Nintendo thinks it has the answer for people scared off by all the complex switches and buttons on home video-game controllers — a simpler device that looks like a TV remote control and can be waved like a wand — or a baseball bat.
The Japanese game maker, famous for Super Mario and Pokemon, showed the gadget planned for its next-generation home machine called Revolution at the Tokyo Game Show outside Tokyo on Friday, where rivals Sony and Microsoft have flashy booths for their next-generation consoles.
The competition among Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony is heating up for their upcoming machines.
Revolution and Sony’s PlayStation 3 are planned for next year, while Microsoft announced on Thursday that their Xbox 360 is beating others to the market — arriving in stores on November 22 in North America, December 2 in Europe and December 10 in Japan.
While Sony and Microsoft are planning more powerful consoles than the current models, Nintendo is taking a different approach.
Shaped like the remote controls for TVs that are in almost every home, the planned wireless controller allows players to use it like a virtual bat, sword, gun, fishing rod or racket — depending on the game.
In a demonstration video, an elderly couple pretended to conduct an orchestra with the controller, while a younger player used it to play a musical instrument in a game software program. The games themselves were not shown on the video.
The device has a sensor at the end which allows it to be used as a pointing device. An attachment can be hooked up to the device for games that require both hands, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said.
Iwata said games have to start appealing to a wider audience, including people who have never played them, if game makers hope to survive.
And Nintendo has been introducing simpler-to-play games like the ”Nintendogs” virtual pet game for its Nintendo DS, a portable game machine with two screens, including a touch panel, he said.
”We thought about how everyone in the family uses the TV remote, but some people don’t want to even touch the game controller,” Iwata said, adding that the controller will also be satisfying for veteran gamers.
”We want to set a new interface standard for games.” – Sapa-AP