14 DAY TRIAL // This year, Microsoft is planning to bring motion tracking to the Xbox 360 through the use of Project Natal, a system that negates the need for a controller. Sony is talking about motion control using the wand peripheral that has already received a lot of attention, and about introducing the ability for the PlayStation 3 to offer 3D gaming experiences via a firmware patch later in 2010.
Meanwhile, Nintendo, which managed to sell more than 3.8 million Wii consoles and more than 3 million DS handhelds in December, is not talking about any plans to improve on its product lineup.
Reggie Fils-Aime, who is the Nintendo of America president, told BusinessWeek that “We are confident the Wii home entertainment console has a very long life in front of it,” while answering a direct question about whether the company is planning to talk about a new home gaming console at the upcoming Game Developers Conference that will take place in San Francisco.
There has been a lot of speculation that Nintendo is preparing something along the lines of a Wii HD home console featuring the processing power to offer High Definition gaming experiences and the storage space needed to store more gaming and media files. There has also been talk about a successor to the DS, which might incorporate a motion tracking sensor but Nintendo said that its president Satoru Iwata had been misquoted on the issue.
Recently, Nintendo and Netflix announced that the movie streaming service would be coming to the Wii starting with the spring of 2010, with a disk required to get access and with all those who have a Netflix subscription only needing to request it for free in order to get the service. It's not clear whether, with Sony and Microsoft moving into motion tracking gaming, Nintendo can continue to sell the same amount of Wii consoles it has in the last three years to dominate the market.