Why they cost so much..

[Nintendork]

£30(ish) ain't cheap.. for any input periperhal. Irrespective of the system's cost to have 4 controllers and nunchuku clip ons is not a cheap investment.
That's before we talk about the classic controller and what we're gonna do about Smash Bros.

A lot of people were peaved about the n-europe (exclusive) news that the Wii would be individual to the family.. not the player.

Many were worried that this would screw up their valuable stats that they spent 6 hours a day earning a spot on the leaderboard. (yawn)

Well I was just browsing Edge.. and apparently Wii motes are specific to the player..

Remember the announcement about the speaker? Iwata spoke about some on board memory to store sound files which are triggered in game.

Well it seems that the Wiimote will store your personal Mii character, game and console preferences.. and also some save data. Although how much is not known it is known that the intention is to make it possible to take save data around a friends house.

If you've got more than 4 family members then that's going to be an expensive shopping trip come December 8th.. but I suppose the less hardcore gamers can share.

I'm not fussed either way, but I think that it's gonna be okay for WiiConnect24.. I merely think this shared system is going to be for the family only. Making it less closed and more family orientated.

Of course if you're the only gamer in your family then you won't care much for this but there's still LAN parties!

On a closing note the Wiimote has a lot of technology in it, it costs a lot but it's gonna be a hell of a lot of fun.

Also- don't kill me if everyone already knows this. It was quite shocking to me when I read it.

The documentation for the controller that developers have been using has leaked out and we have details here for you today!
Uses 2 AA batteries
30 hour battery life if pointer function is being used
60 hour battery life if only accelerometer is being used
Communicates with Wii via 2.4 GHz Bluetooth signal
Contains 6KB non-volatile memory (purpose unknown - maybe stores custom settings?)
SYNCHRO button on Wii does the same thing as 1 and 2 buttons the WiiMote
Each controller is given a wireless ID number
A, B, 1, 2, -, +, Home, Power, C, and Z button are all digital (not analog)
Sensor Bar is placed below or above TV
Sensor Bar is 20 cm in diameter
Sensor Bar has a sensor on each end which interacts with WiiMote
LEDs on WiiMote used to indicate battery life as well as which controller slot it corresponds to
4 LEDs flashing on startup means 75% - 100% battery life
3 LEDs flashing on startup means 50% - 75% battery life
2 LEDs flashing on startup means 25% - 50% battery life
1 LED flashing on startup means 0% - 25% battery life
Halogen lamps, Fluorescent lights, light from plastic or mirrors can affect the WiiMote's capabilities
To combat this, WiiMote needs to first register the coordinates of the two sensors on the sensor bar
IGN also reveals this piece of interesting information:

"Interestingly, according to documentation the Wii-mote is able to act as something of an eye, measuring coordinates between 0-1023 on the X axis and 0-767 on the Y axis, which means that it is more or less seeing a megapixel image. Whether or not this data can be interrupted into visual information remains unknown, but we're not ruling out the possibility that the pointer could sub as a camera. This is, of course, purely speculative on our part, but stranger things have certainly happened - like, for instance, an internal speaker."

Hopefully we'll learn more about the Wii's controller in the coming months!

It has been revealed from the same unnamed source that the 6kb of save space stored on the Wiimote is enough to hold 1 game save at a time.. so you'll need to organise what game you're going to play (eg. Smash Bros.) with your friends.

Apparently when the data is being transferred over bluetooth you've got to be careful not to unplug the nunchuku or you'll lose your data.

[YenRug]

I don't think the memory being used for unique ID's is "official" yet; IGN revealed it about a month back, when they discussed the use of the memory with developers, it was an idea that was mentioned. This may prove to be one of those "trojan's" where it's casually dropped into conversation, but is actually a firm plan.

[Cube]

The RRP for a bog-standard Microsoft mouse is £10. RRP For a X-Box 360 wireless controller is £32.99. So, considering the technology in the Wiimote, whats the problem?

Also, Miis are connected to the controller, perhaps that is what the user acounts for

[Nintendork]

Well if you consider a Wiimote to a 360 you have analog sticks.. so most people would consider that an unfair comparison.

If you add on the nunchuck it goes just above the price of the 360 remote's retail.

[Japapa]

You just can not comparice X306 and Wii:s controllers together.. There are so much different technologies involved.

[Fierce_LiNk]

The RRP for a bog-standard Microsoft mouse is £10. RRP For a X-Box 360 wireless controller is £32.99. So, considering the technology in the Wiimote, whats the problem?


The Wii-Mote is not a bog-standard mouse.

We're getting something quite special with this 'mote and the 'chuk. I'm hoping to get an additional one at launch, and i'm prepared to fork out that much for it, as i know its going to be something special.

I'm still confused about where they said: "but we're not ruling out the possibility that the pointer could sub as a camera. " (in Nintendork's first post)

How would that work?

[Nintendork]

I'm still confused about where they said: "but we're not ruling out the possibility that the pointer could sub as a camera. " (in Nintendork's first post)

How would that work?

Honestly, no idea.. that's just the resolution of the built in sensor. So in theory it can pick up 1023x767 pixels.. which is a mega pixel camera sensor.

No idea how this will work but given Miyamoto's praise of the Eye Toy's ideas.. I wouldn't be suprised if there's a camera involved somewhere.

labelled: speculation.

I'm not sure if it's 6kb of non volatile ram on the system.. if this is acting as a cache for the sound files in a game there is going to need to be more than 6kb.

Even with amazing encoding that's not gonna be enough surely? 6mb would be more likely.. given that there are often problems with translating perhaps there has been confusion.

[Acidyl]

I was under the impression that the 6kb memory was to store your Mii characters, as demonstrated at the 14-15 sept events.

[Rick Dangerous]

I'm not sure if it's 6kb of non volatile ram on the system.. if this is acting as a cache for the sound files in a game there is going to need to be more than 6kb.

Even with amazing encoding that's not gonna be enough surely? 6mb would be more likely.. given that there are often problems with translating perhaps there has been confusion.

Yeah im surprised thats enough too. Especially considering all the other stuff they propose you could store on it.

I always persumed you could download all the personal setting etc from the consoles memory to the controller when the console turns on. So if you have a large family you just change the data on the wiimote over.

If you want to take stuff (game saves etc) to a friends house you are going to need a SD card.

Seems logical to me

[Phube]

Well I was just browsing Edge.. and apparently Wii motes are specific to the player..

Remember the announcement about the speaker? Iwata spoke about some on board memory to store sound files which are triggered in game.

Well it seems that the Wiimote will store your personal Mii character, game and console preferences.. and also some save data. Although how much is not known it is known that the intention is to make it possible to take save data around a friends house.

If you've got more than 4 family members then that's going to be an expensive shopping trip come December 8th.. but I suppose the less hardcore gamers can share.



Just to counter your point the Wii-mote can store up to 6 (don't quote me on this it's definately more than 4) Mii's, so I'm guessing you just choosewhich Mii to use when playing your chosen game!!!

[Charlie]

What page is that article on in Edge about controller specific users?

[myster0n]

Honestly, no idea.. that's just the resolution of the built in sensor. So in theory it can pick up 1023x767 pixels.. which is a mega pixel camera sensor.

No idea how this will work but given Miyamoto's praise of the Eye Toy's ideas.. I wouldn't be suprised if there's a camera involved somewhere.

labelled: speculation.

I'm not sure if it's 6kb of non volatile ram on the system.. if this is acting as a cache for the sound files in a game there is going to need to be more than 6kb.

Even with amazing encoding that's not gonna be enough surely? 6mb would be more likely.. given that there are often problems with translating perhaps there has been confusion.
Well, I'd guess that the sound they send to the remote will be 8bit @ 11KHz. That should give it about half a second as a buffer if it's 6KB.

[DCK]

We knew this already. Quite honestly, 6 kB of cache memory shouldn't make the cost significantly higher.

[Pestneb]

to those who think 6kb is weak and tiny and pointless...

6kb is plenty of data. please try to appreciate how much data you can get into 6kb.
if nothing else, it can be like an ID key in a database.
6kb is ALOT. ok, on its own maybe not, but in conjunction with a game disc/machine those 16kb can be used for ALOT.

if it stored a number unique to you.

(32 bits can encode over 4 billion unique codes)

then that can be linked up in what is called a "database"

amazing things.
essentially, each 32 bits can link to 1 of 4 billion unique entries in said database. potentially each unique entry could be between 0 bits and 4 terrabytes.


16kb. is plenty.

[myster0n]

An ID in a DB may not be the best solution. Where is that DB? In the Wii itself? Then you can't take your Mii to another Wii. At Nintendo? What happens if you don't have an internet connection? (the Miis you designed on that Wii will be stored locally, but what about the Mii from your friends)

But when memory is efficiently used, the data for a Mii still takes very small amounts of memory.
I've done a little calculating based on the Samuel L. Jackson Mii demo.

I've been as acurate as I can with the things I could see. When I couldn't know, I've been very generous (things like height and size - I'd think that 5bits or 32 possible values would be more than enough)

gender 1bit
face 7bit (4bit shape, 3bit tone)
hair 11bit (7bit style, 3bit colour, 1bit mirrored)
eyebrows 28bit (5bit shape, 3bit colour, 5bit height, 5bit size, 5bit rotation, 5bit width)
eyes 29bit (6bit shape, 3bit colour, 5bit height, 5bit size, 5bit rotation, 5bit width)
nose 14bit (4bit shape,5bit position,5bit shape)
lips 17bit (5bit shape,2bit colour,5bit position,5bit shape)
glasses 17bit (4bit shape,3bit colour,5bit position,5bit shape)
mustache 15bit (2bit shape, 3bit colour,5bit position,5bit shape)

This gives us a running total of 149 bits. 2 screens I couldn't see on that demo were beard and ...spots???
Let's give them both 17bits.
So our total is 183 bits.

Oh, and I forgot the length and width of the Mii character (I saw that on another demo). Let's give them both 6bits. And the colour of the shirt : 4bits.

That's 199 bits.

Convert that to bytes, you have to use 25 bytes. If you'd use the whole 6KB memory for Mii storage, you could fit 245 Miis on one wiimote.

[Cookyman]

Convert that to bytes, you have to use 25 bytes. If you'd use the whole 6KB memory for Mii storage, you could fit 245 Miis on one wiimote.

Now thats a lot of Miis :grin:

[Nintendork]

YAWNSVILLE.

Edge 168: Page 13, bottom left hand corner.
"Your avatar can be stored on the memory built into the Remote, and taken to a friend's house for multiplayer sesions"

The suggestion of game saves and confirmation of sound files were confirmed elsewhere online.

[Emasher]

reading the first post i am releived

[myster0n]

YAWNSVILLE.

Edge 168: Page 13, bottom left hand corner.
"Your avatar can be stored on the memory built into the Remote, and taken to a friend's house for multiplayer sesions"

The suggestion of game saves and confirmation of sound files were confirmed elsewhere online.
Thanks. It's good to know all my work wasn't in vain ...
All I wanted to do is to prove, in this time of megabytes and gigabytes, that 6KB is still more than enough to store a bunch of Miis and still have room for other stuff.
But I've edited my post a bit so it doesn't make your brain tired anymore. At least not as much.

[Ninty 182]

Back to the subject of price, hasn't anyone thought that after christmas the price will be dropped. Nintendo might have just thought that seeing as it's the holiday's they can make a bit of extra money and reduce it just after. Just a thought.

[arab_freak]

How can save games reach the low, low size of 6 kb (less considering the fact that you'll probably have one or two Miis in your controller)? If that's true, then I might not even bother buying a 32 MB SD card unless I want to put some media in them.

[Zechs Merquise]

It really doesn't matter how much 'technology' is crammed into the Wii-mote and the nunchuck. If the public percieve the cost of buying an extra controller as too much, they won't buy it. Regardless of technical jargon.

This is probably why the PS3's price point may well see Sony lose more ground to microsoft in Europe and the US.

[Raven]

How can save games reach the low, low size of 6 kb (less considering the fact that you'll probably have one or two Miis in your controller)? If that's true, then I might not even bother buying a 32 MB SD card unless I want to put some media in them.

This is actually a VERY good point!
If you can put game saves onto the Wiimote, the compression must be very very small... the 512megs of flash memory is going to be buttloads!