Is your Wii slot light flashing ?

Nintendo has announced that they are issuing free Wii Remote jackets to existing Wii owners, and will bundle them with new products sold.
By the looks of the new jacket, it appears people have been whacking their Wiimotes at the end where the IR “eye”is, presumably causing damage. I know I’ve whacked it against various bits of furniture in that region before.

Here’s the official info found at Nintendo Australia:

Information for “Wii Remote Jacket”

Australia, Melbourne, October 2, 2007 - Nintendo is committed to ensuring an innovative and unique game play experience on the Wii. To help players adapt to this new style of play and provide additional protection we have created a protective cover for the Wii Remote - the “Wii Remote Jacket”.

We recommend to fit the “Wii Remote Jacket” to the Wii Remote in order to enhance your grip and provide additional protection if the Wii Remote is accidentally thrown or dropped during game play.

The “Wii Remote Jacket” is being offered free of charge to all Wii owners.

To request a “Wii Remote Jacket”, contact NINTENDO CUSTOMER SERVICE on (03) 9730 9822 Monday to Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm (EST)

Please have your Wii console serial number ready when you phone.

So far, only the Opera browser and the Everybody Votes channel has been released through the “Wii Software” section of the Wii Shop, but there have been lots of murmurs about independent games eventually being released there too.

Now, “Medaverse” has announced they have been licensed as an official developer for the Nintendo Wii and are developing a new game called “Gravitronix“, slated for release in early 2008. They are being pretty cagey about exactly how the game plays (see the wholly uninformative Gravitronix WiiWare FAQ), but it sounds like it’s going to be 4 player (maybe 8), very competitive and maybe online.

From the press release:

“We’re looking forward to introducing our own unique style to the gaming world with Gravitronix,” Lowther said, “We hope to offer a fun and accessible gaming experience which is easy to learn but a challenge to master, including a robust multiplayer mode with enough hidden depth to keep even the most hardcore of players struggling to outdo each other. The way we see it, if you don’t swear when you lose to another player, we haven’t done our job.”

Sounds good .. lets hope they can pull it off !!