Wii MotionPlus Coming June 8th
by 
July had been the expected arrival time for Wii MotionPlus before now which was somewhat problematic considering the June releases of Tiger Woods 10 and Grand Slam Tennis. Nintendo has officially announced today that the controller add-on will be available for purchase on June 8th. The price will be $19.99 or it can be purchased for $49.99 when bundled with Wii Sports Resort on July 26th.
This means that M+ will be available for the launches of Tiger and Grand Slam on June 16th. These two games take full advantage and it enhances them immensely. So much so that I believe it may turn them into the preferred option for the hardcore players when put up against their 360/PS3 counterparts.
The only obstacle is the price which is higher than most had been anticipating. A family with four wiimotes will have to spend $80 to upgrade them or $110 if picking up Wii Sports Resort. The total price of a single fully equiped wiimote is now $80 (controller, nunchuck, M+) which is twice as much as a controller for the PS3 and 360. This isn’t going to prevent those people who only need one or maybe two of them from picking them up. But for the money conscious family, a big portion of the Wii’s consumer base, it may be asking too much for them to invest such a signficiant amount on a controller upgrade.
April 14, 2009 at 4:33 pm
cant wait. tiger and motion plus is going to be awesome
April 14, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I think Nintendo is smart for the way they are selling their controllers. As a consumer do I like it? No, but as a business model it works well. When you put it at $80 a controller it sounds bad, but when you say $20 to upgrade something you already own it seems reasonable. I am really interested in seeing how much of an improvement the M+ is.
April 14, 2009 at 4:55 pm
what is it even supposed to do exactly?
April 14, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Yeah, I am really confused as to how much of a difference it really makes. I thought the controls on Tiger 08 for Wii were about as good as you could get them- what does this really do making it worth $20?
Is it just me or does it seem like Nintendo is it's own worst enemy? They need to stop releasing system add ons ?(cough cough N64 HDD), and just focus on the games. It seems like everytime they get momentum they start developing all these stupid add ons, forget about the games, and other developers catch them.
April 14, 2009 at 6:47 pm
It makes for a huge difference, you really have to try it to fully understand it. Its true 1:1. Everyone whos tried it has raved about it. Check out Shawn's write-up out of the event we went to.
http://www.5wgaming.com/2009/03/19/ea-sports-seas...
April 14, 2009 at 6:42 pm
My periphrel sports pack which includes golf club, bat, tennis racket, won't fit on the Wiimote with M+ equiped.
One question I have: Will M+ work for recent games released i.e. 2k sports boxing, or will it make no difference at all?
April 14, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I own a 360, PS3 and a WII, and to be honest with you, my WII simply collects dust. Most overrated gaming system in the history of gaming. I guess people who don't know better (children and non-gamers) love it, but for the real gamer, the WII is a joke. Great marketing, though. And boy they know how to sell consoles, games and accessories. Just wish they knew how to actually make a decent game.
I do try, I get a WII game that looks interesting from time to time, and all I end up doing is getting turned off by the horrible graphics and presentation. And for the most part, the games are just too "cute" all the time. But anyway, that's their market I guess. More power to them.
I would have sold mine a long time ago if it wasn't for my wife forcing me to keep it. She doesn't even play it, but won't let me sell it. Go figure.
April 14, 2009 at 6:45 pm
No, just the games designed to use it. Tiger, Grand Slam, Wii Sports Resort are the first games that will have it.
April 14, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I don't disagree, my Wii barely gets any use. Boom Blox, Wii Sports, Tiger occasionally. Thats about it. I think that might change though with these two upcoming titles. The team sports games just don't translate well, but Tiger and Grand Slam offer a unique experience on the Wii especially using the M+. We'll see if that changes the landscape of things, should be interesting.
April 14, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Yeah, I played the crap out of the Bowling on WII Sports. That's still the most fun I've had with my WII. I'm just a little skeptical at how much skill is actually going to be involved with the M+. I mean, they can't make it too hard, since no one will do well unless they replicate swings exactly, and that's not their market anyway. So they are going to have to make it easy, and to me that just takes all the skill out of it. It's cool to actually swing the golf club and tennis racket, but how much will the player actually effect gameplay?
I read that the origianl M+ was too accurate, and made it hard for an average gamer to play. They had to actually tone down the accuracy to make it more accessible. And that's where I think the problem lies with true motion control. The more realistic you make it, the harder it's going to be to actually succeed in the game. And since the hardcore market is defintely not the Wii's market, I don't see them doing anything to make their games more difficult. So, in the long run, M+ will just be another gimmick that makes Nintendo a boat load of money.
April 14, 2009 at 10:42 pm
My take on this is how many people have a good golf swing? How many has a good tennis swing? Heck even a good jump shot? The truth is that sport video games allow people to play a sport at the highest level that only .05 % of the population can play. If you make it too sensitive the only people who will be able to play it at a high level will be the actual athlete. They just need to keep doing what they are doing (I don't even have a Wii but i respect companies doing different things in the market)
April 14, 2009 at 11:55 pm
My thoughts exactly. The more accurate the M+ makes the responses in sports games, the more accurate the player's physical responses are going to need to be to succeed. But I know this won't be the case, because Nintendo is not marketing to hardcore gamers and the last thing they want is for their games to be hard. And this is why I think, for sports games at least, the M+ is just a waste and part of the Nintendo hype machine.
I can see it being cool for other games that require less precision and are more about imitating everyday actions. But imitating the actions of a professional athlete is a whole different story.
April 14, 2009 at 9:34 pm
im excited for what this will do for a variety of sports games. tennis and golf get the pub and will both be amazing most likely. but what about baseball or bowling? err fencing?
but im most stoked for the implications for tennis.
April 16, 2009 at 3:15 am
Motion plus, man It's about time. Tiger Woods 09 Wii is definitely going to be a hit.