Before Nintendo picked up the patent for gyroscopic motion control, the patent holder, Tom Quinn, presented it to Microsoft and Sony and the tech was rejected by both, Quinn reveals in an interview with CVG.
Quinn was an inventor who had designed the gyoscopic moton control that would later be used in Nintendo's incredibly successful Wii console. He tells CVG that in 2001 he attended meetings with Microsoft and Sony, both of which "went terribly."
"The attitude I got from them was that if they wanted to do motion control, they would do it themselves and make a better job of it. I mean, they were just rude," Quinn said of his pitch to Microsoft.
"In fact, the meeting went so terribly that one of the executives came over to me afterwards and apologized on behalf of others. I remember him saying how this was not how Microsoft should be engaging with potential partners."
His pitch to Sony was no better, with Quinn saying that Sony's Ken Kutaragi reportedly kept his eyes closed during the entire presentation.
As both companies scoffed at Quinn's motion control tech, Nintendo – fresh off the back of the Game Cube's financial failure – was willing to listen. And the rest, as they say, is history.
CVG's full feature about the birth of the Wii's motion control tech can be read here.