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[PantherLotus]

Follow up:

I'm assuming that most people are thinking of a tablet when they hear "6 inches," but knowing Nintendo, knowing their work with the DS, I'm betting nobody is thinking of a foldable screen.

Why not a wiimote that folds open (lenthwise) to reveal a 6" x 2.5ish" screen?

Wiimote closed:
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|[+]-----------o-o-------o-o-|
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Wiimote Open:
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|------------------------------|
|------------------------------| <--hinge
|-o-------------------------o-|
==================

 

[AceBandage]

So. Nothing new today?

 

[StevieP]

Follow up:

I'm assuming that most people are thinking of a tablet when they hear "6 inches," but knowing Nintendo, knowing their work with the DS, I'm betting nobody is thinking of a foldable screen.

Why not a wiimote that folds open (lenthwise) to reveal a 6" x 2.5" screen?

Wiimote closed:
==================
|[+]-----------o-o-------o-o-|
==================

Wiimote Open:
==================
|------------------------------|
|------------------------------| <--hinge
|-o-------------------------o-|
==================

At $99 a pop?

So. Nothing new today?

IGN, last night, "confirmed" with "several sources" (apparently) that it looks like a controller with a small ipad in it.

 

[PantherLotus]

At $99 a pop?

Definitely.

 

[AniHawk]

Ani and Amir0x are obviously right if we're going off of knowns (that nintendo is both smart, practical, wants a low barrier to entry, and desires a low-ish initial price).

I'm getting the mockup bug, though. Any rumors regarding the controller you guys think are most credible?

i think the controller resembling something more traditional is something to expect. it was in one of the rumors, but ign kinda backed it up. six inches is usually a diagonal measure, so other mockups of these giant tablets don't ring true to me. at its widest, it would be 5.2 inches (and 2.9 inches high for a 16:9 aspect ratio). at its thinnest, it would be 3.9 inches (for a 4:3 aspect ratio shown vertically, or 4.8 inches wide normally).

just from a design standpoint, i can't see nintendo placing the controls up to the side, near the top of the screen, unless the entire screen took up the middle of the controller, like a psp or original gba, but that's just my guess.

not sure how credible the motion control stuff is. it's something only edge reported, and would start to make this thing look really wonky.

 

[Threi]

I think an exposed screen is a bit too fragile for nintendo's liking....if i had to guess it would be like a cheap slider phone i guess (maybe with the buttons on the front and the screen on the "inside", reversed from what is the norm.)

 

[apana]

I have a friend who works for Gametrailers and trust me, they noticed. The only thing is their upper management seems to be convinced that the main leaks are completely fake.

Yep I knew it, leaks are fake. Wii 2 is the only thing that is real but the controller rumors are not.

 

[Lonewolf_92]

That much space between face buttons would be uncomfortable/unintuitive. A slide pad/analog stick between them would be intrusive. A D-pad should be at the same level as the face buttons and a second slider/analog at the same level as the other.

As I said when I first posted it, I'm not great with Paint. The buttons I envision would be more like the "kidney shaped" X and Y buttons on the GCN controller and take up more of the surface area (the circle ones on that mockup are more to represent where the buttons would be generally). I totally disagree with you about the slide pads being intrusive (they would be if they were sticks though), since your thumb would naturally rest on it and it could be made flush with the height of the buttons, it would be much less intrusive that the current space between face buttons and analog stick on current controller models and require much less response time to press. In fact, that very design is not that far from one common in TV controllers directional and selection buttons, I simply replaced the selection button with a slide pad.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

I may have missed it mentioned in this eeeeennnnnoooorrrmous thread, but is it at all possible that the "controller with an iPad slapped in the middle of it" is describing a relatively early devkit controller. It would sport all the functionality of the finished pad, but not in the final form and elements like the screen could be subject to change (i.e., resolution could remain the same, but physical size could differ).

Think the mental DS dev kit, for example...

 

[LOCK]

I think people have to take into account comfortableness. Really the only controller that Nintendo made that was not comfortable was the N64 one. But that was experimentation so that can be excused, which they redeemed with the awesome Wavebird. Even the WiiMote fits good in most peoples hands.

As for my thoughts on the technology, I think Nintendo will get as much bang for their bucks and stay profitable. In other words a huge technological leap from the current Wii.

I'm more concerned about how they will operate with third parties and if they can gain any exclusives or pay for them. Nintendo will do fine first party wise, and many people will buy the console for their first party offerings including me, but to expand their audience again they need third parties to care for their system.

 

[1-D_FTW]

IGN, last night, "confirmed" with "several sources" (apparently) that it looks like a controller with a small ipad in it.

So more like Graphic Horse's older version.

I say they take it back to the drawing board and steal his latest.

 

[PantherLotus]

I may have missed it mentioned in this eeeeennnnnoooorrrmous thread, but is it at all possible that the "controller with an iPad slapped in the middle of it" is describing a relatively early devkit controller. It would sport all the functionality of the finished pad, but not in the final form and elements like the screen could be subject to change (i.e., resolution could remain the same, but physical size could differ).

Think the mental DS dev kit, for example...

Almost certainly. But the functionality has to be there, meaning the kits are probably somewhat representative.

 

[antonz]

I may have missed it mentioned in this eeeeennnnnoooorrrmous thread, but is it at all possible that the "controller with an iPad slapped in the middle of it" is describing a relatively early devkit controller. It would sport all the functionality of the finished pad, but not in the final form and elements like the screen could be subject to change (i.e., resolution could remain the same, but physical size could differ).

Think the mental DS dev kit, for example...

It is certainly possible. Right now Devkits could be in various shapes and sizes.
As they said though Alpha level devkits can be all sorts of crazy hodgepodge of tech but the general idea of the system would be present

 

[wsippel]

I have a friend who works for Gametrailers and trust me, they noticed. The only thing is their upper management seems to be convinced that the main leaks are completely fake.

I trust you, but it still strikes me as odd. I don't know much about Game Informer and I don't think much of IGN, but I believe IGN is still the biggest gaming news site out there. And if someone like Fran, an outgoing guy who's in this industry for more than a decade, says he had information first hand for months, it probably makes sense to believe him. A lot of people laughed at IGN Nintendo back in the day, but they always came through. They broke Tales of Symphonia for Wii, the famous "dark game" was true (Winter by nSpace), even Halo DS was true. They tend to overhype stuff, but I don't remember them making shit up - and even then, the disappointment was mostly due to the fanboys massively overhyping what IGN said, instead of taking things at face value. So why exactly does the upper management at Gametrailers think they know better?

 

[Graphics Horse]

Personally, if I was Nintendo, it would be enhanced motion controls. Build on something you've already established.

There's a hard limit on how much you can improve them, conceptually. Move has the spatial positioning thing down, and you can bet WaggleShock2 would have aiming as accurate as needed. Once you're accurately reporting 3 axes of position and 3 rotation, there's nothing you can really enhance, apart from signal quality. so I think Nintendo could only really add Move positioning on each half. They could make some great games with it, but it's not an amazing selling point to me. There's the Eyetoy or Kinect, of course, if you want them to go down that road.

I may have missed it mentioned in this eeeeennnnnoooorrrmous thread, but is it at all possible that the "controller with an iPad slapped in the middle of it" is describing a relatively early devkit controller. It would sport all the functionality of the finished pad, but not in the final form and elements like the screen could be subject to change (i.e., resolution could remain the same, but physical size could differ).

Think the mental DS dev kit, for example...

Yeah, I brought that up, I don't blame you for missing it

 

[AniHawk]

I may have missed it mentioned in this eeeeennnnnoooorrrmous thread, but is it at all possible that the "controller with an iPad slapped in the middle of it" is describing a relatively early devkit controller. It would sport all the functionality of the finished pad, but not in the final form and elements like the screen could be subject to change (i.e., resolution could remain the same, but physical size could differ).

Think the mental DS dev kit, for example...

yeah, i definitely think that's part of it. who knows why they'd have six inch touch screens just laying around, but it sounded pretty cobbled-together.

 

[apana]

If it is indeed a pad, you can read the news when taking a gaming break.

 

[Krowley]

I may have missed it mentioned in this eeeeennnnnoooorrrmous thread, but is it at all possible that the "controller with an iPad slapped in the middle of it" is describing a relatively early devkit controller. It would sport all the functionality of the finished pad, but not in the final form and elements like the screen could be subject to change (i.e., resolution could remain the same, but physical size could differ).

Think the mental DS dev kit, for example...

Yeah, we speculated about that a few pages back. It seems possible to me, but it's hard to know for sure

 

[[Nintex]]

I trust you, but it still strikes me as odd. I don't know much about Game Informer and I don't think much off IGN, but I believe IGN is still the biggest gaming news site out there. And if someone like Fran, an outgoing guy who's in this industry for more than a decade, says he had information first hand for months, it probably makes sense to believe him. A lot of people laughed at IGN Nintendo back in the day, but they always came through. They broke Tales of Symphonia for Wii, the famous "dark game" was true (Winter by nSpace), even Halo DS was true. They tend to overhype stuff, but I don't remember them making shit up - and even then, the disappointment was mostly due to the fanboys overhyping what they said, instead of taking things at face value. So why exactly does the upper management at Gametrailers think they know better?

The upper management of Gametrailers is Shane Satterfield(?) pretty much anything he says makes no sense.

 

[Doorman]

I think an exposed screen is a bit too fragile for nintendo's liking....if i had to guess it would be like a cheap slider phone i guess (maybe with the buttons on the front and the screen on the "inside", reversed from what is the norm.)

An alternative to this that would protect a screen would be building it "into" the controller and using clear plastic on that part of the controller to protect it. Of course, that would make it impossible for it to be a touch screen, so...gah why am I still speculating about the contoller, this talk goes nowhere fast.

"Controller with iPad in the middle" isn't really the sort of description that gets my heart all aflutter, so if that does turn out to be true I have to assume that there's still some special feature of this system that takes this thing to the next level.

 

[BY2K]

IGN mentioned in their podcast the controller. They compared it to an iPad stuck in a Dreamcast controller.

I like that. I like that a lot.

 

[civilstrife]

Toucscreen buttons are fine by me, it's touchscreen analog control that sucks.

 

[swerve]

IGN mentioned in their podcast the controller. They compared it to an iPad stuck in a Dreamcast controller.

But have they seen/held it? And was it final?

Dev friend: 'there's a screen in the controller'
IGN: 'what about the buttons?'
Dev friend: 'oh, it has everything the GameCube had'
IGN: 'that must look like a gc pad with an ipad in the middle'
Dev friend: 'I can't really comment on the way it looks, dude.'

IGN: 'that must look like a gc pad with an ipad in the middle'

The way rumors come out in the games industry is from cagey developers who want to leak something through excitement, but want to obfuscate that leak due to NDAs, and journalists filling in the blanks using current-tech ideas, previous games, and their own dreams.

 

[AniHawk]

An alternative to this that would protect a screen would be building it "into" the controller and using clear plastic on that part of the controller to protect it. Of course, that would make it impossible for it to be a touch screen, so...gah why am I still speculating about the contoller, this talk goes nowhere fast.

maybe there's a sliding door that protects it while you're not playing with it, like an airplane window.

 

[Lonewolf_92]

yeah, i definitely think that's part of it. who knows why they'd have six inch touch screens just laying around, but it sounded pretty cobbled-together.

Reminds me of the GBA one that was posted earlier in the thread that was basically a board with a screen and SNES controller wired into it.

I personally have my doubts that the screen would actually be mounted into the controller proper. I see it as being more likely that the controls would be on nunchuck-like accessories that connect to the screen (which would sit in your lap or be worn somehow).

 

[apana]

Toucscreen buttons are fine by me, it's touchscreen analog control that sucks.

Touch screen buttons should be okay if it is some kind of haptic feedback. Otherwise they can be really frustrating. I have an iPad and the virtual d-pad gets annoying.

 

[1-D_FTW]

Toucscreen buttons are fine by me, it's touchscreen analog control that sucks.

What are you basing this on? A touchscreen where you were actually looking at the screen? This is a console controller. The majority of the time you'll be viewing the tv. Blindly stabbing at a smooth surface won't cut it.

 

[Krowley]

An alternative to this that would protect a screen would be building it "into" the controller and using clear plastic on that part of the controller to protect it. Of course, that would make it impossible for it to be a touch screen, so...gah why am I still speculating about the contoller, this talk goes nowhere fast.

"Controller with iPad in the middle" isn't really the sort of description that gets my heart all aflutter, so if that does turn out to be true I have to assume that there's still some special feature of this system that takes this thing to the next level.

For me, it's such a radical design decision, that it makes me wonder why in god's name they would do it.

If it really is going to look like that, they have to have a good reason. Obviously, they could do a smaller screen and get most of the benefits of DS style dual screen control features, so there has to be some specific reason why it's so big. Initially, I thought it night be 3d capable like the screen on the 3ds, but everything seems to be contradicting that. It might have something to do with the head tracking rumor from shikamura ninja, although I'm not really sure how that fits either.

The only thing that really fits with it is the information about streaming game imagery to the screen as a primary display while the TV is turned off, but that doesn't seem worth it to have such a big screen.

 

[Graphics Horse]

Blindly stabbing at a smooth surface won't cut it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Ra-QvHGRw

 

[Synth_floyd]

Didn't the dreamcast already try the idea of a screen on the controller? People didn't want to look down while they were playing a game. It could be different if it's a high res, color, touch screen but I guess we'll have to see what kind of uses they come up for it. Still, label me as skeptical.

 

[which1spink]

Toucscreen buttons are fine by me, it's touchscreen analog control that sucks.

That was exactly the point of my mockup but most people seem to hate it/don't get it anyway.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

If it really is going to look like that, they have to have a good reason.

Pretty much. If this thing really is just an "iPad slapped into a DC controller" (or whatever the phrase was) then Nintendo must have one hell of a good reason for it.

 

[Fat Goron]

This thread has 290 pages and yet I still can't possibly imagine a good reason for this Touch Screen in the controller......

Sounds stupid.




But..... yeah.... it's Nintendo. Surprise me, please.

 

[Earl Cazone]

e3 cannot come soon enough. hype is strong in this one.

 

[From The Dust]

This thread has 290 pages and yet I still can't possibly imagine a good reason for this Touch Screen in the controller......

Sounds stupid.




But..... yeah.... it's Nintendo. Surprise me, please.

we are only at 279, dude

 

[Vinci]

IGN mentioned in their podcast the controller. They compared it to an iPad stuck in a Dreamcast controller.

I like that. I like that a lot.

WTF???


Okay, how sad is it that we're back to WTF?

 

[AceBandage]

It's Nintendo. It's always WTF.

 

[Fat Goron]

we are only at 279, dude

So I guess you still have 11 pages to change my mind. o/

 

[1-D_FTW]

WTF???


Okay, how sad is it that we're back to WTF?

What's sadder is I actually listened to the IGN podcast this morning and didn't notice a couple of these things mentioned here.

 

[From The Dust]

So I guess you still have 11 pages to change my mind. o/

it's one of those things that have to be seen to believe. considering we haven't seen it yet, it sounds stupid on paper. but Nintendo knows how to make shit work (even if it isn't sucessful, it fucking works)

 

[Door2Dawn]

So I guess they're ditching motion controls this time?

 

[AceBandage]

So I guess they're ditching motion controls this time?

Not completly.

 

[antonz]

So I guess they're ditching motion controls this time?

One of the things have said motion controls are still around and better than ever.

 

[Graphics Horse]

It's Nintendo. It's always WTF.

I think we've learned by now the more people they shock and confuse, the more successful they are. They need to aim to displease.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

This thread has 290 pages and yet I still can't possibly imagine a good reason for this Touch Screen in the controller......

Sounds stupid.




But..... yeah.... it's Nintendo. Surprise me, please.

I don't understand why anyone would think anything before they've actually seen what the controller is or what any software would do with it.

A keyboard and mouse in front of a blank screen seems kind of dumb, too.

 

[From The Dust]

So I guess they're ditching motion controls this time?

no

 

[M74]

So I guess they're ditching motion controls this time?

Motion? No. Pointer? Sounds like it.

 

[From The Dust]

Motion? No. Pointer? Sounds like it.

they better at least replace it with good touchscreen control like the DS/3DS.

 

[Kard8p3]

Listening to current podcasts is really interesting: IGN Nintendo was very excited and positive, Game Informer was excited and mostly positive, Giant Bomb knew next to nothing and used the opportunity to bash the Wii, WAHP was WAHP (as in "Sony fanboys extraordinaire"), and Gametrailers seemingly didn't even notice the leak happened at all...

It should be mentioned that even though the GT podcast comes out on Friday they usually record them earlier in the week so they could've recorded their last one before the rumors broke out.

 

[Fat Goron]

it's one of those things that have to be seen to believe. considering we haven't seen it yet, it sounds stupid on paper. but Nintendo knows how to make shit work (even if it isn't sucessful, it fucking works)

Yeah..... that's the thing.....

But still, when we get to see this..... chimera... this thread will have a hell lot more than 290 pages. lol: