EGM interview with Reggie at 1up.com

[A Black Falcon]

Maybe some kind of configurable controller? Pop on different face plates with different stick/button configurations. They could have an NES faceplate, a SNES faceplate etc.

This works for just changing the display, but you really couldn't do that with completely different button layouts... that'd essentially be having different controllers, and if so, why not do it that way? (and since they essentially would be seperate controllers, that wouldn't exactly be a money-saving measure either (for Nintendo or for the consumers)...)

Now on the other hand... you made me think of one thing. A controller with a lot of holes. Rather than entire plates, you could actually just unplug control stick parts and move them to different connector holes. The sticks and buttons would all have identifying chips the base could "read" to determine what's what, so they would all function the right way. That could allow for any number of layouts I suppose, though really there's only a few workable ones...

A decent idea, but remember, Nintendo wants simplicity. That's very complex. I mean, if some people had trouble figuring out where to put their hands on the N64 controller... that just wouldn't work for a primary system controller (I say that because it could work fine for some specialized thing, like the Saitek Cyborg joystick which has customizable joystick height, thumbrest, some with the button locations, etc.

So far I see two options. Nintendo could be using some sort of motion sensing gyro, or they could have some sort of touch sensitive surface. Or both... Those are all I can think of as far as innovation, but hey maybe Nintendo will surprise us. Maybe it'll have a light gun built in .

How would gyros help with old-game support, though? Oh, it could work great for new ones, but for old ones? I just don't see it.

Touchscreens, though, are an answer... except hasn't Nintendo said that they won't be doing touchscreens on this controller? Unless that was misdirection... I think it's a possibility, but don't think that it's the "revolution" in question. Thats the DS'es thing, after all.