MS gift guide suggests Wii controller

by Kyle Orland { Dec 18th 2006 at 10:25AM }

Ever since Peter Moore made his famous statement ostensibly encouraging people to buy a Nintendo Wii, the Wii60 ideal of Nintendo/Microsoft solidarity has become something of a phenomenon. The idea of the the two companies cooperating against Sony has persisted despite few public signs of any sort of alliance. Well, throw another log on the fire, because Microsoft Developer Network site Coding4Fun has posted a gift guide recommending a Wii remote for "your favorite engineer or technology elitist."

Granted, the site recommends the Wii controller for use as a hackable, motion-sensitive Bluetooth controller for the PC and not for its console gaming capabilities. For the most part, though, the rest of the guide seems to opt for Microsoft-branded products like Visual Studio C++ and Flight Simulator X over competing products in the same categories. Then again, we suppose it would have looked a little out of touch to recommend the eight-year-old Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro for the motion-sensitive hacker on you list.

[Thanks Wil]

Tags: alliance, gift guide, GiftGuide, hacks, Wii60

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

cyrix_0 @ Dec 18th 2006 11:14AM

Funny How all this Love is Coming from MS side...rather than Nintendo

Trying to Leap Frog of Wii's Success to assist Xbox360 sales...

Nice tac...

So whats NEXT Big Game for Xbox360...

SonicRift @ Dec 18th 2006 11:24AM

Trixie had the Wii and DS Lite in her list of gifts for girl gamers as well.

BlindsideDork @ Dec 18th 2006 11:26AM

Yeah Nintendo has officially gone on record saying they want NO part in this "Wii60" situation...

This is just M$ taking any opportunity to strike down Sony, then leave the video game realm.

Evil Bastard @ Dec 18th 2006 11:52AM

Why do they have the Wiimote listed at $53.00, when I haven't seen it more than $39.00?

Mario Mario @ Dec 18th 2006 12:04PM

"Yeah Nintendo has officially gone on record saying they want NO part in this "Wii60" situation..."

How many times do we have to go over this? Microsoft wants no part of it either! Blogs of the world, please stop trying to throw logs on this raging fanboy fire, it's completely nonexistent.

Christ, a guy doesn't take a dump on his competitor when asked about them, and suddenly the idiot internet fanbase starts screaming about a Nintendo/Microsoft makeshift alliance to take on Sony. SHUT UP already. I was glad to see Peter Moore make the comment about how playing a Wii game would get old after a few minutes, as it restored some order. But stuff like this makes people think Microsoft is actually backing Nintendo.

If anything, I respect Peter more (hah!) than Reggie in this case as he was willing to praise a competitor. Reggie just towed the company line. Sorry Reggie, you can't fool us, we know you have a gamertag, even if you'd never admit it...if for no other reason than to keep an eye on the competition.

Please, stop. No mas. No mas.

John @ Dec 18th 2006 12:14PM

Im a 360 fanboy but the reality is that Microsoft are very much the underdogs here.

The nintendo wii will sell buckets because it's 'fun' even though its really not that fun (pile of crap in my opinion). much like the ipod which has became a fashion accessory for anyone whos anyone regardless of whether they like music the wii is fast becomming the fashion accessory for people to have regardless of whether they like games. nintendo are already making a profit on it (well it is just a repackaged gc with a new trick) and it stands to sell millions and make nintendo billions.

Once the ps3 is reasonably priced it will sell loads because its a 'playstation' and is the only logical choice for many many gamers. despite what people say, for every one playstation 3 sony sell they sell 20 playstation 2's and more than make up for the loss on the ps3's. they are keeping the price high til all the fanboys get theirs and then will bring it down, which they can totally afford to do. in a few years when one can be picked up for dirt cheap it will easily sell millions and millions coz its a playstation.

the 360 has sold 6 million but this is mostly to people who had the original xbox, and to less than a third of these people! once Sony and nintendo get their production problems sorted out and sony finally launch in euroope and drop the price the 360 will have a tough fight on its hands and so getting the 360 associated in peoples minds with the wii is a very good idea!

I love my 360 and as long as mgs4 comes out on the 360 (and im very hopeful of an mgs4:subsastance or something lol) il never be buying a ps3. i wont get the wii coz i couldnt see myself jumping around like a twat for any period of time unless i had had like 20 E's or something lmao!

:)

Matt @ Dec 18th 2006 12:16PM

Has anyone seen the Wii tab on Windows Live Messenger? :O Obviously Nintendo and Microsoft are going to merge... until you click it and find out it has nothing to do with microsoft :( :P

BlindsideDork @ Dec 18th 2006 12:45PM

After reading the first line of #6, we all know to disregard everything he says cause it is VERY biased.

And as for it getting old in a few minutes...yeah this past weekend at a party, people didn't get tired of it in a few minutes, they wanted to play more and more.

John @ Dec 18th 2006 12:58PM

#8 to be fair i like the 360 over the other 2 consoles but i was saying that the reality is it wont sell as well as the others.

i was saying that the wii will be a runaway success as nintendo are already making profit on it and it is becomming more of a fashion icon than a games console

and i was saying that, in reality sony are doing well financially as the money they lose on the ps3 will be recovered threefold from the ps2 department. they are just getting started and have the means to reduce the price signifigantly once all the sony fanboys have theirs.

therefore i dont believe the 360 will sell much over 20 million units in its lifespan while the ps3 will sell at least 50 million, along with the wii. however i love my 360 and wont be getting a ps3 or a wii coz i think a 16x disc drive is better than a 2x disc drive, 9GB is more than enough for any game atm, rumble is better than motion sensing and XBL is better than any Sony equivalent!

:)

James @ Dec 18th 2006 1:25PM

I get the impression they got the $53 figure because the link goes to Amazon Marketplace, where they are still commanding a premium due to scarcity. It took me from launch day till this past Saturday to find a second one for my system, so I'm not surprised.

And yes, this is unofficial support/endorsement, not to be "read into".

Zodiac @ Dec 19th 2006 3:03AM

I don't understand why it is I see the words "Playstation 3" and "price drop" associated so often. Sony is losing money on it. Quite a bit of money. There's a possibility that there might be a price drop around next holiday season, but honestly, I doubt it. And "dirt cheep?" Holy crap no. In my estimation (non-expert admittedly) the price could go down to $300-$250 at the cheapest. That being about 5-7 years from now or longer when Sony is preparing to retire the system.

The 360 is in a good position to keep a hold on US gamers while the Wii is gaining huge momentum in Japan. It'll be difficult for Sony to get its steam up, and that'll be dependent on whether or not SOMEONE can make the PS3 really look worth it. And with more and more rumors of people jumping ship, that's looking less likely. Who's going to really delve into the potential of Blu-Ray? It's got a huge capacity, but I've heard mostly negative reviews from people who's watched Blu-Ray movies and compared them to HD-DVD movies. Even Squenix and the Final Fantasy series can't be solely counted on:
"We don't want the PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them," Michihiro Sasaki, senior vice president of Square Enix, told the Wall Street Journal. "But we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much." (information found at http://www.electricsistahood.com/reviews/2006/09/do-math-will-sony-go-broke.html via wikipedia)

The company that's currently getting the most support from Squenix? Nintendo on their DS. Dragon Quest IX is being made for it (a guaranteed success in Japan what with the series' rabidly loyal fanbase), Final Fantasy III just came out for it, and a FF XII side-story is in the works. All that and much more. Yeah, PS3's getting FF XIII and Vs XIII, but I'm personally more excited about Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix + and the Kingdom Hearts re:Chain of Memories being made for PS2. I'm very jealous that we didn't get KH Final Mix and I really hope that we get Final Mix + what with the upgraded Chain of Memories it'll be packaged with and now I'm really digressing here. To be honest, I wish the PS3 looked in better shape because it has so much potential. But I really want to get my shaking hand on teh sexorzy Wiimote and then chop up a monster with a chainsaw bayonet. The premium-tech from Sony? It's really looking third rate right now.

Ashok @ Dec 18th 2006 2:36PM

"Granted, the site recommends the Wii controller for use as a hackable, motion-sensitive Bluetooth controller for the PC and not for its console gaming capabilities. For the most part, though, the rest of the guide seems to opt for Microsoft-branded products like Visual Studio C++ and Flight Simulator X over competing products in the same categories."

In regards to this statement, it seems that since this gift guide is for coders, the reason that these things were suggested and not other similar products was due to their ability to be hacked, not so much the fact that they were Microsoft products. Though I will admit that my knowledge of coding and other products are limited, I just wanted to state that their choices seemed to make sense for what they were going for outside of the fact that they were Microsoft products.

point09micron @ Dec 18th 2006 4:33PM

however i love my 360 and wont be getting a ps3 or a wii coz i think a 16x disc drive is better than a 2x disc drive, 9GB is more than enough for any game atm

A couple points:
#x ratings aren't standardized among different types of media.
1x for a CD is 1.2 Mbit/s
1x for a DVD is 11.08 Mbit/s (12x is about 132 MBit/s)
1x for a BD is 36 Mbit/s (2x is 72 Mbit/s)
In terms of the 12x DVD of the 360 vs. the 2x BD of the PS3, the 360 drive is only about 83% faster, rather than the 1400% you're implying.

Also, 9 GB per game clearly ISN'T enough for any game at the moment, in light of the fact that Blue Dragon (released 12/7) occupies 3 DVDs.

John @ Dec 18th 2006 4:59PM

only 83%??? your right thats not better! lol

secondly i dont like rpg's!

and I notice you didnt disagree on rumble lol!

also, £425 is what they will be charging for the ps3 in Northern Ireland which is 829 US dollars or two hundred dollars more than what the americans will be paying so apologies for being a bit cranky about the ps3!

im sure it is an amazing piece of kit, I just feel a bit screwed over by $ony atm so want the 360 to kick their asses

lol

:)