Miyamoto: MS and Sony motion devices are “threatening”

[mike_intellivision]

jneul said:

He forgot one important thing both devices do improve on the original wiimote, surely this is more of an evolution than just a simple copying process, anyway in my opinion neither natal or ps move have copied the wiimote, ps move has evidence from 2004 to back this up, nintendo don't like it because they know that basically both natal and ps move do have the potential to steal some of their user base.

The germane point is not whether or not the technology is improvement. The WM improves on the original Wii Remote. The others appear to do so as well -- but we won't know how much until we see the final product and by the time they are released, the Wii will almost be four years old.

As far as the concept and technology of motion controls, this is nothing new. There was controllers for the Atari 2600 that used them. Nintendo itself released games for the GBC (Kirby) and GBA (Warioware) built around motion controls while the premise of Microsoft's Natal is what Sony experimented with in the PS2's EyeToy.  But regardless of who had what technology, Nintendo brought the concept to market.

That was a bold step for a company that is generally thought to be conservative (and yet is often so innovative).  And it is the subsequent appropriation of this concept that "threatens" Nintendo. From a business perspective, it will lose its uniqueness.  But from a business model, it will still be successful because it will have a 70M install head start on the others, vis-a-vis motion control. 

 

Mike from Morgantown