Cape Eyes

It's a Wii, Wii World

On the second day of Christmas, the techies

gave to me, 2 Wii remotes... 

OK, I’m pleased to report that after the holiday clutter as been cleared away, there are indeed multiple Wii remotes residing in the household.

And judging from the bare shelves at every Best Buy, Target et al that carries these toys during the last week in December and first week in January, lots of other people have them too.

This week Nintendo, the manufacturer of the Wii game console, announced it had sold more than 3 million Wii units in the US in December. That means some 26 million have been sold in the US to date. That’s a lot of living rooms! 

Nintendo also noted that the December Wii sales set a new monthly record for home game consoles.  A game console is a piece of hardware whose primary purpose is the playing of games. 

Or is it?

One of the many announcements this week from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas came from Netfix, the service that delivers movies to your home. CES is the big event in the home toys calendar year – lots of sizzle and splash and sneak peeks at all kinds of cool goodies and gizmos.

Netflix and Nintendo used CES to announce that Netflix’s online video streaming service will be coming to the Wii. Through your Wii you can select and watch your chosen selection form a catalog of movies and TV shows. Yup, the Wii is a game console … but like the infomerical says – But Wait, There’s More!

Video games represent a $16.8 billion business sector. And they aren’t just tools to hunt make-believe orcs and blow up fictional digital objects. Their developers are looking for the Next Big Thing. 

Microsoft’s most interesting announcement at CES detailed the Natal project and the news that it would be on store shelves for holiday season ’10. In the world of consumer electronics, the holiday season is the make-it-or-break it season and everyone is always looking a year out. 

Microsoft says Natal technology is bringing an entirely new category of controller free games and entertainment to the market. In other words, instead of holding some sort of controller device and clicking on buttons, Natal lets you control Microsoft’s game console, the Xbox, through gestures or spoken commands.

In tech speak: “The Natal has sensor of 9-inch/23cm wide horizontal bar fixed on top of a circular base. It provides a 3-D motion capture along with facial and vocal identification characteristics …” 

In other words, if you push to the left in the air  and smile while you do so, you gently ‘push’ the onscreen object to the left. Ohhh, that’s either cool or a little scary.

Especially when you think about how another big news item from CES might eventually weave into the experience – we’re talking 3D, as in three-dimensional.

Heavy hitters like Disney and ESPN use the show to talk about their 3D TV channels and there were a whole pack of  monitors presented with flash and dazzle from everyone from Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and beyond.

The new monitor’s key characteristic is the support of  stereoscopic 3D. Stereoscopic 3D is a technique for three-dimensional visual information and creating an illusion of depth when it is viewed. 

This really does get one thinking “holodeck”, doesn’t it?

The Wii is a pretty fun first step. I know that 25,999,999 people had their Wiis before me and nothing I’m seeing is at all new or unique – but still, it’s a blast.

Wii Fit and this season’s new motion sensor that works with Resort Sports have made it really easy for me to engage with the games. And by having two controls, my daughter and I can slam at each other in table tennis without having the basement needed to accommodate a non-virtual table tennis table!

Of course, I gotta’ confess that it does start to feel a bit too real sometimes and I almost took out the overhead light “playing” tennis with an energetic swing and bashed my hand on the TV armoire door with a strong “slash” while cutting up flying eggs and sushi rolls with my sword …

Remember, when it comes to things that require spatial coordination I am, shall we say, a late adapter. I fly virtual planes backwards and upside down. Even with all the ease-of-use of Wii, I still managed to play the chicken flapping target game going in the wrong direction, so nothing here is fool-proof either.

("The chicken game?" you ask. Ahh, new to Wii Fit Plus– your mii, which is the character that represents you on the screen, wears a chicken suit and you to flap your arms and lean on the balance board to fly to meet targets. It’s quite a work out. For some reason my child finds it especially amusing to ask me to play this one. Hmmm…)

Wiis are being used in very real world applications, too. Senior centers and rehabilitation programs have incorporated them into therapy because these electronic toys really do have you moving and exercising, without quite realizing it’s a task. You’re just having fun.

Fun. Yeah, isn’t that what entertainment is all about?

Four-player games are the fastest growing category. Online multi-player games from your living room game console connect you with all kinds of other real people – albeit ones who are meeting you through digital representation. We’re trying to create 3D experiences in our living rooms.

Digital entertainment, it seems, isn’t such an isolating tool after all. It’s one more way to remember what it’s like to be 8 and ask your next door neighbor to come out and play after school.