Microsoft developing their own Wii-remote and Mii system?

Microsoft will be putting out their own version of the Wii-remote by the end of the year, as well as developing their own version of Nintendos much-loved Miis, according to an unnamed developer who has been briefed on the project. Both projects are under development at former Nintendo second-party developer Rare says MTV News, which broke the story via its website earlier today. According to MTVs source the controller is designed to do all the Wii remote does, and more and the Mii substitutes will be more detailed than what Nintendo allows. More inside Its reported that the project has been in active development at Microsoft since last August, but Rare has had trouble hitting its deadlines.

A sketch of the controller can be viewed over at MTV News and features a LED pointer, speaker, microphone, analogue control stick, four face buttons and a trigger. It is not clear whether there will be an expansion point for a nunchuck like device, but there are plans for it to interact with the Xbox Live Vision Camera.

The source was also critical of the project, describing it as a colossal clusterf*ck, with Rare unable to hit development milestones and idea-generation not going smoothly at all.

[Microsoft] marketing just want it so they can match the Wii point for point. The biggest parts of their marketing materials outline how easy it would be for third parties to port their Wii games to the 360,”” the source told MTV News.

According to the information supplied, development kits have been distributed to certain developers, so if this is true, expect to hear something at this years E3.