Madcatz to announce Wii remote - rumor

Chicago (IL) - Some interesting photos about a third-party Wii remote control have appeared online, reportedly first published in a thread on the forums of gaming site Gametrailers.com. According to forum posts, video game accessory giant Madcatz could be designing a third-party Wii remote, the first of its kind since the Nintendo console debuted last November.

The online post is from a user, b1wfdz33, who claims to be a Wal-Mart employee. The user posted photos he took with a cell phone camera from a new shipment of Wii accessories. One of the boxes showed a picture a Wii remote controller and nunchuck attachment that look different from the official Nintendo products, with a Madcatz logo on the bottom of the controller.

With the excessively high demand that continues for the Wii, essential accessories like the controller, the nunchuck, and Wii Points cards are still nearly impossible to find at retail locations. With the radically different controller for Nintendo’s new console, it was questionable if and how soon a third-party manufacturer would be able to release its own line of comparable accessories.

A representative for Madcatz was not immediately available to comment on the company’s plans to release a Wii remote. Currently on its website, the only advertised Wii accessories are controller skins, component cables, and a console stand.

In the previous generation, there were numerous third-party companies competing in the market of off-brand controllers and peripherals. However, as technologies become more proprietary and controllers gain more functionality, most of these companies have been driven away for the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360, leaving only the top names to have a position in the early stages of the new generation.