Nintendo won't make Wii MotionPlus a new standard

Nintendo converted Times Square into a tropical island getaway for a day to celebrate this coming Sunday's launch of Wii Sports Resort, the first sequel to Nintendo's flagship Wii title. We had a chance to chat with Bill Trinen, product marketing manager for Nintendo of America, while overlooking the festivities below. He told us that in spite of the advances made by Wii MotionPlus, he doesn't see Nintendo enforcing it as a new standard. "I don't think that we would or that we would necessarily require other developers to do so either," Trinen said. "Something like Wii MotionPlus and whether or not you want to incorporate that is more of a creative decision that's up to each individual developer."

"I think it certainly suits specific types of games, but it may not make sense to include Wii MotionPlus in every game," Trinen continued. "For example, if you look at the motion controls of New Super Mario Bros. for Wii that's coming out this holiday, it's not the kind of control that requires or would really benefit from more precise movements. So it doesn't make sense for a development team to spend time implementing something that's going to enhance the end experience. I do think over time, we're going to see a lot of developers taking a look at it and finding things they can do that they couldn't do with the standard Wii Remote and we're going to see those experiences come to life."

When asked if Nintendo had any plans to revise the standard Wii Remote to include Wii MotionPlus tech, Trinen replied, "those are all good ideas. We've thought about all that as well. At this point, we're really just focused on launching Wii Sports Resort and obviously getting Wii MotionPlus off to a good start and getting it to the hands of as many of the Wii consumers as we can. And from there, once it becomes time, we may look at what other options are available."

Check back tomorrow for our full video interview with Bill Trinen and VP of corporate communications, Denise Kaiger, as they talk about Sony and Microsoft's motion efforts, the Wii Vitality Sensor and if Pikmin 3 is still happening.