Wiimote to have mic, VOIP support?

Posted by loony636

I saw this in my Gmail Web clip section:

Quoted post: Wiimote to have mic, VOIP support?

Posted May 24th 2006 11:05PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
The idea of a mic for the Nintendo Wii controller -- in addition to the speaker they announced at E3 -- isn't too far fetched. After all, the DS is already using such functionality quite successfully, and Nintendo included a microphone with their recent Mario Party games for the GameCube. There's still no official word from Nintendo, but after some careful examination of Nintendo Wii patents, NRevolutionA has spotted some pretty strong hints to a mic. The patent mentions two audio sources, one obviously being the game disc, and the other being a mysterious "audio in" that is hanging out with a pair of audio outputs. It seems like a mic to us. There are also details within the patent regarding the processing of analog audio to digital, and mixing it all together with a bit of Wii magic. Other sources around the interwebs are pushing the rumor of VOIP support, which seems easy enough for Nintendo to do, and matches well with their "always on" Internet strategy. Purists might be scared by the PS3-ish convergence, but Nintendo doesn't seem in any danger of dropping off the deep end in this regard.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/24/wiimote-to-have-mic-voip-support/

That'd be awesome! Can't wait for Wiimote!

Posted by Drewboy64

Yeah, I heard a rumor that it could act as some sort of phone, which could be possible through Connect24...

Although they said there wouldn't be a mic back in the day, but they could've just been lying or changed their mind or whatever.

Posted by ccrocker58

If you happened to read the May (I believe, It's the one that covers Wii {at the time of print, it was still known as Revolution}, and how Twilight Princess will be on Wii) issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, they interviewed both Iwata and Miyamoto, and they both said that the Wii Controller will not have a Microphone built into it. I think we'll be seeing it as one of the countless peripherals we'll be seeing for the control. As for this phone business...I doubt that. It's just not Ninty's style.

Posted by Proto Man

Yeah there may not be a mic built in, but I read that there will be a headset of some sort.

Posted by ccrocker58

Built in? If that's what you mean, then in the same issue Shigeru Miyamoto said;

"When you think of the type of microphone that would be easy for people to use for home play you think of a headset. And so the issue is, if you have a headset somehow attached to the controller, it gets complicated to use, and we wanted [everything to] be easy to use-simple and fun."

So for a headset, I don't doubt we'll be seeing one, as they were even thinking about making one for the DS (take a look at the headphone jack), just it's going to most probably be another peripheral. Nintendo knows that little port on the bottom of the control has tons of potential, and they're going to apply as much as they can to making things that utilize it, even if they could of done it built in. Peripherals=More money for Nintendo. If there's one thing Nintendo knows how to do, it's milk the most money out of a system in any way they can.