REVOLUTION CONTROLLER HAS BEEN REVEALED!!!!!

[Smoke]

Revolution controller: insider interview
Nintendo's head of European marketing sheds more light on next-gen device
16.09.2005 - 15:25

After months of speculation, Nintendo finally revealed their top secret Revolution controller at the Tokyo Game Show today. With its TV remote design and motion-sensing functionality, Nintendo looks set to continue apace on its crusade for making gaming accessible to, well, absolutely anyone and everyone.

We managed to speak to Nintendo's Jim Merrick - the man responsible for the company's European marketing - to find out more about the controller, how it will work and where it fits into Nintendo's master plan...

It would have been nice to actually see some of the games that the controller will be compatible with featured in the video presentation.

We went to great lengths not to show games in the trailer! It's more about keeping the focus on the interface. If you show the game then everybody gets distracted by the graphics and what we really wanted to focus on was the human interface with the game and the machine.

Is the motion-sensing aspect of the controller going to be compatible with all Revolution games?

Like the Nintendo DS, which offers many different input devices such as voice and touch-screen, not every game is going to use every capability of the controller. The Revolution controller can sense not only where you're pointing, but where your relative position front to back, how close you are, whether you're tilting or rolling - it senses all of these things. Those may or may not be appropriate for different games, so there's no absolute requirement that all games should use it.

The current controller design does work reasonably well for certain types of game - we're not going to throw it all out, but we wanted a fresh start and a fresh way of thinking to bring new consumers to the console.

Can you explain a bit about the classic controller? It's effectively a shell like a standard controller with a hole in it and you slot in the freehand controller. So for games that are well suited for a traditional style controller, well, there you are.

The classic controller is important for us for our virtual console games. When I'm playing my favourite game - the N64 version of Goldeneye - it's built for that kind of controller.

Shigeru Miyamoto recently stated that Nintendo was still adding and removing various functions of the controller - can you explain the transitions the device has undergone during development? We spent a lot of time puzzling over what types of human interface we can do that will be really beneficial to both new gamers and existing gamers, and we've considered all kinds of ideas.

You've seen all the different kinds of technologies that are out there and we needed something that was accurate, reliable and relevant for our audience.

Mr Miyamoto is correct that the design is not 100% final. It is basically complete, but we reserve the right to move buttons and round corners. However, we have not shared everything that there is to know about Revolution or its controller.

So there are still some secrets to be revealed?

C'mon, we're Nintendo - we like to hold things until the very end!

Full interview: gamesradar.com

HOLOGRAMS!