The US gaming market has a new console leader in the shape of the Nintendo Wii. The NPD Group, who are a market research company for several industries including entertainment and gaming, announced that Nintendo sold over 600,000 wii consoles in June, bringing a running total since it's launch of to over 10 million units.
The basis of the Wii's market positioning and its appeal is its motion sensitive control and, through this, the intuitive and innovative control of it's games, which appeals to a mass market of gamers, hardcore and casual alike. The news comes on the back of the E3 gaming conference in which the a new add on for the wii-mote was demonstrated. You can see a video of this new peripheral below, kindly provided by gametrailers.com.
The new piece of kit provides for true 1:1 motion sensitiviy and is called the Motion Plus. What does this mean? Well the movement and motion picked up with the standard wiimote is not a perfect replica of your movement, but with the add on it provides for greater sensitivity and monitoring of the movement which allows for a 1:1 replica; literally for every 1 unit or measurement that you move, the character on screen will also move 1 unit.
In terms of how this affects the Wii's business and appeal to the gaming market, I dont see this as a move to attract the casual gamer, but more so the more committed and experienced one. This is because such precision of motion sensitivity is likely only required for complex games that require either a complex movement or which allow for greater skill and success from it. Meanwhile your fun party games, educational/training titles, and mainstream wii titles can be played adequately with the standard kit. Moreover, casual wii gamers are probably not likely to commit more money and budget on accessories and peripherals, whereas the serious gamer may possibly sell their own kidney to get their hands on something that will make them better, or give them more enjoyment from their top games.
The Motion Plus does not have a launch date or a price yet but I think will be something that more-than-casual gamers will really go for, to further explore the true potential of the wii-mote.
