THQ's uDraw may be the Wii's answer to Move and Kinect

The Xbox 360 got Kinect, the PS3 got Move, and the Wii gets... the uDraw tablet? UnlikeMicrosoft and Sony'sofferings, uDraw comes from a third-party company. A struggling one.But it may be working.

The Wii may face a tough year ahead,as motion controlling is no longer exclusive to it. Game franchises that were previously Wii exclusives are now heading to Kinect and Move, and Nintendo's novelty is wearing off.

However, THQ's new gadget lets players interact with Wii games in a whole new way - by drawing. The controller comes with a stylus pen, allowing players to engage in digital painting programs, compete in rounds of Pictionary, and explore more traditional games in another non-traditional way.

It costs $70, and expensive peripherals are pretty risky, but it seems to be paying off for THQ - the publisher's stock price has jumped by more than 8% after the introduction of uDraw.

The devicehit at the right time - it's getting lumped in with the Move and Kinect hysteria, although to a smaller extent. According to employees at the Toys R Us in Times Square, theuDraw is "fairly popular," and it has risen to 7th place in Amazon's videogame category. Not bad for a third-party product, yeah?

[Source:Reuters]

Nov 24, 2010