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It takes a small army to build a Wii Wheel, just ask Nintendo photo

To some the Wii Wheel is just the latest in a long line of useless videogame peripherals to hit the Wii, but as far as Nintendo is concerned, it's serious business. So serious, in fact, that the wheel's lead designer went on record as saying that the $14.99 plastic shell had over 30 prototypes leading up to the finished product.

Apparently more thought went into this than previously known. So much for thoughts of taking a white piece of plastic, and notching out a place to house the Wiimote. Rumor has it that engineers are involved, words such as comfort, weight, and ergonomics are thrown around, and much care and planning are behind its final form factor before release. Maybe this will help convince Nick (and the rest of you) that we're all getting a good deal here. Have you priced an engineer's time lately? They don't come cheap.

[Via Gamespot]


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67 comments | showing # 51 to 67

necrozen's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 17:22
necrozen
Wow, more Nintendo hate bait. People seem to love to trash this wheel, even before they've given the free one you get with the game first.

I'm gonna try that one first, and if I like it, and I want another, 15 bucks isn't gonna break my bank. People do realize that buyin a second one is optional, right? I mean, Nintendo isn't holding a a wii zapper to your head and saying "Buy this or die!!"

So much Nintendo hate on this site lately... I mean, it doesn't bother me, but wow, video game fans are never happy about anything, are they?
liquidninja's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 17:22
liquidninja
Ha, I just found out BestBuy has it for $10.So the price is really $10; retailers just want to charge $15 for it.
manasteel88's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 18:17
manasteel88
@liquidninja

no its 15 bucks...its just that best buy over purchased and they got a heftier discount on product than Target/WalMart/Circuit City. So to alleviate the overstock they present a sale.

I'm kinda getting tired of all this high development cost being pushed on us the consumer. Its a plastic wheel. sure 30 prototypes may have been necessary to get the right feel, but I am not paying 15 bucks for a plastic wheel. If the game is easier with the wheel that means that development was also geared to making the wheel more efficient and that means that this has been a scam to milk the Mario Kart product.

of course this may be biased since I don't in fact plan on purchasing Mario Kart. Skip it, if you think I am indeed wrong.
Toneman's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 18:32
Toneman
Sure Nintendo can develope 30 Wii Wheel prototypes, but can they see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch?
TrailerParkJesus's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 18:43
TrailerParkJesus
Yeah if they only spent this much effort on online.
exanimo's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 20:02
exanimo
LMFAO, Toneman.
grrza's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 20:24
grrza
$15 is not a lot of money.
flabzilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 20:32
flabzilla
Dunno why people are dissing the online play in this particular game, it looks to have some pretty dood function. Doesn't have voice chat like but the matchmaking and channel sound pretty decent.

About the wheel, well heres an idea DON'T BUY ONE, i'm not using the one i get with it either, prob go striaght in the bin tbh , unless anyone wants it?
Copyright 2008 Agent Chieftain's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 21:50
Copyright 2008 Agent Chieftain
Toneman wins.

I hereby resign from the internet.
Burnt Meatloaf's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/06/2008 23:26
Burnt Meatloaf
It also takes a serious amount of engineering to make cardboard boxes, sheets of paper, and pencils. But, they can all be had for pennies apiece.

Oh, Nintendo. Only you could have a 500,000% profit markup and still bawl that life is so hard. Well, OK... oil companies do that, too.
HarassmentPanda's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/07/2008 01:03
HarassmentPanda
Honestly, I'm sure they put a good amount of time into developing the final model, but there is no way they spent enough man-hours building prototypes to justify $15 for a $2 injection-molded piece of plastic.
Lord The Night Knight's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/07/2008 01:52
Lord The Night Knight
I wonder how many of you read the actual link. One of the points they make is that the wheel is NOT FOR HARDCORE.

We can still use the Gamecube controller to play. This is to just get non-gamers hooked, by using a friendly looking wheel.

So if you're a hardcore, keep your money.
BigKev's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/07/2008 03:43
BigKev
$15 might also be because they're giving you one for free, just a thought.

Also, how many of you have complained about controllers being too heavy or too light, non-ergonomic, hard to reach buttons etc etc. And then you make fun of the fact that Nintendo takes these things into account. It annoys me that the Gaming community has such a wealth of hypocritical, idiotic ill-informed douchebags.

And none of you know ANYTHING about the online play, or whether the wheel does actually improve the experience, so really you all need to shut the fuck up.

God, i bet people are going to call me a fanboy for pointing out that stupidity.
necrozen's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/07/2008 16:01
necrozen
@BigKev

You'd be surprised how many of us feel the same way you do.
Kathos's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/07/2008 21:49
Kathos
Wait, doesn't the wheel come with the game? We have a poster here at my work (Futureshop) and it says "Wheel included with Mario Kart!" or somesuch.
necrozen's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/08/2008 14:56
necrozen
@ Kathos

Yeah, my point exactly, lol.
Necros's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/08/2008 19:02
Necros
They should have kept working on it, since people seem to say it's not that accurate.
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