I dunno about that. Probably he means that the industry will be able to use WiiMotionPlus (and the wiimote) even better as the months/years pass.

Technology does not develop THAT quickly. Graphics cards (probably the fastest advancement there is) from 2007 are still fetch around the same price.

@Dr_Peace

Retail price is never a reflection of what it costs the manufacturers. If they can make a profit without complaints about the price, the price will stay the same even as the cost to make them falls.

@BAB

As it is the case with the Wii.

I simply believe they cheaped out, nobody knows how much profit they were making with the Wii at launch but I am betting that it could have taken a small hit easily.

This is nintendo in any case, it is part of their philosophy to use the most reliable, cheapest option they can find for hardware.

@coffeewithchess

For the Wii to be able to play a DVD, Nintendo would have had to pay a fee to the DVD Forum. So yes, it was about money.

DVD is nowhere near as important as M+ is now, being cheap hurt the system (even though we do have some great games).

Everybody saying Nintendo should have been willing to lose money to be cool is... not getting it.

They are in a position to do what they do because they don't think that way.

@stealthpengu

I know. Even the Gamecube that was arguably the most powerful console last generation (look at Rogue Squadron, Starfox Adventures, Metroid, Zelda and so on) still made a profit from day 1.

This is a fantastic business decision, but when it undermines your own 'revolution'? It isn't hard to imagine that they have made more profit off the Wii hardware than there has ever been. They wouldn't be losing any money, just getting slightly less profit. Even raising the price of the system wouldn't have made a huge dent in the sales given the demand.

@majestik12

I thought Nintendo were all about breaking trends?

If you didn't read the Iwata Asks about M+, then I suggest that you do so. I thought that M+ was only just a few accelerometers (and in some ways, yes, it is) but there is considerably more to it.

Working with M+ is also quite "fun"; for as long as it remains accurate, it outputs TONS of data, being absolutely oversensitive (so one's got to limit that via software, although this oversensitivity could prove to be the tipping stone for new, mind-bending ideas, Let's Tap or Ju-On style) but when it starts to "drift", the discrepencies are just as striking as the precision available before.

@Burgers

Obviously, albeit oddly enough, the M+ is much, MUCH better suited to hardcore gaming than mindless casual action.

The fact that M+ can calibrate itself just by seeing the sensor bar means that any game in which you have to point at the screen won't be suffering from much issues.

Granted, fighting an endless stream of dudes in WSR will undoubtedly cause the "drifting" to occur, but if you are in, say, Zelda, you could have to point at stuff or simply use your bow. The battles would never carry on for so long in a more fleshed-out game. That or you'd want to use other kinds of attacks, or items.

Wagglefests will still remain wagglefests, however. And I am perfectly fine with that.

@stealthpengu

"and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Honestly, it just seems more ethical to me, and more sound business-wise "

Prior to Sony and Microsoft entering the industry, all hardware were sold at a profit. Subsidizing your hardware wasn't something practiced by companies in the industry, because they didn't have the luxury of just being a division of a large corporation that can be bailed out if things go wrong.

If it weren't for Microsoft's and Sony's bail out, SCE and Microsoft Games Studios would have been forced out of business long ago.

He didn't say that the tech didn't exist. he said it didn't exist at the right cost and size. Now it does. I see no reason to doubt him when the company who partnered with Nintendo on WM+ said the exact same thing at last year's E3 when M+ was announced.