A group of industry insiders gather around an assortment of the soon-to-be-released Nintendo peripherals on display beneath a block of crystal clear glass at World Hobby Fair in Tokyo. They snap pictures of the devices, then consult their cameras with looks of bewilderment. They expected to see the new black Wiimote, as well as the shiny black Wii console here, but not this.

This is something peculiar. Something they’ve never seen before. Something that only the brilliantly mad minds at Nintendo could have come up with.

It’s the brand new coat hanger Wiimote add-on.

The placard placed in front of the coat hanger peripheral says nothing more than “Coat Hanger Add-On, Release Date TBD.” The object itself is attached to the standard Wiimote, plugged in at the bottom of the device where the nun chuck is typically inserted. Hanging from it is a pair of snazzy brown slacks.

“No, it looks like a coat hanger,” one man says, an iPhone pressed to his ear. “Yeah. For hanging coats and shirts and stuff. I don’t know either.”

Though news of the device’s development caused the company to take a steep dive in the stock market, representatives from Nintendo are keeping mum on practical uses for the peripheral. So far they’ve only dropped minor hints at what future games it could used for. The mind reels.

“We’re not ready to discuss software, yet,” one representative told Hardcasual over the phone. “But we wouldn’t consider releasing it if we didn’t believe that it will have many different applications. All I’m going to say is that gamers should plan on having tons of clean laundry handy in June 2010.”

Some in the industry believe that the coat hanger Wiimote is Nintendo’s answer to the announcement of Microsoft’s Project Natal, which promises to revolutionize the gaming industry.

“It only makes sense that if Microsoft is going to corner the living room market, then Nintendo is gonna go after the closet market,” said Tom Travis, a blogger for EatShootKill.net. “Which I think is pretty smart. Not all gamers have big living rooms for jumping around, but most of them have a closet that they keep their clothes in.”

Representatives from Nintendo refused to answer questions about whether or not the coat hanger Wiimote add-on will be backwards compatible with games that have already been released, such as Rayman Raving Rabbids Back Alley Abortion and Mommy Dearest 64.