Nintendo's New Controller

#81 Man... flying games, snow boarding games, sword fighting games, adventure games, rts games (finally)... what are these games that don't work with this? free camera games in 3rd person is all i can imagine. then you use the regular controller. this will be my next console.

#82 I personally am quite excited by this. Generally speaking, console controllers have had the same basic design since the late 80's. Granted, they got more ergonomic and have more buttons, but, really, its the same thing. This is a radical new direction for a controller. Yeah, it may suck, but none of us will be able to verify that until launch. In any case, it's represents very new possibilities.

Im surprised so many people are coming down on it.

#83 Heh, I'm not comming down on it. I am just a bit concerned about how it fits into the whole 'virtual console' functionality they were pushing at E3. I also wonder how reliable the distance sensors will be given that they seem to be IR based.

As far as 3rd party support, Nintendo has had a hard time with that since the end of the 16bit era. They didn't treat 3rd parties right back when they were number one and they are still paying for it to this day, though if what THQ recently said is true, they may have finaly wisened up and started to change their relationship with them.

#84 It makes me wonder if controller designers know what happens when a white controller gets into the grubby hands of a kid? IMO there's nothing stylish about a grimey grey controller.

Perhaps this is all a ploy to sell 'Nintendo Revolution Wet Wipes' and 'Xbox 360 Hand Sanitizer'.

#85 360 degrees of hand sanitizer? Germs don't have a chance.

#86 Well, the Rev's controllers will come in black as well, but it looks to be 'shiney PSP style black' so either way it will be smudge city.

#87 @Pat: Really? From what I've heard, the only reason most developers don't support them more is sales, and that's because most developers (like Acclaim) make crappy games. From a development standpoint, their hardware is really easy to work with.

#88

Quote:They (Nintendo) have notoriously horrible support for 3rd party developers.

I have to agree with Pat. The proof is by how many games are out there on their more recent home console systems compared to Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo makes a few great games but they can't support a whole system on their own. Maybe that's why they're trying to make smaller games, so that they can do it themselves.
-Ajari-

#89 Ajari, the choice is made soley on numbers. The PS2 is an absolute nightmare to develop for, yet it has the most games. Looking at this next generation, with Cell and tri-core processors, which one do you think will be easiest to make games for? It's not like their forcing the motion sensing onto all the developers, either.

#90 Not the system, Nintendo as a company. Especially if you are an American developer.

#91 Care to elaborate? I've not found anything to that effect, only words of praise from parties such as Factor 5 and Silicon Knights.

#92 You mean like this video of Silicone Knights explaining why they no longer want to be exclusive to Nintendo? These are hardly words of praise. Just a guy trying to be polite, professional, and keep bridges unburned. But the bottom line is that this is another developer from a long list who has left Nintendo's side.
-Ajari-

#93 That video, where he explains basically he would continue working with Nintendo but doesn't want to be hindered by exclusivity? Where he points out that SK and Nintendo had a great working relationship, but they want to move onto all next-gen consoles instead of being limited to the GameCube?

Particularly this quote:

Quote:Nintendo and Silicon Knights certainly are very close. We share a lot of the same game ideas and a lot of the same perspectives on the industry. Certainly I think quality is something we share, absolutely. Our focus on game design and making game design really, really strong I think we share. I think Nintendo is, quite frankly, unparalleled in that area, I think they're tremendous. I think Nintendo is always striving to figure out what makes a game good and what it takes to make a fantastic game. I think we share all of those things.

And again:

Quote:They are so awesome at what they do, and have done so many games, they really know the industry, and they really want to go in the direction that they want to go in, and if our directions are so far apart, we can still be friends but we're just gonna go in different directions for now, so we decided to not work exclusively together.

Hardly a disgruntled developer, is it?

#94 There's two kinds of developers. Ones that are allowed to make public statements, and ones that tell it like it is. Believe whatever you want to believe.

#95 Oh come on George u pussy, the ds isn't heavy, maybe u should work out a bit. ;p
Lol, i'm just messing with u, it IS heavy for it's size and the fact it's supposed to be "portable". It's rectangular shape is somewhat annoying too when ur trying to use the touch screen AND buttons while holding it. Don't get me wrong though, i love my ds.
That aside, George also has a good point about how the REAL innovation comes from the games and not some gimmicky controller, though i dont quite think it's "gimmicky" I'm just hoping that there'll be more options for controls like the gamecube.... thing. Cuz even if Nintendo's new method for controllers DOES prove to be the next big thing(as they're undoubtedly praying), it's going to take a while for people to get used to. Although it'll definately be easier for newbs to start using, for all the guys that have been gaming for years and years, it'll probably be kinda akward to get used to, since we're all used to navigating menus, moving, shooting, fighting and generally interacting with the game in a certain way. One perfect demonstration of this is when I let my freind try Kirby canvas curse, he started trying to use the d-pad and buttons to navigate the menu, he was clearly frustrated for the moment or so it took to realize he was supposed to physically select wether he wanted to do training or not etc... About the SK thing... well they definately didn't feel as great about they're connection to nintendo as that video seemed to show, they're probably worried about wether or not their company will survive if nintendo falls in the next console war. That's y they're developing for all consoles now, they don't want to get screwed if nintendo does. They're obviously not entirely confident about nintendo's survival, if they were, they wouldn't have become 3rd party.

#96 Xbox 360 is just a computer in a pretty case.... why bother when your computers are already online. Revolution will have horrible sales in the US until they release a normal gamer controller. PS3 will hold the US market.

#97 Interesting and kind of sassy. From the latest Penny Arcade article:

"There were initial cries and lamentations regarding the announcement, but I think we need to just accept the fact that [Nintendo is] no longer playing the linear game their competitors are. The control looks like a remote, yes, but we've talked about this before - playing games with pens, drums, and now remote controls draws the artifacts of ordinary life into the increasingly byzantine realm of electronic entertainment. Excuse me, I forgot. It's not innovation unless it involves another texture pass."

#98 Because I like to keep my day job, I have to limit my comments to this:

Don't knock it until you've tried it. It's pretty damn swanky. Will it work for everything? No, but neither do the other console controllers. It's not hard to use, it's not heavy, you won't break a sweat. And from a technical standpoint, the input data you get to work with is just wowie-zowie.

As far as Nintendo being easy to work with or not - who is? I have enough collegues in enough places that I can trot out a horror story for any of the big 3, or an example of how great they are to work with. We all seem to conveniently forget that *no one said this business was easy*. There are good times, rough times, and everything in between.

For myself, what I'm *really* looking forward to is the next release of T2D. Especially one down the road with network support. Now *that's* exciting!

- Don

#99

Quote:Xbox 360 is just a computer in a pretty case....

IMO xBox 360 case is anything but pretty :D

the revolution is the only system with a pretty case... probably cuz they went all out Mac design

#100 After a good amount of yelling by Jeff and Alex I am sold on the new controler. Now the only bad thing about it is who will do the input device code for it should we get TSE onto it...cuz I have a good idea on who that would be. :(