Wiimote to have mic, VOIP support?

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.

[Via Joystiq]

[Totalfixation @ May 24th 2006 11:10PM]

Cool......WiiiiMote, just love saying that.

[Kyle @ May 24th 2006 11:16PM]

Yes! GOOD online play!

[Mike Ishi @ May 24th 2006 11:24PM]

Finally you guys post something that won't cause a flame war by including little smirks... :P

I like that word too, wiimote lol :D

This all sounds cool. I can play Mario Tennis right after Karaoke Revolution right after Mario Bros.

[Wry Cooter @ May 24th 2006 11:54PM]

I don't want VOIP. What I want is Mario Machinima, where the mic allows auto lip syncing, and recording of the movie (characters puppeted by controller, lipsync by volume of audio signal) They could make it into a karaoke game, Mario Idol or such.

[furtim @ May 25th 2006 12:08AM]

Considering how they've been using the DS mic, that kind of thing is almost certainly what we'll see. The VOIP, if it's actually on the Wii rather than being simply rumours on the internets, is probably a case of "Well, gosh, we've already got the pieces, if we just hook Part A to part B we're set!"

[macg @ May 25th 2006 12:13AM]

Comment #2 - Awesome idea, but an even better name would be Marioke!! :)

[js @ May 25th 2006 12:29AM]

We'll see what Kutaragi will have up his sleeve...

*cough*

[CZ @ May 25th 2006 12:36AM]

You know, there already is a mic attachment for the GameCube for that Karaoke game. Perhaps that's what they're referring to in the document?

[dnl2ba @ May 25th 2006 1:59AM]

I thought the mic news dated to E3. For example, see this 5/10/06 article:
http://palgn.com.au/article.php?title=E3+2006%3A+Speaker+and+Microphone+in+Wii+controller&id=4473

Or this 5/9/06 article:
http://www.thegamefeed.com/news-bf6f89cea28456af0be2bb206ba2c605.html

Another possibility is that since the DS can reportedly be used with the Wii the way the GBA could be used with the GC, the DS's inputs (including mic and stylus) might be usable with the Wii.

[Killian @ May 25th 2006 2:34AM]

Two weeks ago a spanish blog talk about this feature and more details about wii channel (include traduction): blogspot.n-dimension.com

[Valium89 @ May 25th 2006 2:38AM]

Last Friday I read a post about de Wii final secret. Coincidences are so big with Perrin Kaplan interview!!!!: www.n-dimension.blogspot.com. The post is called The great secret of Wii: Wii is not (single) a console!
They say the last secret is an interactive channel. Since the console is connected to the internet and TV even while it's turned off they will show mini games, animations, on real time, ALWAIS ON, NO STORAGING. Contents are in 3D format, not video. the Wii channel will interact with the game we currently have in the drive and let us know about levels and demos that we can only play at that time. It will not be like real time TV because of bandwidth.
Wiimote will have a microphone. With the speaker it will be used for a telephone service like Skype with the posibility of video. Nintendo wants every person in the home to have their own wiimote. This is because it will identify you. It will store your phonebook, your interests, etc.

[Mask of Destiny @ May 25th 2006 2:50AM]

It's pretty clear to me from the diagrams shown that the input this guy is referring to has nothing to do with a mic in the wiimotes themselves. Audio data from the wiimotes (assuming they have a microphone) would come into the system over the same datalink as the rest of the controller data not through the audio codec. You'll notice there isn't a separate audio output on the codec for the speaker in the wiimotes for the same reason.

This audio input (assuming it's being used at all) is probably for some analog input connected directly to the console. Could be for something as mundane as playing your own music during gameplay. I don't think a mic attached directly to the console is particularly practical, but you never know.

[Mike @ May 25th 2006 3:23AM]

This also shows a hardware graphics processor, I haven't heard about this before, it seems like a pretty sweet deal. Hopefully that will stop people from whining about the 1.1 GHz.

[cast42 @ May 25th 2006 3:52AM]

Think about the DS (Lite) as a WiiiMote. It has a micro, loudspeakers, a keyboard via the touchscreen, support for a browser and wifi. Connect to m.gmail.com via the browser on the upper screen and tap IM messages on the keyboard and talk with VOIP. After all I want a personal device for my personal communication !

[Your name not required @ May 25th 2006 8:50AM]

umm..wont the microphone and loudspeaker interfer with each other? Have had enough of next-gen consoles, all of them fall short to each other.

[jaime de la Torre Roura @ May 25th 2006 11:50AM]

I thought Nintendo already anounced de mic in the E3 show...

Anyways, the mic wouldn't interfear with the loudspeaker, I have a mac which has both together and don't have a problem with iChat, and although Skype does sometimes mix them, I think that with the right software everything is gonna be ok.

On the DS side, Metroid and the new Tony Hawk already have VOIP...

[rothgar @ May 25th 2006 12:44PM]

Anyone think it acts more like a headset for games instead of a phone? Would nintendo really make you wear a headset? I don't think so. now when you are playing with friends online you can just talk and you will just hear them instead of having something on your head to do that. It is good and bad (think halo 2)

[VOIP ez @ May 25th 2006 2:15PM]

I'm not sure how they would incorporate VOIP into a gaming console? Wouldn't this just be more like a service similar to Xbox Live?

[crono141 @ May 26th 2006 12:18PM]

Nobody notice down in the corner, bottom left, pink square. hanging out over there is MASS STORAGE DEVICE (ext HD) and streaming audio. Maybe Wii will play audio from MP3 on HD.

I also notice that everything seems to go into the graphics/audio chip primarily, with "main processor" kinda hanging out by itself. Since no specs on graphics have been released, I am beginning to wonder what kind of beast it is...