Iwata Comments on Rumored 360 Wiimote

Surely you remember the rumor regarding the supposed Xbox 360 Wiimote that we heard about early last month. Well, word finally got around to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata when he chatted with Develop, who asked for his reaction to the rumor. He claimed that it posed “no threat” to Nintendo, citing the difficulties involved in developing quality games for a that type of controller.

“I am also aware of the [Microsoft Wiimote] rumour and have seen a fake image made by a fan on the web which looks like a Wii Remote with the rumour that such a controller may be launched, However there is no way for us to comment on such speculations,” he said in an interview earlier this month.

“All I can say today is, it is not that easy to develop software which leverages the characteristics of the Wii Remote. We are not concerned about what other companies may do but rather more concerned with presenting them with new ideas to our customers based on the prospect that our existing customers will surely get tired of the plays enabled by Wii Remote if we do not try to improve the experience.

“In other words, what matters to us is whether or not we can continue to constantly create and offer new surprises one after another.”

Well, we know the image wasn’t any sort of official document, but Patrick Klepek from MTV assures us that it came from a “well-placed development source close to Microsoft’s project.”

It’s the reaction you would expect from Nintendo, and Iwata is right — developing software for the Wiimote is a challenge, as any Wii owner with any sort of game library will tell you. But suppose that Microsoft did release a 360mote (three-six-tee-mote; get it?) and third parties began developing software for it. Microsoft wouldn’t have a console focused on that control method, but they would have better looking games and Xbox Live on their side.