Nintendo’s WiiSpeak microphone detailed

[The Feedster]

Following Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference this week, the company has been showing samples of the two new pieces of Wii hardware announced - the Wii RemotePlus add-on and the WiiSpeak community microphone/speaker - on it's E3 booth.

TechRadar told you all about the Wii RemotePlus motion control technology from Nintendo's partner InvenSense earlier this week.

The other new piece of Wii hardware, the WiiSpeak community microphone/speaker pictured here, is still to be properly demoed to the press at E3.

Animal Crossing City Folk

The first title to make use of the hardware will be the cutesy Animal Crossing: City Folk later this year. What we do know to date is that the hardware will ship separately to the Animal Crossing Wii game (releasing later in 2008) and cost US gamers $30 (£15).

Players will then be able to chat with each other in-game, without having to use individual headset mics (a la Xbox Live).

It's not clear yet exactly how the WiiSpeak microphone will clearly pick up the voices of everybody in the room, without also picking up extraneous noise from the TV and elsewhere, although TechRadar is sure that Nintendo's boffins have researched and tested the device thoroughly to ensure that it works satisfactorily.

Stay tuned for more on Wii MotionPlus and WiiSpeak as we get it.

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