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Microsoft working on Wii remote ripoff for Xbox 360

xmote.jpgThe Nintendo Wii's remote, with its motion sensing abilities, has made the console a breakout success, making it still difficult to come by in stores well over a year after its launch.

So is it really any surprise that Microsoft is looking to pretty much rip the Wiimote off completely for its Xbox 360 controller? According to MTV News, a source within Microsoft alleges that a motion-sensitive controller and Mii-like avatar system are being developed for release at the end of the year. Will these things help the Xbox destroy the Wii in the battle of the consoles, or will it just feel like a cheap ripoff? Time will tell.

MTV, via Kotaku

 
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(31) Comments

Talon:
This has goto be the stupidest thing ive heard all year! The Xbox Series is NOT built for motion sensing Tech. It's...More »


Comments

By kizer at 10:46 AM ON 04/08/08

Just goes to show how far microsoft will step on the shoulders of others to crush the competition. I personally own a Xbox360, but come on thats just dirty pool. Gotta love the motto. If you can't beat em buy em.

By Ryan at 5:04 PM ON 04/08/08

They can rip off the remote, but it's not going to stop making Wii the best-selling console of its generation. Quite simply, the sticker price of XBOX and Playstation 3 became too expensive for normal families to afford, while Nintendo did everything it could to make Wii cheaper. Heck, Wii's turn out a profit for Nintendo - while Microsoft loses money on the XBOX360 consoles... so, if the sales go up on XBOX because of the remote, Nintendo can still afford to cut the costs of Wii and still dominate the market.

By erstech at 5:05 PM ON 04/08/08

this seems a little too... blatantly ripped off. This almost seems like a late april fools or something. If this comes out, I'll probably buy a macbook air, just to smite microsoft.

By Jim at 5:08 PM ON 04/08/08

Hey! Finally Microsoft is ripping off somebody other than Apple! I think Ryan's right-the price point of MS and Sony's consoles is what has set them behind. I think the games on the Wii appeal to a broader audience as well.

By Shaun at 5:09 PM ON 04/08/08

In a free and open economy, competition is healthy and desired. Nintendo was truly innovative with its Wii remote. Now it looks like Microsoft will offer a little competition in this newly established sub-genre of gaming. I look forward to seeing which platform will produce the best product in the end. First does not always equal best. I see this news as something positive for consumers.

By Haid at 5:39 PM ON 04/08/08

We all knew Xbox will beat anyone. I don´t care if the rip it, I have a Xbox360 Console and I will be glad if they come with this controller for the Holydays.
Regards!

By neoxbomb at 5:45 PM ON 04/08/08

well this doesn't bother me a bit. sony did the same thing. I happen to have a ps3 and an xbox360 (no wii cuz they are always still sold out) and if MS is going to do this they need to make it OPTIONAL, and definitly not mandatory for games. I absolutely hate when im playing the ps3 with the controller then all of a sudden i have to start moving it around.

Sigh I dont know what I would like. But good for MS... i think it will be a great and well developed accessory

By Orenen at 6:40 PM ON 04/08/08

Meh, Microsoft didn't build the 360 to play games like the Wii, I have a 360 and I don't think it'll do that great, but it's not a rip off...that's just stupid, almost as stupid as the Mac users saying Microsoft ripped off the features and tools of OS-X...I think not, try this out for size: Microsoft developed OS2 and Apple stole the mouse from the lady who first developed it

By kjfitz at 6:42 PM ON 04/08/08

It will just make xbox 360 able to offer more in game play. The only reason it is still hard to get a Wii is that they are not worried about getting them out in a hurry, keeps everyone wanting one.

By drdennis at 7:12 PM ON 04/08/08

Ripoff?? It's called free enterprise utilizing it's right to competition. Does Toyota "ripoff" Honda because they make a car with 4 wheels and and an engine too?? Gimme a break!

By SgtTibbles at 7:49 PM ON 04/08/08

You guys do know this is a joke right?..RIGHT???

By Crono at 7:53 PM ON 04/08/08

Lol at the comments.

By murc at 8:02 PM ON 04/08/08

I hope this is true.

I'm sure this would be an optional thing...and I really hope they ARE making it, and that it comes out this year. that would be great.

I'm a fan of Strategy games (age of Empires is my fav series), but a good 360 game like Command and Conquer kinda sucked because its to hard to do a good strategy game with a controller. You basically NEED a mouse. But no one wants a mouse in the living room, but if I can point the controller at the screen, puch a button, and sellect a chunk of my army to go fight....I can, and with ease.

Is it kinda a "ripoff": yes
but do I care: no

I own a 360, and would deffiniatly buy this.

By JMC22FA at 8:21 PM ON 04/08/08

I own a 360 and don't see the need for a motion sensitive remote control.. Unless it's being directly catered to the "family" type or being made for future arcade games.

Also, while the Wii might be sold out everywhere because the price point is lower, it is really quite a sad system. Once the fad of Paper Mario and Wii Sports wore off, I sold mine for quite a nice profit. Why would I bother keeping a system that looked pretty poor on my HDTV?

If Nintendo really wanted to win, they would have gone HD (at least 720)... This 480 crap is so yesterday, unfortunately, Nintendo just doesn't care... Especially about those of us that take our Media rooms VERY SERIOUS.

By harrcohen at 8:25 PM ON 04/08/08


Have you seen the Wii's being used in physical therapy and rehabilitation situations? iPods being used in education? Microsoft won't ignore these kinds of applications in these markets indefinitely.

Positives: More publishers will get into the act with motion-sensitive titles and we may see more creative motion-sensitive games. I see my boys falling back to using point and shoot games nwo that the novelty has warn off. Nintendo will be pressed to bring their graphics performance up to that of the Xbox. Does that mean a Wii II or a Wiii in the future?

Negatives: Folks with Xbox's will give Wii's less attention and Nintendo may suffer by only having a low-end machine. They need to broaden the product line. Maybe they will copy the PS2, PS3 strategy.

My wish for the Wii? A full keyboard to make the Internet Channel come alive. The capability must be in there somewhere. In the worst case it is an OS update and a keyboard that transmits the four buttons and four cursor directions in a decodable packet, one for each character. Awful but doable.

By Justin Bailey at 8:30 PM ON 04/08/08

I'll be glad when everybody gets over the Wii. It's not really all that it's cracked up to be. Sold mine not even two weeks ago after it sat on the floor for 6 months collecting dust. Microsoft is making a mistake to play catch up to the Wii as it's novelty is wearing off.

By randomneko at 10:55 PM ON 04/08/08

I vote for the joke, gag, vaporware category for this. I'm not an expert but a few things jump at me when looking at the picture.
From the top down:

a corner of the x is poking out of the "ring of light" which indicates a sloppy cut/paste job.

The Thumb stick's shadow extends to the left and bottom right. But if you look closely it will not match up with the perceived light source. The light appears to be coming from the upper left quadrant as indicated by the 4 edges of the controller.

Is it just me or do the buttons appear to be of a different resolution the the rest of the controller?

The B button is sitting at an angle. I think that this is more cut and paste.

Take a closer look at the start and reset buttons. The one on the right appears to be at an odd angle. I zoomed in far enough to get pixelation just to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me.

One last thing. If you take a moment you will notice that the shadows all conflict with eachother.

This is an amusing idea but not real.

By fritzqs at 11:10 PM ON 04/08/08

As a Nintendo Wii owner and 360 owner...I can't honestly say whether or not it'll do much. Wii has good games, yeah...but 3rd Party Development is a JOKE, and they keep making games to the gimmick. For microsoft, it'd be more-so the gimmick...

Oh well...

By Wii B. Crazee at 11:42 PM ON 04/08/08

Clearly this is NOT real. For the sake of argument, The Wii-mote is gimmicky at best,too gimmicky for xbox users. My kids play it otherwise the ps3 and 360 get most of the luv at the homestead.

By Anonymous at 2:45 AM ON 04/09/08

Grammar: The Nintendo Wii's remote, with its motion sensing abilities, have made the console a breakout success(...) -- this should be -The Nintendo Wii's remote, with its motion sensing abilities, HAS made the console a breakout success - as the subject is singular, subject-verb agreement 101. Now how's this for an interesting comment.

By jay at 3:13 AM ON 04/09/08

Well I have all three consoles, and firmly believe that microsoft is going in the right direction with this add on. They have obviously seen what the wii is capable of doing and does well. As somebody pointed out this will be the next best thing to having a mouse.

By Shyhy at 11:40 AM ON 04/09/08

Either way competion is great for the gaming industry and the consumer. My wife has a Wii an throughly enjoys it, but me personally, think that some of the Wii remote add ons don't work very well. One in particular is the Light Sabre, which doesn't quite match the movement in the Lego Star Wars game. I will be purchasing a Xbox360 Elite and if this will be a future add on, I will definately try it out. It great that the gaming industry is heading in this direction, reguardless of who had what first. It shows a step forward in the gaming industry, taking responsiblity for obesity in kids, in an unintentionly way. One last thing, the motion sensitive idea for gaming consoles is over 10 years old, just look at the history of Sega, if anyone can remember the add on they had with standing in a octagon and using your body movements as the action on screen. So who ripped who off? 'Nuff Said

By Master_Fury at 6:07 PM ON 04/09/08

In all honesty. I don't have a Wii.. I have NO intention of getting a Wii. The ONLY Nintendo product I've purchased since the ORIGINAL Nintendo console, is the DS. Personally, the only reason I think the Wii does so well, is the lower price-tag, and the gimmicks. I've not seen a single title I'd actively want so far for the Wii. I barely even see any 3rd party software companies I like making anything for the Wii.

I don't really care if MS is considering the wii-mote thing. Does it have it's perks? Yes. I like the PS3 six-axis a bit better, but I do think it's stupid to not make the motion-sensitive features optional. I've played some games for the PS3 where the motion-sensing is actually pretty poor for what's needed.

By AlexBriggs at 8:31 PM ON 04/09/08

Jesus. Cant people realise this is a joke?

By madpostman at 5:09 PM ON 04/10/08

Why not make a motion sensitive remote? It's not like Nintendo created such a device, Nintendo used it smartly to sell systems and give kids a chance to break windows, knock their little sister in the head, destroy big screen tvs (just joking). I say, go for it Microsoft and make the 360 a more versatile game machine that it already is. Oh, did you hear that many Wii machines can't read dual layer DVDs? Yep, its true. So, the 360 isn't the only console that has had problems, but do you see the media trounce on that item? Of course not.

By biggen at 6:05 AM ON 04/11/08

how is it a rip off? they are taking an idea and doing their own thing. a rip off is taking someone else's idea, taking their name off of it, putting your name on it, and selling it like it's your own.

By Softie at 5:39 PM ON 04/15/08

http://www.hardwarezone.com/reviews/others/FreeStyle/FreeStyle%20Pro.htm

Who is ripping who off? Microsoft released an accelerometer based controller back in 1997.

By Barthonamuel at 8:42 PM ON 10/09/08

@ Ryan, xbox360 arcade is cheeper then wii

By mick at 9:54 AM ON 10/26/08

this is effin amazing a mii 4 the xbox come on people its freakin awsome

By Wii Wii at 1:12 AM ON 11/26/08

Microsoft is wasting its time trying to horn in on Nintendo's bounty. It isn't just the unique controller system that is attracting a never before tapped demographic (old people) it’s also the lame game lineup. I doubt Mom, Dad & Grandma will be into getting pwnd by you regardless of how easy it is to play Halo3 with the new Xtroller. Nintendo’s game lineup is less threatening to the huge new older market the Wii is attracting. Nursing homes are using the Wii in conjunction with the “Sports” game and “Fit” balance board for physical therapy they call it Wii habilitation. I don’t see the Xbox game lineup appealing to this older demographic. Mom & Dad will radically change the way you play GTA4 so you’d better hope this system fails to draw their interest.

By Talon at 10:52 AM ON 05/15/09

This has goto be the stupidest thing ive heard all year! The Xbox Series is NOT built for motion sensing Tech. It's that simple. The GAMES arnt built for it and the system isnt either. Most importantly the people arnt ready for it. I know I dont want to muddle through Assasins Creed or Halo with a God-damn motion sensor that gets stuck and kills you half the time. The Xbox is built for immersive, fast paced games. You cant play those kinds of games as well on a wii controler as on a traditional one, its a fact. mabey when motion sensing gets more advanced. If they do make this then it has to be optional cuz if all thier new games use it then i know alot of people that are going over to the PS3


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