Nintendo Power hints at June MotionPlus

via Eurogamer


Speculation is mounting this week that the Wii MotionPlus add-on will be released before the end of June, but Nintendo remains tight-lipped.

Sharp-eyed Wii watchers at GoNintendo noted today that EA's MotionPlus-compatible Grand Slam Tennis is due out in the US on 18th June - and that a recent preview in the official US magazine Nintendo Power referred to the MotionPlus as "due out prior to Grand Slam's release".

Meanwhile, another publisher with a MotionPlus-supporting project under way has told Eurogamer that it expects the add-on to launch in June as well, although as of late February Nintendo had yet to brief third parties about the exact timing.

Speaking to Eurogamer today, a Nintendo UK spokesperson said "the release date is still TBC", and anything else was "rumour and speculation".

The MotionPlus, announced at E3 last year, enhances the precision of the Wii remote, allowing games to achieve almost one-to-one movement recognition. Games that will support MotionPlus include Nintendo's own Wii Sports Resort, EA's Grand Slam Tennis, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Ubisoft's Red Steel 2.

"With six degrees of freedom you can basically make any movement at all, and be able to track that in combination with the sensor bar and other sensors included in the Wii remote," Joe Virginia of MotionPlus developer InvenSense told Eurogamer last summer. "Add the gyroscope capability and you have the ability to work in all three dimensions of space.

"What you're looking at are golf swings; tennis rackets where you can put top-spin on balls; bowling where you can bowl curves; sword motions with forward thrusts; and in Wii Sports Resort the throttle ability."

We'll let you know more on the MotionPlus date when we hear it.