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New Controller to offer Wii capabilites to the PS3, PC, and Xbox360.

Named Gametrak Fusion, it uses a patent-pending ultrasonic and RF system to track the motion of a Wii-Mote-style controller, using a small base unit on the floor in front of the player. A 3D accelerometer in the controller also provides data on absolute position and orientation.

Combined together, the company claims it is both more accurate and more flexible in terms how it can be applied to games than Wii’s technology. For example, it offers better range and isn’t affected by ambient lighting conditions. Perhaps more interesting however, because the USB-based system is expected to be available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms, it will provide a potential secondary market for publishers who have developed custom games for the Wii’s hitherto unique controller system. Indeed, In2Games’ managing director Elliot Myers goes so far as to refer to Fusion as providing Wii emulation, albeit with the proviso that it’s more capable.

gama_myers.jpg

-Elliot Myers with beta controller.

I like the possibilties this opens for those who just mainly want to stick with ONE console, this means that everyone can enjoy the Wii functions :)
 

Kez

Hoenn Champion
Well, I suppose that it means that owners of other consoles can have similar gameplay to the Wii, but to me it just seems like an imitation. I just can't see it been as good as the actual wii controler, and if that is a picture of it in the photo, it looks like a tennis racket IMO.

I just think that it is not going to be anything special, but I guess that I need more information.
 

azurill

Well-Known Member
This is called stealing,but anyway I am 99% that it won't work out at all.
 
...ok based on your technical experience in what field?
 
Right.

Nintendo introduced it, and now the concept will be eventually mainstream throughout all future consoles as well...they're setting an industry standard.

...although it still puzzels me that they push the controller as "the" new thing yet SSB:B doesn't use it, but thank god it doesn't.
 

Paradox

Irate Pirate
What game company is going to produce proper games for a 3rd party controller? The strength of the Wii-mote is the fact that it is a standard with the system, this is just a straightforward peripheral. It doesn't have a games company behind it and without sales of the controllers no developers will create games for it, and no one will buy it if there are few to no games that support it. Nintendo should start worrying if Microsoft or Sony do something similar but not with this, it will extend to packed in party games at most
 

Thunder Child

Dedicated Trainer
Is this a threat to the Wii?

Not really.

The tech itself seems quite impressive, but it lacks the strategy of what Nintendo is trying to do with its Wii controller. The whole reason Nintendo went with a remote shape is because R&D-ed the hell out of the concept and realised it was the least threatening shape to the market its aiming for (non and lapsed gamers) while being the most adaptable. It covers many bases while the nunchuk provides that extra throw for more typical contemporary games. There will undoubtedly be more add-ons to the Wii-mote as time goes on, but none will provide that ease and mass market penetration that the initial set-up allows. Actually making shapes out of a controller, no matter how attractive, still misses the point in the first place – simplicity and adaptability. Part of this is the reason why adding motion sensors to current control pads won't cut it; they'll still be too intimidating to the market Nintendo is going for. On the flip side, making motion sensing controllers into balls and rackets removes their adaptability and corners them into a niche market.

Not to say this little peripheral won't find its market, but again it has several problems to get there. On top of being too narrow in its focus, its main up hill battle is it's a peripheral. Which means only a section of its audience will bother. It's not a console standard. Nintendo could have released the Wii-mote as an add on for Gamecube, but it would have failed because the Cube's audience would have dismissed it. The philosophy doesn’t match; Nintendo is trying to get all homes to change their thinking on what games can be, and a peripheral will never do that because there's never been a peripheral that every single console owner of that machine is 100% guaranteed to buy. This is part of the reason why EyeToy, as brilliant as it is, isn’t as mass market as it should be. Peripherals are add ons and by nature, limited (in scope, audience and support). But you base your console around a peripheral from its conception to launch and it becomes an essential cornerstone of that machine. The Wii-mote has that, the In2Games controller doesn’t.

Still, it'll be a useful expansion of a concept that will more than likely become standard for the next next generation...
 
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