Apr 13

‘Newton’ the new Wii-mote?

Tag: Wii News — PrattP @ 12:33 pm

Last week we announced news of Microsoft (in conjunction with Rare) working to create a motion controller for the Xbox 360, with very similar functions to the Wii-mote. Their reasons for doing this seemed quite obvious, backing on to reports of dwindling Xbox 360 sales coming from sales reports all around the world.

Just today, news has surfaced of another source giving information on this same idea, and in doing so reveals more information on the project.

Supposedly codenamed “Newton”, the controller will be an almost exact clone of the Wii-mote. The source claims:

Nintendo is not the first company to make something like the Wiimote. The concept for the Wiimote has been called a 3d Mouse or a “Flying Mouse”. There is a company called Gyration that makes wireless controllers and is an early innovator in these kind of controllers.

After detailing more specifics on the supposed controller, they also go on to say that:

Nintendo is an investor in Gyration but they don’t own it. In 2001 Nintendo licensed patents from Gyration and used it to develop the Wii. They are US application patents 5898421 and 5440326 which are about a device tracking human motion and translating it into linear movement of computer graphic images.

So Nintendo does not wholly own all the patents involved in the Wiimote.

Definitely food for thought, however nothing is confirmed as yet. The source does claim soon to come leaks of the ‘Newton’ prototype, but for that we’ll just have to wait and see.

More news on the subject as it happens. Stay tuned.

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4 Responses to “‘Newton’ the new Wii-mote?”

  1. Jake of 8bitjoystick.com says:
    April 13th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    I don’t think that I will get any more details about the layout of Newton until they start mass producing them. Right now there is only prototypes.

  2. PrattP says:
    April 13th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    Thanks for replying Jake.

    Just FYI everyone, this is Jake, the writer of the source article.

    Thanks for that info too, BTW. :)

  3. Nintendo sued for patent infringement | The Nintendo Basement - Latest News says:
    May 18th, 2008 at 10:24 am

    [...] was also sued for the same items, but settled out of court, adding to the now almost definite rumour of Microsoft developing a 360 motion controller. Submit this [...]

  4. Scott says:
    June 20th, 2008 at 10:18 am

    I’m looking forward to seeing what they can produce, but tbh, motion sensitive games on the 360 don’t really interest me that much. It will probably initially be a live arcade remote for specially designed games.

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