Signature Q3 2008

By Steven L. Kent | Illustration by Daniel Chen | Q3 ’08 Bluetooth Technology was released for the Nintendo Wii last year, critics complained that the game’s graphics looked positively primitive compared to games on other nextgeneration game consoles. That did not stop Nintendo from selling 2.5 million Take that, wired controllers copies of the game in less than two and proprietary technologies: months, making it the ﬁfth best-selling video game of 2007. Bluetooth wireless controllers are Perhaps critics should have spent the hottest way to play next-gen less time debating whether Mario looked long in the tooth and more console games. Wii love it. discussing how Mario had turned blue in the tooth. That’s because the game, like many for the Wii, took full advantage of the Bluetooth technology built into the motion-sensing Wiimote controller. Nintendo wasn’t the only console manufacturer to add Bluetooth wireless capability. When virtual street racers power-drift hairpin turns in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue on Sony’s PlayStation 3, they do it using Bluetooth enabled controllers; like Nintendo, Sony seems to have placed its bets on Bluetooth technology. In fact, of the three big game companies, only Microsoft, maker of the Xbox 360 game console, has opted to go with proprietary technology for its wireless game pads instead of harnessing the power of Bluetooth technology. But not even the Xbox experience can entirely turn its back on Bluetooth technology. When users smack-talk each other using headsets, they do it over a Bluetooth wireless connection, thanks to third-party manufacturers such as Datel that have incorporated the technology in their wireless headsets for Xbox 360. Wireless Revolution Unplug Your Fun @PLAY When Super Mario Galaxy The whole point of video games is to let people experience thrills not normally available to them: Players can explore haunted houses, pitch in a World Series game or ﬁght to the death on the streets of Hong Kong. Games don’t need to be realistic to be good, but they do need to draw the player out of his or her world. Simply put, it’s harder to suspend disbelief when you’re tethered to a television by your game pad’s cables. Bluetooth technology changes all of that. “I really can’t see myself playing games with a plugged-in controller again,” says Andrew Reiner, executive editor of Game Informer magazine. “Having wireless controllers lets you do whatever you want to do. You can raise your hands over your head, lounge back on the couch … whatever you want.” Reiner’s opinion counts, too: With more than 2 million subscribers, Game Informer is one of the leading magazines of its kind. 18 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org http://bluetooth.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Signature Q3 2008

Signature Q3 2008 Contents Connect: Growing Markets Inbox: Spread the Word Ask the SIG: The Fast Lane In the News Perspectives: Views From APAC Bluetooth Technology in Retrospect: Headset History Bluetooth Technology in Retrospect: Headset History Bluetooth Technology @ Play: Unplug Your Fun Bluetooth Technology Interactive: Wireless Tourism Checkout: Groovy Gadgets Bluetooth Wireless Explorer: Mind Games Bluetooth Technology 101: Ads You Like It Bluetooth Technology 501: Group Efforts Wacky Apps: What’s NXT? Get in the Game: If The Glove Fits ... Revolution: The Space Age

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.