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View Full Version : So what happened to the Xbox 360's motion controller?


Zeus
09-16-2008, 05:36 PM
Seattle PI are currently wondering whatever happened to The Newton, the supposed Xbox 360 motion controller. They state that there are two possibilities which we all could've guessed ourselves - It was delayed or it was cancelled and will never reach the market. Perhaps it was never really in any kind of existence?


It has been a while since I have typed the name "Newton" as in the semi-secret Xbox 360 motion controller wand project. So what happened to Newton?

There are two possibilities:
1. It was delayed and they are still working on it. Either the software or games is not ready.
2. It was canceled and it will never reach market. They might have decided that it was not going to work in the Xbox accessory lineup.

At PAX 08 all of the Microsoft folks that I talked to would clam up at the mention of the Newton code name. I have no doubt that the Newton project is either still going on or was real at one point before being put on hold or canceled out right. I have seen evidence of them building hardware and I think that they invested more resources than if it was just a research and development project.

They unveiled that the game Ninja Blade does not use the Newton controller nor does Banjo Kazooie : Nuts and Bolts. Also the fact that they are making another Sceen It! game that will ship with the Big Button controller is another sign that the Newton is not on track.

They might end up using the research from the Newton project on project Phoenix (the third generation Xbox AKA 720) or it might be introduced in 2009.


News Source: <A href="http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/digitaljoystick/archives/148881.asp" target="_blank">Nwsource.com</a>

Hevyduty
09-16-2008, 05:53 PM
I'm guessing it got the kibosh once Nintendo announced Motion Plus. Yeah, what they had was better than the current remote, but with Motion Plus on the way, it's advantage would be short-lived. So they ultimately decided not to bother.

Either that or never existed in the first place, except perhaps on somebody's drawing board.

NewBeginning
09-16-2008, 09:31 PM
Personally, I hope that it never existed.

QrafTee
09-17-2008, 01:20 AM
It probably did exist in prototypes, but deemed superfluous and thus killed off.

NextGenPsych
09-17-2008, 04:14 AM
It will probably come with the next Xbox to convince consumers they have to buy into the 'next-gen'.