wraggster
April 8th, 2008, 23:09
On Monday, MTV News broke the story that Microsoft has been working on an Xbox 360 answer to the Wii remote since the summer. This story has provoked a lot of discussion and raised a lot of questions. How did we get these details? Why would Microsoft do this? Is this a late April Fools' Day hoax?
* You: Is this an April Fools' Day joke?
* MTV News: MTV News has been doing background reporting on this story for several months, but only recently felt the facts were solid enough to file a report.
* You: Isn't that just a sketch made in MS Paint? There's no way that's a real Microsoft development sketch. (See the sketch for yourself.)
* MTV News: Correct. Our primary development source (who isn't an artist) couldn't produce a photograph of Microsoft's controller prototype without potentially compromising his position and studio. MTV News instead asked him to produce a sketch, to give us an idea of what the prototype looked like, which he then produced in MS Paint.
* You: Is this story based on what just one person told you? What do they know?
* MTV News: Only one source was able to provide MTV News with a sketch. That source also provided MTV News with a project code name but didn't feel comfortable sharing the code name for fear it would identify him. That said, MTV News has been covering games in-depth for years, and reporter Patrick Klepek has more than 10 years' experience on the beat. The contacts gained during that time enabled us to confirm with at least two other high-level individuals in the gaming industry that Microsoft has been developing motion-controller prototypes, even if they hadn't seen this particular prototype firsthand. Other sources said they had heard rumors of varying degrees -- Rare's involvement, a Wiimote-like controller -- and didn't have firsthand knowledge, but their details supported our primary source's claims.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1585014/20080408/id_0.jhtml
* You: Is this an April Fools' Day joke?
* MTV News: MTV News has been doing background reporting on this story for several months, but only recently felt the facts were solid enough to file a report.
* You: Isn't that just a sketch made in MS Paint? There's no way that's a real Microsoft development sketch. (See the sketch for yourself.)
* MTV News: Correct. Our primary development source (who isn't an artist) couldn't produce a photograph of Microsoft's controller prototype without potentially compromising his position and studio. MTV News instead asked him to produce a sketch, to give us an idea of what the prototype looked like, which he then produced in MS Paint.
* You: Is this story based on what just one person told you? What do they know?
* MTV News: Only one source was able to provide MTV News with a sketch. That source also provided MTV News with a project code name but didn't feel comfortable sharing the code name for fear it would identify him. That said, MTV News has been covering games in-depth for years, and reporter Patrick Klepek has more than 10 years' experience on the beat. The contacts gained during that time enabled us to confirm with at least two other high-level individuals in the gaming industry that Microsoft has been developing motion-controller prototypes, even if they hadn't seen this particular prototype firsthand. Other sources said they had heard rumors of varying degrees -- Rare's involvement, a Wiimote-like controller -- and didn't have firsthand knowledge, but their details supported our primary source's claims.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1585014/20080408/id_0.jhtml