Are Microsoft Trying To Turn The Xbox In To A Wii?
Microsoft has seen sales of the Xbox 360 falling badly over the last few months, with 2008 proving so far to be the year of the PS3, and the Wii of course. So what to do? Why, try and steal your competitor’s market of course.
We’ve already seen the Xbox 360 getting dropped in price, and the Arcade pack released in order to cater to the less well off consumers who snapped up the Wii in droves.
Now, according to a company source talking to MTV, Microsoft are also going to muscle in on the motion control elements of the Wii and are busy developing a Wii Remote style controller for the Xbox 360.
Now of course, MTV is not the most reliable of sources, and I wouldn’t normally look to them for gaming news and scoops, but the source seems sure of his information.
According to this unnamed fount of knowledge, Rare, the Microsoft owned games developer, has been put in charge of the project, which they have secretly, at least until now, been working on since last August.
So what to expect if this is indeed more than just bunkum? Well, for starters, the guy (or girl) helpfully provided a sketch of the new design (as seen above), which looks rather familiar. Could Microsoft get away with blatantly copying a Nintendo product this closely?
The Xbox Remote, or whatever it ended up being called would have all of the same features as the Wii original, but there would also be a microphone included for Singstar style games.
I can certainly see why Microsoft are looking to increase their potential user base, and try to grab some of the diverse crowd which Nintendo have managed to get in to gaming, but blatantly copying a competitor’s design is a bit of a no no. At least if that is what they’re doing. Microsoft has of course refused to comment on the speculation.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am
A fine example or a product dying. Desperation is written all over this.
April 14th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I love when someone hates on a consumer product for no reason. Just because you can’t afford all the consoles doesn’t mean you have to hate the ones you don’t own.