Microsoft is at it again. Instead of developing something new, it’s out to copy something from the industry leader, Nintendo Wii.

Nintendo’s Wii is predicted to outsell Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Much of the Wii’s success comes from it innovative Wiimote. Microsoft has something in its drawing board that is similar with the Wiimote and they’re pushing for its production this year.

The Xbox 360 remote looks like a Wiimote plus a couple of feature such as microphone, speaker, four LEDs, A/B/X/Y buttons, an analogue stick and underside trigger. Somehow I get the feeling that Microsoft wants to ride with the Wii’s success and wants Wii games to be directly ported to the 360.

Here’s the sketch of Microsoft’s Remote by the supposed source of the news who leaked it to MTV news.

I hope that they configure the Xbox 360 remote so that it could be used in Halo. That would be a totally new experience even for veteran Halo players.

As suggested by the leak, Microsoft is targeting to launch the 360 remote this year but this could only materialize if the internal squabbles among the developers would cease. There seems to be a discussion on which direction the development would go.

I hope the issues would be settled soon. With this development, even though I’m a loyal Nintendo gamer, I might consider trying out the copycat.