Stephen Totilo expressed surprise there was no mention of Motion Plus so he has been grilling Reggie about it. Reggie just keeps citing the Nintendo line of not commenting on rumors and speculation.
So why did Iwata not mention Motion Plus? For one, it isn’t out yet. But really I suspect the priority at this time was to get developers interested in developing downloadable titles for Wii and, especially DSi, and not lose all of them to the iPhone or another such device. There is a gold rush to iPhone gaming by many developers, too much probably. But I think the money from iPhone gaming is overstated due to the early games. There won’t be much gold when everyone is fishing from the same stream.
Motion Plus has been delayed and despite it being shown around a year ago, Reggie won’t say much about it. What is going on? Why did Nintendo show it at E3 2008 in the first place?
Prior to E3 2008, I put out the articles of “Finding Nintendo’s Shield” and “Finding Nintendo’s Sword”. These articles focused on how Nintendo would strategically combat an incumbent’s response to the Wii success. At that time, news and rumors were thick of Microsoft or Sony putting out their own motion controller.
Motion Plus was a pre-emptive attack to this. If Microsoft or Sony put out a new motion controller, it would likely be a better technology than the current Wii-mote. Nintendo had to have something just in case. When you listen to Iwata and Reggie at E3 2008, you can tell their speeches were written as if a competing motion controller was released. Nintendo didn’t even wait until their conference to spring Motion Plus. They blasted out the press release prior to Microsoft’s conference as a pre-emptive response.
With no competing motion controller, Nintendo execs probably had to be giddy. (While everyone else was complaining about the lack of ‘hardcore games’, the reason why they weren’t showcased was because the focus had to make sure Microsoft and Sony didn’t get out of the disruptive box Nintendo put them in.) At the next Nintendo conference (forgot when, it was when they announced Sin and Punishment 2), Nintendo execs were all more and ready to discuss ‘hardcore games’ since the threat of a competing motion controller had passed… at least for now.
But should any company threaten to compete with Nintendo in the expanded market, the hardcore focus at press events will be dropped to focus on securing the expanded market. Every console war has been one based on the core industry. We have never seen a console war based on this new expanded market. Nintendo’s conference at E3 2008 is a good idea how such a console war would look like.
With the threat evaporating, Motion Plus isn’t a priority as it was. Motion Plus uses gyros which are expensive. The longer it is delayed, the cheaper it gets. The longer it is held back, the more time and quality Nintendo can give to it.
Wii’s motion controls created a barrier between Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft. The expanded market that motion controls are reaching cannot be reached by Sony/Microsoft by the traditional controller (and God knows Microsoft has tried). At GDC 2009, Iwata pointed out how Wii is growing while the competitors are ‘flat’. In other words, they are stuck in a box.
Motion Plus will increase the walls of that box even further. It will likely increase the expanded audience but, more importantly, convert more core gamers to motion controls. Who wouldn’t want to play a good FPS with that pointer and nunchuck?
Reggie won’t talk about it because Motion Plus is a major component of Nintendo’s ‘big picture’ strategy. Talking about it might reveal details to competitors. Nintendo wants Sony and Microsoft to stay in that Core box, a shrinking box I might add, forever.
And this is how Sony and Microsoft get disrupted from the games industry.