Wii MotionPlus Coming June 8th

July had been the expected arrival time for Wii MotionPlus before now which was somewhat problematic considering the June releases of Tiger Woods 10 and Grand Slam Tennis. Nintendo has officially announced today that the controller add-on will be available for purchase on June 8th. The price will be $19.99 or it can be purchased for $49.99 when bundled with Wii Sports Resort on July 26th.

This means that M+ will be available for the launches of Tiger and Grand Slam on June 16th. These two games take full advantage and it enhances them immensely. So much so that I believe it may turn them into the preferred option for the hardcore players when put up against their 360/PS3 counterparts.

The only obstacle is the price which is higher than most had been anticipating. A family with four wiimotes will have to spend $80 to upgrade them or $110 if picking up Wii Sports Resort. The total price of a single fully equiped wiimote is now $80 (controller, nunchuck, M+) which is twice as much as a controller for the PS3 and 360. This isn’t going to prevent those people who only need one or maybe two of them from picking them up. But for the money conscious family, a big portion of the Wii’s consumer base, it may be asking too much for them to invest such a signficiant amount on a controller upgrade.