DailyTech - Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort Confirmed for the United States

Submit News

Software Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort Confirmed for the United States
Stephen Kamizuru (Blog) - April 14, 2009 1:11 PM

19 comment(s) - last by EasyC.. on Apr 15 at 1:04 PM

Nintendo confirms the release date and the price for the United States

The release date and price for the Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort have been confirmed for the United States market. According to Kotaku, the Wii MotionPlus goes on sale on June 8 for $19.99 USD. Wii Sports Resort will be released on July 26 bundled with the Wii MotionPlus add-on for $49.99 USD.

The Wii MotionPlus is a hardware add-on for the Wii-mote controller that attaches to the bottom of the controller and enhances the controller’s ability to reflect motions in 3-D space. The device was announced back in July 2008 and is finally ready for release this year.

In Nintendo executive Cammie Dunaway’s own words, “Wii MotionPlus represents a new evolution in video game control. The variety of fun games in Wii Sports Resort show off its incredible precision. Developers around the world are busy working on new ways to incorporate Wii MotionPlus controls into inventive experiences for consumers."

Wii Sports Resort is the sequel to the most successful video game of all time Wii Sports. As of January 2009 Wii Sports surpassed Super Mario Brothers selling over 40.24 million copies. Wii Sports Resort was developed with the Wii MotionPlus accessory in mind and offers players the opportunity to participate in a variety of outdoor activities in a virtual world. Sample activities include Sword Play, Power Cruising (racing a water scooter) and Disc Dog, which involves accurately tossing a disc to a cute dog.

Kotaku points out the full Wii experience will be more expensive than before with the Wii Remote costing $39.99 USD, the Nunchaku costing $19.99 USD and the Wii MotionPlus costing $19.99, the total will fall just short of $80 USD.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

wii sports

By Bytre on 4/14/2009 2:33:37 PM , Rating: 3

and if the pack in game were "poo stick parade", it would be the hottest selling game. People are buying it for the console, not for wii sports.

Looking forward to the new game though.

RE: wii sports

By m0mentary on 4/14/2009 2:44:04 PM , Rating: 5

aren't the majority of people who are buying the console (see: casual gamers) buying it due to the initial appeal of wii sports?

Parent

RE: wii sports

By Cullinaire on 4/14/2009 3:00:34 PM , Rating: 2

yes

Parent

RE: wii sports

By zerocool84 on 4/14/2009 4:04:42 PM , Rating: 2

Yea many people love Wii Sports. Especially when they have people over and can paly together. That's the only time my Wii comes on, when I have a bunch of people over and we can play some Wii party games.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By rs1 on 4/14/2009 3:18:26 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
aren't the majority of people who are buying the console (see: casual gamers) buying it due to the initial appeal of wii sports?

Dunno. I bought it for Twilight Princess. I probably don't count as a "casual gamer" however.

Wii Sports was okay, if pretty basic. The new version sounds like it may be interesting, though only because of the swordplay elements.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By Samus on 4/14/2009 4:21:23 PM , Rating: 1

This technology was demoed two years ago...I'm surprised it wasn't implemented in the Wii when the technology existed within months of its release.

It could have at least been embedded in post-Wii release Wiimotes? Hell, even current Wiimotes. The Wiimote is turning into a Sega Genesis with a bunch of addons. Keep it up Nintendo, just keep stackin' shit on.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By someguy123 on 4/14/2009 4:57:17 PM , Rating: 2

as much as i'd like to bash nintendo not releasing any good "non casual" titles in the past year and a half....what exactly has nintendo "stacked on" to the wiimote that hasn't been done before? wii zapper, that was a gimme, wii wheel? not worth the cost, but entertaining to use. can't really think of anything else, plus this is the first actual hardware add on directly from nintendo.

technology being demo'd does not necessarily mean it's ready for use. demos can be limited to just the portion of the software that is working well enough for display, not to mention the software they needed to develop to allow developers to add wiimotion functions to their games.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By CZroe on 4/14/2009 4:52:49 PM , Rating: 2

Why didn't you wait a couple of weeks and buy a $30 used Gamecube for Twilight Princess (Nov 19, '06 on Wii, Dec 12, '06 for GCN)? All I can say is that the vast majority of Wii owners are not like you and I. My friend sold his GCN so he could buy a Wii on launch day and experience Twilight Princess that way. ;)

Parent

RE: wii sports

By rs1 on 4/14/2009 5:17:40 PM , Rating: 4

Because I had heard that in the Wii version you controlled Link's sword by swinging the remote around. In the end, it's something that sounded much more cool than it actually was.

Still an excellent game, however.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By someguy123 on 4/14/2009 5:01:17 PM , Rating: 2

the vast majority of people buying the wii have purchased it solely for "casual" games like wii sports and carnival games.

i believe that wii fit is a good indication of this, as it is the 3rd best selling title on the wii.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By Spuke on 4/14/2009 6:59:04 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
i believe that wii fit is a good indication of this, as it is the 3rd best selling title on the wii.

I use wii fit more than anything. I haven't played wii sports in at least a month.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By CZroe on 4/14/2009 4:57:53 PM , Rating: 2

Dead wrong. A sizable amount of owners and would-be owners think that Wii Sports *IS* "The Wii" and may not ever buy another game. Many people similarly think that "The Wii Fit" is a new "Wii" from Nintendo, especially after every publication reported it as "THE" Wii Fit. For example, watch the Consumer Reports video review of Wii Fit. Seeing AT/DT refer to the Motion Plus adapter the same way makes me chuckle a little.

Anyway, AT/DT quoted Kotaku's concern but did not mention that it may be integrated into all future Wii Remotes for free or at least more cheaply (new standard remote), as Nintendo said when they first unveiled it.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By Spivonious on 4/14/2009 10:27:04 PM , Rating: 2

It was only the bundled game in the U.S.

Europe and Japan got Wii Play bundled.

Parent

RE: wii sports

By CZroe on 4/14/2009 10:34:34 PM , Rating: 2

"The game is included as a pack-in game with the Wii console in all territories except Japan"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Sports

Granted, it had a plastic case at launch in other territories, though some (all?) eventually switched to a cardboard sleeve too.

Parent

Nintendo Wii-Paperweight

By chmilz on 4/14/2009 5:47:44 PM , Rating: 2

I know 10 people with Wii's, and I know 10 people that don't use it. Nintendo has done a magical job of selling people on an idea, not the product. I'm sure if there was market research done and owners of all consoles were polled, the vast majority of unused consoles would be the Wii. Almost all of my friends have traded in their Wii's, having been disappointed.

RE: Nintendo Wii-Paperweight

By TomZ on 4/14/2009 10:18:58 PM , Rating: 2

On the other hand, Santa brought one for my kids, and they enjoy playing it every day for the last 4 months. We have to limit their time on it.

Parent

RE: Nintendo Wii-Paperweight

By Aloonatic on 4/15/2009 4:25:49 AM , Rating: 3

Oh, everyone loved their Wiis for a while, no one is saying that that isn't true, you are just in the early stages of your Wiilationship where everything is new and fun and you are just discovering everything new about each other.

Come back in a years time and tell us how much time your kids are spending on the Wii that (probably) cost you a pretty penny (still) and they (probably) pestered you relentlessly for for months (if not years) on end and let us know what the score is then.

I got one second-hand and played Wii sports for a while, it is genuine fun, but I really wanted it for twilight Princess, Mario galaxy and Mario Kart Wii. All 3 were rather disappointing (after promising so much) in my opinion.

I'm willing to admit that that may have more to do with my age and my rose tinted memories of the SNES where the respective titles, Link to the Past, Super Mario World and the original (and best IMHO) Mario Kart still have a strong grip on my heart and I genuinely think that they were better than there more recent mimics/counterparts.

The truth is though, even back in the SNES days I didn't play that many other games, I am struggling to think of many of of the top of my head, maybe Star Fox, it seems to be a bad habit of Nintendo's, but I think third party support was a little better back then.

The Wii's problem seems to be that there is little to keep people coming back still, even the Wii weighing scales are not keeping many people interested that long,m with regard to day to day gaming that you are willing to get out of bed early for or let your dinner go cold for, to squeeze in one last game. It has essentially found itself in the same category as your copy of monopoly, Cluedo (Clue) or any other board game that is only bought out into the light of day on a rainy day, or when a sudden urge to do something different strikes you, or when you have a few friends over and want something to play. As a games console in the traditional sense there isn't much going on it seems after those first few heady months.

The last 2 times I've turned Wii on has been to download updates that I've read about. I might go home and play on it again tonight though, see if I can beat my high score on the bowling challenge with the increasing number of pins, oh the memories.

Parent

RE: Nintendo Wii-Paperweight

By EasyC on 4/15/2009 1:04:01 PM , Rating: 3

I can't agree more.

I remember when I had purchased my Wii (at launch). I was willing to look over the non HD part and enjoy some truly revolutionary controller technology. Standing in line at Best Buy, my head was filled with images of me playing games with motion sensing. I could already see myself jabbing enemies in the eye with swords, throwing pitches over different parts of the plate by using talent and not a joystick, boxing with my friends and having to guard the right spot or suffer the consequences. Then I received my box and game (zelda). I rushed home with excitement, hooked everything up, and proceeded to turn it on.

What was I in store for?

... a sad realization. I had sadly realized that I just spent 300$ on a shiny box full of disappointment. What I had once thought was a truly revolutionary motion sensing gaming experience (and marketted as so) was nothing more than a few vaguely predefined moves. The closest this console had gotten to true motion sensing was WiiSports while holding a baseball bat (and only that, actually swinging is also loosely predefined as well). Talent isn't required for any game on the Wii. I had just bought a system with outdated video/audio technology and a gimmick controller. It wouldn't even play DVD's! Not only that, but the controller wouldn't even sense correctly at times (I got the same behavior on every WiiMote I've tried). I'd look like I was having a seizure just trying to get Link to slash something.

I know about 15 people with Wiis, and only one that uses it. He happens to be a huge fanboy of the Wii. I hear about every game release and how it sells so many units and blah blah blah. I really have to hand it to Nintendo's marketting department. I hope they get paid well because that's all this system is. They even made a game that comes packaged with a glorified stepping stool and market it to the masses as something having to do with fitness....and the masses even buy it! I burn more calories playing rockband on the drums (expert), than anyone would stepping on a little stool with weight sensors in it.

Perhaps I expected too much from my little Wii. I'm just a fan of getting what is actually marketted to me at the time, not having to buy addons 2.5 years later in the hopes that it will deliver results to my expectations.

Parent

still fun

By zaaf on 4/14/2009 6:50:23 PM , Rating: 2

I have all 3 new consoles and play them about equally. I agree that the Wii Sports is the primary game but it is a lot of fun in the right setting. Drinks, 2+ people, drinks, etc.