wraggster
May 26th, 2006, 15:44
Internet cogs are whirring at full capacity this morning as rumours spiral uncontrollably regarding the possible inclusion of a mic on Nintendo's upcoming Wii console's remote controller. Admittedly, it's all based on speculation, largely fuelled by the discovery of the domain Wiikaraoke.com registered by Nintendo, but hey - who cares!
Some 'net pundits are pointing to Wiikaraoke.com's existence as further evidence that the Wii's remote will be microphonically enhanced and that - in line with Nintendo's family friendly, party game push on the new machine - signals a brand new vocally-focussed franchise for the company. Cue frenzied yodelling of "OMG!11 NINTENTO COPYED SONYS SINGSTARR!!!" on messageboards everywhere, probably.
This news comes on top of various 'net reports this week erroneously pointing to an official (yet non-existant) announcement regarding an in-built Wiimote mic. Many of these have included news of voice-over IP functionality for the new console and - while still purely speculative - does seem at least a reasonable supposition.
Given the fact that Nintendo's DS already sports such a feature, it would seem likely that mic capabilities will find themselves on Wii come release. Of course, the fact that Nintendo made such a song-and-dance about the fairly underwhelming Wiimote speaker at E3 also suggests that there's something about it the company isn't yet telling us. As such, we're not going to dismiss the existence of a Wii karaoke title and other mic functionality for the time being - instead we'll conclude with the tried and tested "wait and see".
Via CVG (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=140566)
Some 'net pundits are pointing to Wiikaraoke.com's existence as further evidence that the Wii's remote will be microphonically enhanced and that - in line with Nintendo's family friendly, party game push on the new machine - signals a brand new vocally-focussed franchise for the company. Cue frenzied yodelling of "OMG!11 NINTENTO COPYED SONYS SINGSTARR!!!" on messageboards everywhere, probably.
This news comes on top of various 'net reports this week erroneously pointing to an official (yet non-existant) announcement regarding an in-built Wiimote mic. Many of these have included news of voice-over IP functionality for the new console and - while still purely speculative - does seem at least a reasonable supposition.
Given the fact that Nintendo's DS already sports such a feature, it would seem likely that mic capabilities will find themselves on Wii come release. Of course, the fact that Nintendo made such a song-and-dance about the fairly underwhelming Wiimote speaker at E3 also suggests that there's something about it the company isn't yet telling us. As such, we're not going to dismiss the existence of a Wii karaoke title and other mic functionality for the time being - instead we'll conclude with the tried and tested "wait and see".
Via CVG (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=140566)