Square Enix chief Yoichi Wada has said that he believes Sony and Microsoft’s upcoming motion controllers won’t have a substantial impact on hardware sales when the devices hit store shelves next year.
Speaking to the Financial Times, the executive labelled the new peripherals as ‘limited’ in comparison to what he described as the three pillars that current hardware is based on – namely, network, Blu-ray/DVD functionality and playing games.
“Present game machines already have a lot of functions: they are a network terminal, a Blu-ray or DVD player, and a gaming machine. Compared to these three pillars, the [new motion] controllers are quite limited, so the impact may be small. They are an extension of the gaming function,” said Wada.
Despite this, he seemed fairly intrigued with Xbox 360’s Project Natal, adding, “As a user interface it’s fantastic and I think it will become standard,” and claimed that we can expect a new Wii console in 2011 boasting “functionality more like that of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 or Sony’s PlayStation 3, and possibly a different controller.”
How do you feel, PSU readers? Are you anticipating the release of Sony’s wand device next spring? Or do you feel indifferent about motion-sensing mechanics? Let us know in the comments section below.