Sensitive Wii maker snubs developers Nintendo may have announced a new enhancement to the Wii controller, but don't expect many titles to take advantage of the new accuracy. Many in the development community only found out about the Wii MotionPlus yesterday - the same time as the rest of us. Developers normally expect to get early access to peripherals, so they …
Nintendo have always been very nasty towards third-party developers. They made a big fuss about being "third party" friendly when the Wii was released, and cried their eyes out that developers and publishers weren't spending big budgets on games for the console.
What were they expecting? Kisses and group hugs? Not after some of the stuff that they've pulled over the last decade, and this is another example of exactly how Nintendo feel about third party developers. They don't want or like them. As long as they're not making games for other consoles, Nintendo are happy and will willfully abuse the fact that they are the primary competition on their own platform.
But really, this is nothing compared to the absolute doozy that Nintendo pulled on developers and publishers roughly two years ago. Even I was amazed at the depths they went to back then.
Looking at the link you provided........
"...integration of MEMS and CMOS structures at the wafer level with a proprietary bonding technology resulting in several thousand gyroscopes simultaneously produced on a single wafer."
I very much doubt that they have produced several thousand small devices that consist of rotating masses. They've probably produced strain gauge based multi-axis accelerometers that are now accurate enough to replace the traditional gyroscope in some less demanding applications. So they call them 'gyroscopes' because the marketing people don't know the difference. The client buyers don't know the difference either and it costs lots of money to change the brochures.
"oh, woe is me! my console is now obsolete!" bah!
you needed an add on to play the classic download games. So you need an add on (or hopefully a newly available upgraded controller) to take advantage of new features. What;s the big deal? the console doesn't need replacing.
This is like whining about having to upgrade a hard drive. Big deal. The only whining I can see justified is that, well, I don't want another bit of crap hanging off my wiimote. Let's make a version 2.0 wiimote available with the new accuracy imbedded in the standard length chassis, so it fits my PerfectShot, wii wheel, and soon-to-be-acquired lightsaber. :)
This is really a non-issue. Nintendo gamers have already had to buy the nunchuck addon alongside the WiiMotes for a lot of games - and those are pricey. This , i doubt,
will be any more cash.
And anyway, most Nintendo gamers will probably rush out to buy Sports Resort which
will come with the required add-on gyroscope extension anyway. moot point me thinks.
At end of day, this sort of controller requirement is fully workable; you don't see too many complaints about having to buy the guitar for GH, the mics for singing games etc - and whilst the wiimote can be used for other 'board' games - the real board (as used in WiiFit) brings a far more rewarding experience. I , for one, will prefer the advanced experience with this dongle than play the games with basic. This aspect is the annoying one - the current games would also be improved if they could use this new better sensor too (I'd even go out to buy Red Steel at Lego Star Wars - they suck with the current WiiMote only!)
"But really, this is nothing compared to the absolute doozy that Nintendo pulled on developers and publishers roughly two years ago. Even I was amazed at the depths they went to back then."
Nothing like Sony's concentration on first party development then. Sony are the Nintendo of yesterday, not ones to learn from other people's mistakes - instead they decide to simply copy them.
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