Company says “no great risk” for light interference.
No one has their hands on a Wii yet, so it’s been difficult to understand the potential pitfalls of Nintendo’s sensor bar and Wiimote in Nintendo’s controlled environments.
Earlier this week, bloggers picked up on comments from a Nintendo.com message board user who visited a Nintendo World event in New York City a few weeks ago, and said several units had to be shut down because the streaming light made the games unplayable. Here’s their description of the incident:
We know that the sensor bar goes all wonky when halogen lights are in the room. But did you know that natural sunlight messes it up too? That’s right, if you have the sun beaming right onto the sensor bar, it doesn’t work. For about an hour or so, the sun shone right into the store, the two MP3:C kiosks had to have curtains above them, and the Wii Sports Tennis and Shooting Game kiosks were unplayable since they were “shrouded” in sunlight. Later the sun went behind a building, and everything was in working order again. So when you get your Wii, don’t play it in the sunlight. Or keep the sensor bar and TV away from the windows.
This isn’t too surprising, so 1UP thought to ask Nintendo to address the situation, a question they mostly dodged. “Our testing thus far shows no great risk of light interference when playing a game that relies on the pointer and sensor bar,” said a company representative.
We won’t know for sure until Wii units start rolling into press rooms, but you can be sure 1UP will be putting the hardware through its paces, so stay tuned.
Source: gametab.com