Nintendo Revolution controller

Nintendo said that their Revolution controller would be different. To me, that meant maybe a weird shape with the tilt sensor from WarioWare: Twisted and maybe the touchscreen from the DS.

How wrong I was...



This is what real progress is about.

It's well-known that the cost of entry into video game industry is spiraling out of control. With the huge budgets required to develop current-gen titles, there are few willing to take a chance on something new. So year after year, we get the same sports and driving games from the same old publishers. On the one hand, they can't be blamed for being nervous - it can take millions of sales to hit a profit on games these days.

Microsoft and Sony are making things even worse with the Xbox 360 and PS3. Developers could see production costs increase by a factor of 10 for the same styles of games we have today. It will also be more difficult to port titles between 360 and PS3, making production costs even higher.

Nintendo has the right idea. Instead of being a third "me-too" next-gen system, the Revolution will offer a new kind of gaming experience that will cost less to develop for than the competition. With the extraordinary shape of the controller and 3-dimensional movement tracking, players will find themselves immersed in totally new gameplay experiences.

I am a little bit afraid of "Power Glove-fatigue", but apparently the sensitivity is high so that large sweeping motions won't be necessary for every single action.

There will also be downloadable NES games which one can play by simply rotating the controller 90 degrees. I'm definitely excited about the next generation of consoles now.