Wii News : Wii Microphone - From a Nintendo employee : Taken from Wii loaded

Recently I wrote a letter to Nintendo of America regarding a topic on this site: "An Inside Look at the Wii's Magic Wand An Audio Translator".

I didn't really expect anything other than the normal customer services spiel about not giving out any details of future plans, or the even more infamous 'We cannot comment at this time'. But, when I got my reply I was surprised by the answer!

Naturally, I came straight to WiiLoaded to post my findings Smile

Here's the email I sent and the reply I recieved.

In the E-Mail I Wrote:

Hi,

This is a question about the Wii Remote.

On this link: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/s.../index.htm

it says that one of the components in the Wii Remote is an:

Audio Translator, which Converts analog data such as human speech into a digital data stream

Is this true? If it is, does this mean there is a microphone-like device in the Remote?

They also say about it that:

This feature is unused now but will probably be employed in future games

I also wish to know if this is true. Thank you.

Aaron Hastings, Ireland

The Nintendo Customer Representitive Wrote:

Hello,

While the chip is there, there is no inherent microphone function in the Wii Remote. Even the article you link to says it's not used yet. However, you never know what the future holds for new accessories that would attach much like the nunchuk! We've created a microphone accessory for the Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, and built one into the Nintendo DS/DS Lite, so it goes to reason we might think ahead in case we ever want to build one for the Wii! Keep an eye on http://www.nintendo.com for official information.

Nintendo of America Inc.

R.M. Rickets

Oh my god! This guy is practically telling us that there will be a "Wii Mic" peripheral. I know that, of course, he is trying to say it as safely as he can, but in my honest opinion this guy is convinced about a future add on.

so it goes to reason we might think ahead in case we ever want to build one for the Wii!

It goes to reason this is going to make a lot of people happy. At least we know now about the possibility of a Mic/Headset attachment. He says that:

While the chip is there, there is no inherent microphone function in the Wii Remote.

Basically he is saying that a voice recognition chip is there, there is no input device for it (a microphone)

Oooh I'm all jittery!