Gamestop listing outs a new Wii Remote design

A product listing on game retailer Gamestop’s website seems to show that Nintendo has a new controller for the Wii in the works, which fully integrates the Wii Motion Plus technology into the Wii Remote.

Nintendo launched Wii Motion Plus last year as an attachment to the standard controller. Having this attachment made the device’s motion-sensitive technology more accurate than before and has slowly become the new standard for Wii games.

As such, it remains a hassle for gamers to have a bulky attachment connected to their controller for every game they want to play. So it looks like Nintendo is re-manufacturing the Wii Remote to have the Wii Motion Plus attachment built-in.

In a box art image posted on Gamestop for Nintendo’s upcoming first-party game FlingSmash, it displays a note about there being a “Wii Remote Plus” controller inside. That’s a different name than any other Wii controller on the market today. So the scuttlebutt going around the Internets today is this controller must be a Wii Remote with Motion Plus fully integrated.

Edge Online received a response from Gamestop in an inquiry about this, which reads, “Unfortunately we have nothing to announce on this today.”

Nintendo wants to make Motion Plus 100% part of the Wii experience from now on. All new Wii consoles have the attachment packed in. So the question of fully integrating into one device is not a matter of if but when.

Indeed, Nintendo tersely confirmed the controller’s existence to Eurogamer after this story made its blogosphere rounds. Although interestingly, Gamestop has since removed its listing for FlingSmash.