And not a very welcome one. Apparently, third party developers were equally surprised by the unveiling of Wii MotionPlus as we were. It would seem that Nintendo kept the new Wii technology under wraps and didn’t share details of it with Wii software developers.

Game Informer asked a number of third party developers just what they knew about Wii MotionPlus and it turns out the answer was…not much.

Perhaps the biggest announcement by Nintendo at E3 2008, was the introduction of Wii MotionPlus. The little dongle you attach to the end of your Wiimote allows for increased sensitivity and better calculation and replication of your movements when playing games. The contraption will come bundled with Wii Sports Resort, which was used to showcase the peripheral at E3.

What’s rather curious however, is the reaction of developers to this new device. Apparently, Nintendo wasn’t entirely open with them.

We asked several third-party Wii developers about the Wii MotionPlus, and the general feeling was one of annoyance and betrayal. None of them said they had any advance notice about the peripheral, and we were told that they were as surprised as everyone else when Nintendo revealed its existence on stage. That lack of prior notice means that, aside from Nintendo’s own roster of games, users won’t likely see any support for the device for at least six to nine months. The developers we spoke to said they hadn’t received any information from Nintendo about how to implement Wii MotionPlus into their upcoming projects, and they also expressed doubt that they would be able to incorporate it into games that are currently deep in development.

You can see why developers are annoyed. Nintendo will be churning out titles that make use of this excellent new technology, whereas games from third-party companies in development right now will come out at the same time and not be able to make use of Wii MotionPlus, it certainly is a frustrating situation.

But what does it mean for us, the gamers? Well, we’ll have to wait a while for lots of games to take advantage of the new software, at least six to nine months and even then it could prove to be sporadic support. An even greater challenge for Nintendo will be informing technophobics that you’ll need to pick up Wii MotionPlus attachments in order to play some games. It could all get rather confusing.

In other Wii MotionPlus related news, according to Kombo are reporting that the new attachment for the Wiimote will pull down the battery life to as little as eight hours. Speaking to a Nintendo representative at E3 2008, the website was informed that the device would have a significant effect on the battery life of the Wiimote. We must stress that Nintendo are yet to officially confirm this, so for now file it under rumour. If it does turn out to be true, it might be worth saving up some batteries…