The Future of Gaming: Motion Controllers Part 1

Its obvious to anyone that Nintendo has been very successful this generation with their motion controlling Wii. Microsoft and Sony have taken notice and have decided to try their hand at featuring motion controls on their systems as well. At E3 this year Microsoft and Sony officially announced their motion sensing products. On top of that, Nintendo showed off their next addition to the Wii remote which was announced at last years E3. So lets take a look at what these three companies have in store for us in regards to the future of motion controls.

We'll begin with Nintedo's Wii MotionPlus. As you already know, Nintendo's Wii already has native motion control support with their Wii remote. However the capabilities were a bit lacking, and instead of being able to fluidly control objects as you wish, most game developers were only able to tack on "waggle" controls which had you shaking the Wii remote about in lieu of button presses. One of the most dissapointing displays of the anticipated Wii was the launch title Red Steel. Nintendo has released the Wii MotionPlus which is a small periphial that attaches to the bottom of the Wii remote. The bottom of the MotionPlus unit will of course have an input for connecting the nunchuck/classic controller, etc. The MotionPlus will enhance the capabilities of the Wii remote to enable it to sense motions much more accurately. This will finally enable developers to use real 1:1 motion in their games which has never been realized on a home console before.

Just like how Nintendo created Wii Sports to introduce players to the Wii console and its motion controls, Nintendo has created its successor dubbed Wii Sports Resort. Wii Sports Resort was created to introduce customers to the Wii MotionPlus and will show off the new motion capabilities of the Wii remote. The game will also include a MotionPlus unit and is set to release on July 26th. Also at E3 this year Red Steel 2 was shown off, which will utilize the new MotionPlus technology. From the looks of it, Red Steel 2 will offer the type of control that consumers were expecting from the Wii when it launched, giving us the ability to use 1:1 control while wielding swords and guns alike.