Engadget brings us a story about an item called the Wii PowerStation that is essentially a recharger dock for the Wiimote. Since it normally runs on batteries, one must replace those batteries at some point with much gnashing of teeth and swears, but with this rechargable dock, you'll just pop the Wiimote in place when you're done playing and you'll always have a fully charged controller waiting to make your life easier when you come home. Now if only Nintendo could program it to bring you a snifter of brandy and pleasure you orally while you read the Wall Street Journal, my life would be complete ...
This is fantastic, innovative and should sell tremendously well, but it brings up an interesting point about console manufacturers of late; they're getting greedy AND lazy! This sort of thing should have been a no-brainer to the developers of the Wiimote, and yet we've had to wait for a third party company to create one for us. "But Nex, sure, you're sexy, but you're wrong about Nintendo being greedy! This only benefits the third party company!", I hear you screaming over the din of your overweight siblings fighting for the last piece of KFC Original Recipe in the next room, but you seem to have missed the point that we will almost certainly be seeing such a dock from Nintendo as well. I guarantee it will be within the next 4 months and people will snap it up even faster than they do this one.
Nintendo isn't the only culprit here, though. The last few generations have been filled with items that should have been included and were left out for what could only be described as "economically devious" reasons; memory cards, proper video cables, games (don't you remember how the NES came with 2 FANTASTIC games?), etc. I understand that the companies want to make as much money as possible, but not only does this screw over the customer, it opens up the door for people like Electronic's Boutique to force their "value added" Bundle Packs on people who had just waited in a launch line for 2 days next to fatties who smell like fish and fake cheese.
It's a cruel world, but a return to the days when console manufacturers gave us everything we need to play their consoles would go a long way toward making Earth a nicer place to live.
Contest:
7:55 AM on 12.20.2006
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About companies being greedy, I've said this before and I'll say it again, they are cheating us in selling games at $60. "But games are more advanced now and need more developing time and blah, blah, blah" you might say. However, I find it hard to beleive that the XBox360 version of Elder Scrolls IV should cost more when it is graphically inferior to the PC version. And converting it from PC to console doesn't work in this case since Microsoft braggs about easy conversion from PC to XBox360. Seriously, why is PC $50 and 360 $60?
But I will admit the pictures Ive seen of it look nice.
How does a company NOT offering a product make that company greedy? If anything the opposite is true. If your point is that Nintendo is waiting for a third party dock to come out first before they release thier own... well I not only find that unlikely, but I don't see how that would benefit anyone, Nintendo included. Plus it just doesn't make any sense.
I think the reason we haven't heard of a rechargeable dock for Wiimotes yet is because Nintendo doesn't see the demand for one, and frankly neither do I. The decision to go with AA batteries alow consumers to pick their own method (I choose rechargeables, as I suggest to everyone else) rather than forcing the consumer into using a far more expensive solution provided by Nintendo. If anything it's a sign of Nintendo NOT being greedy.
This can all be summed up in one word: entitlement.
I had a charging dock thing for my old GBA. It was a good idea that ulimately had a flawed design. I hope this one makes has a good charge status indicator and the remote slides into the base firmly to ensure good contact to the charger.