14 DAY TRIAL // Tom Quinn, the original patent holder for the motion tracking technology that was eventually featured in the Wii console from Nintendo, says that both Sony and Microsoft have refused to look into his gyroscope powered concept.
In a larger feature on CVG the developer says about his Microsoft meeting that, “The meeting went terribly. The attitude I got from them was that if they wanted to do motion control, they would do it themselves and make a better job of it. I mean, they were just rude.”
Apparently one of the executives he met actually apologized for the attitude of the others present.
Ken Kutaragi, the well-know Sony leading engineer who led the PlayStation revolution, also saw the motion tracking concept as a distraction rather than a core feature.
Quinn adds, “Kutaragi comes in, introduces himself, sits down and – I swear this is true – he closed his eyes the moment I started showing my pitch. It was awkward, very awkward, but I still asked him for feedback and he said, ‘well, can you produce this for 50 cents?’ I laughed and explained that would be impossible, so again I left empty handed.”
The hardware maker believes that much of the lack of interest at Microsoft and Sony was motivated by the fact that the Xbox and the PlayStation were doing much better in the marketplace than the Nintendo made GameCube.
This made Nintendo much more open to new ideas and after a meeting which included Atsushi Asada the technology that Quinn created became part of the Wii.
The home console impressed with its motion tracking technology on launch and quickly became the biggest seller of the early years of the current console generation.
Nintendo has now launch the Wii U follow-up in the United States, which includes a touch screen in addition to motion tracking.