Nintendo's Iwata To Rivals: 'Welcome To The Motion Control World'

At E3 last week, Microsoft and Sony respectively revealed new motion control solutions in the form of Project Natal for Xbox 360 and a motion-sensing wand for PlayStation 3. But since 2006, Nintendo has been capitalizing on the market-expanding tendencies of well-implemented motion control with the Nintendo Wii. In response to his competitors' new technologies, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in an interview with U.K.-based Times Online, "I’d like to say to them, 'Welcome to the motion-control world!'" To some extent, Xbox 360 and PlayStation platforms have already had motion-sensing capabilities. The Xbox Live Vision camera launched in North America in September 2006, although very few games use it as a means of control. Sony's EyeToy camera has been available since the PS2, and the PlayStation Eye is available for PS3. PS3's controller also senses tilt motion. But the depth-sensing Project Natal camera for Xbox 360 and the motion-sensing wand for PS3 are much more focused efforts from Microsoft and Sony to reach out to gamers who are intimidated by thumb-based controllers. Iwata said, "To tell the truth, I expected them to come up with stuff like this last year. So in my mind they’re later than expected." "We are happy that it is now becoming an industry standard. However, we still have no idea about when their products will be available, or how much they will cost, or what sort of software they will be used with." At this point in time, Iwata declined to "judge whether [the new controllers] are a threat or not," but he said that in the period before competitors' controllers launch, Nintendo will not be standing still. "We’re always at work on something new. I am actually looking forward to engaging in that sort of competition, because it gives our whole industry the chance to expand the gaming population." Nintendo's latest peripheral is the Wii Vitality Sensor, which measures things such as pulse and other body signals.