Here wii go again.

We love the wii. Some companies don’t. Rumours are flying that Microsoft is about to launch a clone of the wii hand held controller. According to MTV this is part of Redmonds campaign to muscle in on Nintendos share of the gaming market.

Horses for courses.

Apparently, the Xbox controller will have a similar design and functionality to the Wii remote, but feature fours control buttons, a stick and a microphone - hmm, sing-a-long-a-Gears-of-War anyone? There are also plans for the controller to interface with the Xbox Live Vision Camera. Many images are filling my head!

Good idea?

The introduction of such a device would, in theory, allow Microsoft to gain some ground in the face of recent reports. The major downside that we see is one of usability. Yes, the Wii controller has captured a large market share but this is based a playing sports oriented games. In the general gaming category the controller has faired less well due to the layout of the function keys.

When?

Despite some delays in development work the new Xbox controller is due to released later this year. So what happens in the mean time? It’s not unrealistic to think that Nintendo will release a control unit more suited to needs of us everyday gamers. In fact, in light of the Xbox news, they’d be mad not too. Let’s see, eh?

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