Xbox to copy Nintnedo Wiimote

Yep, Microsoft has been working on it since August. A Wiimote, no pretending other wise. You know, I don’t have a problem with the fact that Microsoft is including motion sensitivity. That makes sense, everyone has been waiting for them to do it and it is the next logical step if they want to compete with the PS3 and the Wii. But I find it appalling that they don’t even pretend to come up with something that isn’t a blatant ripoff of the Wiimote. Lets have a look at the design that has been leaked to the right.

OK, it has an LED light with four colors on top. All right, that might be original, if it is suppose to be used for games. Probably it is just so that you know which controller you are. OK, that is cool, not exactly innovative though. It has a speaker, which is a straigh unapologetic ripoff. Hopefully it’ll be better quality than the Wiimote speaker at least. It has an analog stick. Wow, innovation at it’s best, an analog stick instead of a direction pad. First, that may make it difficult to use the Xmote to navigate menus (meaning that they will have to do everything point-and-click), and second, an analog stick instead of a D-pad is not innovative.

It has four buttons instead of two, and unless I’m mistaken, it is going to be a little on the difficult side to hit those buttone while you’re moving. Granted, the Wiimote makes it hard to hit the buttons as well, but at least with the Wiimote you have the option of holding it sideways. No such luck here.

And lastly, a microphone. Well that is interesting. What are they going to do with that? They can’t use it for multiplayer communication, because a mircophone that far away from you would pick up the sound of the whole house (and the other players right next to you). Maybe they’ll do something interesting, but I’m just not seeing it.

All in all, this is a total ripoff. So far this is just rumor, but I can’t imagine how Microsoft could hold their heads up if they released something so unoriginal. There are lots of ideas out there Microsoft, surely you can find something unique?

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