What's the point of a motion plus Wii Play? Only one of the 9 games (cow racing) actually uses accelerometers or gyroscopes, the other 8 just use the pointer

Wii Play 2 with a motion plus attachment with 5 motion+ games gives people a reason to M+ another wii-mote. Yes, M+ will sell on its own but doing another Wii Play just for M+ would sell boatloads.

However, with 10 games included, I'm guessing WSR is going to be WiiSports 2 and WiiPlay 2 combined.

Oh and I'd argue fishing and the bubble-pose matching game needs more than just the pointer.

And billiards

bubble pose is actually with the pointer - unplug the sensor bar half way through a game and you'll still be able to keep playing

billiards and fishing you're right about, my mistake

Unplug the sensor bar and you lose pointer functionality. You have to twist the wiimote in bubble pose, I thought the pointer was only used to line up the rotated poses.

Wow, my brain is not working today :P unplug the sensor bar and it should stop working, i think. But you're right that it also requires the gyroscopes

It would stop working because... you won't be able to point at all. Not because it uses just the pointer.

It needs the accelerometer to determine what's up and down. Without it, the remote cannot tell whether it's upside down or not. I don't think the Wii Remote has any gyroscopes in it, the accelerometer is enough to determine things (thanks to gravity). I'm pretty sure the gyros are only added in Motion+.

Completely agree. This is the only game that is a 100% purchase for me in 2009.

As for the price, I'm thinking it's going to be 30 dollars. 40 max. You have to remember that this technology was too expensive to sell just 2 years ago. I suppose Nintendo could aggressively price it at 20 but I doubt it.

My theory is that since Wii Play was a $10 dollar game, Wii Sports Resort will be, too. And then you add in the cost of MotionPlus, which is probably around $20, sold seperately.

And the stubborn kids need to shut up about how this should have been part of the remote since the beginning. I was quite happy with the $250 price tag, and it was one of the reasons I actually bought a Wii. I bet all the people who say they won't buy it unless it's free-$10 will cave in eventually if MotionPlus lives up to its promise.

For the benefit of the whiners and complainers that want to know why the Wii didn’t have Motion Plus from the beginning , the short answer is the technology didn’t exist, at least not in a from you would have been willing to pay for or in a size you would want to hold in your hand.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through microfabrication. The basic idea has been around for a while and it started being used to provide vehicle stability control systems in the early to mid 90’s but at a size, complexity and cost not usable for a game controller.

It has been estimated that at the time of the Wii’s launch MEMS gyro were running >$40@ and would have made the controller big, fragile and >$100 . If it could have been done at all, because no game development tools had even been written.

Satoru Iwata has stated that MotionPlus was conceived soon after the initial launch to address developer demand for more sophisticated motion sensing. The Wii MotionPlus was developed by Nintendo in collaboration with a game development tool company called AiLive.

The InvenSense IDG-600 sensor was designed in accordance to Nintendo's specifications for a high dynamic range, high mechanical shock tolerance (10,000G), high temperature and humidity resistance, and small physical size.
Development of the basic module was announced in late January 2008 http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080124005340&newsLang=en

Six months later tools were in place and Motion Plus was announced. By early spring 2009 it will be ready in sufficient quantities to support three launch titles. Given the magnitude of the change, this is incredibly rapid development.

Yup its going to sell like crazy, and its going to be a really cool game, I think. Everyone is going to want it. The hardcore, and of course all the casuals. I think it will be pretty much as big as wii fit.