?

Nintendo's corporate affairs VP Denise Kaigler confirmed to us earlier this week that the Wii Sports sequel is currently the only game that's confirmed to take advantage of the new sensor, but... what if? What if, say, Mario Teaches Sniping is coming down the line and requires the add-on? Will Nintendo release an updated Wii Remote, one integrated with the MotionPlus tech built-in?

Katsuya Eguchi, producer of Wii Sports Resort and MotionPlus subject matter expert, says the company is currently thinking about integrating it into the current remote.

Nyko's Wii Remote Charge Station Won't Work with Motion Plus

I just ran by the Nyko meeting rooms to find out about their Wii Remote Charging Station. That's the thing that comes with replacement rechargeable batteries and allows you to dock your remotes in a holder to charge them when not playing. Personally I find mine irreplaceable, mostly because I can never remember to buy batteries.

The thing when I demoed Wii Sport Resort I noticed that the controller was longer now and asked Nintendo if the charger would still work. Ask Nyko was their reply, so I did.

Unfortunately, it won't work, at least not while the Wii Motion Plus device is attached. The Nyko guys told me they were already looking at ways to solve the problem. They added that they believe the Wii Motion Plus attachment doesn't contain batteries, meaning it likely draws power from the Remote, which would likely reduce the battery life for the controller.

Bad news all around.

Wii Remote Graf Mod Looks Truly Exciting

And no, not because it raises the prospect of a Wii port of Mark Ecko's Getting up. It's because, when I look at this excellent, home-made modification - crafted by German uni student Martin Lihs - that sees a can of spray paint turned into a fully-functioning Wii Remote, I think of a Wii version of Jet Set Radio (with 1:1 tagging), then I get a little giddy, then I get a little dizzy, then I need to go sit down for a bit.

Wiispray turns Wii Remote into virtual graffiti spray can [Engadget]

Lets get to what everyone is thinking first: No the Wii version of Samba de Amigo shown this week did not have Maraca-shaped Wii remotes. But that doesn't mean they aren't coming.

In fact a rep told us that they are looking into a "Maraca sleeve" for the remote and even spoken with some manufacturers about it.

In the game, for those of you not familiar, you take on one of several colorful characters dancing and playing the maracas to music. The rhythm game is played by shaking the remote and nunchuk in time to the music while making sure they are in one of three positions: above your head, at your waist or held pointing down.

A 6 Year-Old's Take on the Wii Wheel

Microsoft To Rip Off Wii Remote By End Of Year, Says Source

The Xbox 360 may be getting its own take on the Wii remote later this year, reports MTV News, with Microsoft said to have been knee deep in "X-remote" development since Summer of 2007. MTV cites an anonymous developer who alleges that a motion-sensitive controller is being developed alongside a Mii-like avatar system with the input of developer Rare, who is said to be late on delivering a "unified interface and look for the controller."

The unnamed source provided MTV with a sketch, which our hasty mock up to the left is based on and explains the copious amount of holes.

If true, it reminds us of that other Rare project said to be in the works, the Xbox Live Arcade title with Vision cam support.

Bionic Commando Gets Remote Play

Echochrome To Cost Twice As Much On PSP Than PS3?

Here's something disconcerting if it pans out as true: Siliconera reports that Echochrome will cost more than double for a UMD PSP ($37) version than a downloadable PSN/PS3 version ($17) when released on March 19th in Japan. While we've seen similar pricing discrepancies with downloadable vs. retail versions of Warhawk, that price difference included a headset for online chat.

The questions then become, are these two versions identical and will the game support Remote Play? And if so, just how much is it worth to have a UMD? UPDATE: Siliconera updated their post, pointing out that PSP Echochrome has twice the levels. I guess that explains the price difference.

PS3 Echochrome costs 50% less than PSP Echochrome [Siliconera via OpposableThumbs]

Perfect Shot, Wii Remote Pistol Controller

I have no idea how it feels, but Nyko's Perfect Shot for the Wii remote certainly looks kick ass. My only issue is that I tend to forget about controllers that I have tucked away in elaborate cases, like the one still sitting dormant in my Guitar Hero controller.

Wired's GeekDad teamed up with the blog-free GeekMom to get their equally blog-free GeekChildren a Wii this Christmas. But once they set things and started playing one of the remotes went all funky.

GeekDad, living up to his name, tried to fix the remote himself. He put in new batteries, tried re-syncing all of the remotes, tried resetting the remotes. None of that worked, so he called Nintendo's call support. After checking out the Wii Sensor the friendly Nintendo lady went into Angry-Dad-With-A-Broken-TV mode:

Friendly Nintendo Help Desk Lady: "Okay - I want you to take the remote, button side down and smack it into the palm of your hand two or three times."

Russ: "You've got to be kidding"

Friendly Nintendo Help Desk Lady: "No sir, do it hard enough that I can hear it across the phone line but not hard enough to damage the remote"

Russ: "You're sure?"

Friendly Nintendo Help Desk Lady: "Yes, sir."

The thing is, it worked. See, this just shows you that if all else fails try violence.

Crazy (real-life) Wii Remote tech-support call.. [GeekDad]

PlayStation Tips For New Owners

With a slew of new PlayStation 3 owners joining the growing horde this holiday season, the official PlayStation blog has been posting a series of helpful tips for new PS3 and PSP users to get the best out of their shiny new toys. Yesterday's post drops some details on DLNA-compliance and connecting your PS3 to your home network in order to share movies, music, and images stored on your computer with the console, which is one of the coolest features of the system and one I actually hadn't set up until reading said article this morning *hides*. Other tips this week have included getting RSS feeds on your PSP, donating CPU cycles via Folding@home, and setting up downloads through the PlayStation Store to your PS3 remotely using the PSP. Old news for those so deep into their systems that they can remotely control their car via their handheld, but for those of you to new or too lazy to know better will find a slew of nifty ways your Sony gaming dealies are more than just gaming dealies.

PlayStation Tips #4 - DLNA media server [PlayStation.Blog]

The latest game game to take full advantage of the PSP's Remote Play feature, one that allows PlayStation 3 games to be playable on the handheld, is Imabikisou. That's the Chunsoft developed, Sega published interactive horror fiction game that 99.99% of you will never ever play. It follows the game that 99.98% of you will never play, Lair, as the second game to make the Remote Play screen jump—that we know of.

According to Impress Game Watch, the game plays just fine, minus some squished kanji that makes reading a bit more challenging.

PlayStation 3 Remote Play [Impress Game Watch via Siliconera]

Wii Remote Jacket Hands-On

New Wii Remote Jackets Cost Nintendo $17 Million

The silicon Wii Remote Jacket, the cushiony shield designed to prevent further Wii Sports fatalities and shattered home electronics announced last night, isn't going to come cheap (for Nintendo). According to Asahi Shimbun, by way of Game|Life, Nintendo is footing a $17 million bill (2 billion yen) for the 20 million jackets its releasing.

Considering that Nintendo has a pair of platforms that print money, we don't think this is going to affect them financially in any way. Also, taking into account that Nintendo says the program "Isn't going to affect us financially in any way" we think Iwata and crew are gonna be OK.

Must be nice. I just spent $230 on a new jacket last week and it nearly broke me.

Nintendo To Spend Over $17 Million On Wii Jackets [Game|Life]

PSP Remote Play Demo Turns Us On (OK, just our PS3's)

More fun with bad vocal translation! Here's the full PSP Remote Play demo from the stage of TGS. It's not as flashy as their Leipzig GPS and voice chat presentation, but turning on and off your PS3 from anywhere in the world is, in all honesty, probably more useful.

I've said this before, but I'm getting pumped seeing Sony finally kicking some ass.

Kaz Hirai on the Future of PSP

Remote PS3 Power On Coming to PSP

During his brief TGS keynote today Kaz Hirai demonstrated the ability to turn your Playstation 3 on over the Internet using the Playstation Portable. The new feature will be hitting the portable in a future firmware update.

The update will also add the ability to put your PS3 to sleep remotely.

Other Remote Play Applications shown during the keynote included the ability to use the PSP as a second screen for Formula 1 Racing and using multiple PSPs as PS3 controllers. In the future it looks like that PS3s will be able to connect to each other to view multimedia on remote consoles, with multiple PSPs acting as PLAYSTATION 3 controllers.

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