Asus Unveils Eee Stick Game Controller

Asus has unveiled the Eee Stick, a "first-of-its-kind" wireless game controller that translates users' hand motions to onscreen movements.

Asus seems to be milking its Eee brand for all its worth, announcing plans for a plethora of notebook and even desktop units…and now gaming hardware. Asus has announced the Eee Stick, a “first-of-its-kind” wireless gaming controller for PCs that translates users hand motions into onscreen movements. The PnP accessory will ship with selected models of the Eee PC and Eee Box along with an unspecified collection of games developed exclusively for the Eee Stick. We imagine those games will try to tap into the burgeoning casual gaming market, rather than being super-involving, story-driven first-person shooters.

The Eee Stick system features one “stick” for each hand—one with a joystick and another with a 4-key gamepad—each of which runs off two AA batteries and communicates back to the computer with a 2.4GHz RF dongle that hooks into a USB part. Motion sensors in the Eee Stick offer three types of operation—3D motion, tilt, and pointing, and Asus promises the Eee Stick will offer a full range of motion, even if they aren’t pointing directly at the dongle. The system has a range of about 10 meters.

The success of the Eee Stick will probably depend on how well it can interface with existing PC games…otherwise, it runs a serious risk of being an accessory that only works with a handful of games that explicitly support the Eee Stick. No doubt Asus is hoping to bring some of the Nintendo Wii’s magic to the Eee line—but as Nintendo has repeatedly proven, success in the gaming field depends not to much on the hardware as on the appeal of available game titles.