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TrueMotion Game Controller a Step Up From Wii Remote
Harry McCracken writes "One of my top picks at the Consumer Electronics Show was Sixense's TrueMotion, a game-controller technology that resembles the Wii's remote, but uses an electromagnetic field to provide far more precision — it knows the exact location of the controller in 3D space and which way you're pointing it. (The Wiimote only knows which direction you're moving the controller.) TrueMotion-based remotes are due by Christmas, bundled with a PC game for under $100."
It's obvious to anyone who's done serious research that the true draw of the Wii isn't its controls, but rather the social interaction through gaming it encourages. A Wii isn't a toy for a sullen adolescent; it's something the whole family can gather around, like the radio in days of yore. A Wii in the home will strengthen any family.
PC games on the other hand, do exactly the opposite. They encourage seclusion and disconnection from others. The only interaction a PC gamer experiences is when he "frags" someone or "pwns" a "n00b". My mother (age 75) comes to play Wii Sports with my family. But would you drag your mother out for a round of Quake? How would you even hook up the keyboards to the TV? It just makes no sense. Adding motion controls to Quake isn't going to make it any less antisocial.
This is just another long line of technologists "solving" the wrong problem. Motion controls won't save the dying PC games industry. A radical refocus on shared, family-room gaming could, but that niche is already filled by the Wii. Why is it that some companies (Nintendo, Apple) "get" that not everything can be solved by throwing more "gigs" or "bits" at something, but no one else can?