Don't worry, this is NOT Nintendo's next controller.

[Dark Jaguar]

http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/25/1130369...oller-hoax

It looked futuristic, but also ridiculous. Nintendo has been pretty adamant about keeping physical buttons. I can't imagine they'd ditch them entirely unless they had figured out a way to get tactile feedback from a touch screen (I still think such a thing might be possible in the future, but not today). Fortunately, it's been revealed as a blatant hoax. Whatever the NX turns out to be, I'll wager it'll have physical buttons.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, I was thinking of making a thread for this, but you got to it first. :) The patent that this fake was inspired by is a decent concept, but wouldn't be a good controller, actual physical buttons are absolutely essential. I agree that I doubt Nintendo would actually release a controller with no buttons; that's why I was really hoping that this would be a fake, buttons are needed.

As for the screen-on-controller thing, though, unless it's touch-compatible how useful would it really be?

[Dark Jaguar]

I thought it obvious that it was intended to be a touch screen.

For my part, physical buttons are still needed, but if they ever invent a way to get tactile feedback from a touch screen, that'll be the day I'll happily put buttons behind me. (And no, I'm not talking haptic feedback. I'm talking specifically about being able to feel the location of virtual "screen buttons", either as some sort of neural trick fed in from electrical impulses from the screen (and yes, I've heard of such a tech being worked on), or as a moving membrane just under the screen that "bulges out" to form button shapes, and respond to being pressed in rather than just on-contact.)

[A Black Falcon]

Interesting ideas there, maybe we'll see them someday; I hadn't heard of such things, but it makes sense that people would be working on ways to have actual feedback from a touchscreen or touchable surface (such as the Steam controller and the like), it is one of their major drawbacks. But for now we definitely need buttons. You need to know what you're pressing without looking at the screen.

Also, though, I'm surprised by how many people totally fell for this... sure, there were two different fakes and one is a real 3d-printed object, but still... even considering their history, I don't think Nintendo would really make a buttonless controller. And apparently it is VERY uncomfortable to hold, too, which is unsurprising given the shape.

[A Black Falcon]

So, some are speculating that Nintendo didn't come out and say "this is not the NX controller" because the real NX controller is going to be somewhat like this, but with buttons. I guess that's possible, but we'll see...

[Dark Jaguar]

Personally, I just don't see the point in making the ENTIRE surface into a touch screen. I'm going to be holding the controller after all, so my hands are going to cover up the left and right sides of the screen with that sort of setup.