Nintendo's Mixed Signals

The two devices I described in the last post are cheap to produce and sell, so why hasn't Nintendo announced head tracking yet?

Emailing them for comment on the discovery of IRLED head tracking prompted the expected self-promoting response:

Greetings,

At this time, there has not been [an] announcement concerning using such a feature. As the worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, and because of our history of pushing the limits of gameplay and design, you can always count on Nintendo offering the most imaginative products.

In the meantime, keep checking our website's "What’s New" section (http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew) for the latest information and announcements.

Sincerely,

Dale Thompson
Nintendo of America Inc.

As we've seen with the WiiMot+, Nintendo's proven itself to be overly-secretive with its hardware development. It may be that Nintendo is well aware of IRLED head tracking and is working on such a feature, but Johnny Lee's comments on the removal of the Boom Blox head tracking easter egg imply the opposite:

"I have been talking to some Wii game developers and they've said that if [a game] requires too much movement on the player's part, Nintendo asks them to pull it."

I understand to a degree why Nintendo may be limiting player motion, but head tracking is -- as Darwin would say -- the next logical step after coming down from the trees immersion-wise. Gaming culture should at the very least be ready to get up off the couch and play, (at least that's what Nintendo would have us believe with games like Wii Fit) so what's with the mixed signals?

As I see it, this is where gaming is going and if Nintendo doesn't get on the ball with head tracking then Microsoft and Sony will. (Technically, Sony already has, and already has the "stand" peripheral covered) Personally, I'd prefer Nintendo because the Wii remote although costing about the same as a PS3 Eye has more functionality besides its IR camera, meaning that you could already own an extra Wii remote and just use that or buy one for the head tracking and as an added bonus use it as a controller.