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Nintendo Revolution controller revealed...

...and it's freaking weird! And possibly revolutionary.

The wireless controller is motion and tilt sensitive, and have the traditional directional pad, face buttons and triggers laid out in a nontraditional way. There will also be separate adapters that plug into the base such as an analog stick (pictured here) to expand the functionality of the base controller. It kind of reminds me of the Gyration wireless handset/mouse in concept and functionality.

I'm guessing Nintendo has decided that they fell so far behind Sony and Microsoft this generation that it would take something dramatically different for them to catch back up. It's a huge risk, but probably also the only way they'd be able to put a dent in the other two companies' market share. They just couldn't compete with a similar product.

Die hard Nintendo fans will buy anything they release, so they're safe there. But how will the very important casual gamers react to it? A high percentage of video gamers aren't hard core and aren't Nintendo fanatics, and in order for the console to be a success it must attract that type of gamer. If people are intimidated by it's revolutionary controller or are worried they won't be able to play traditional games they won't buy the system. Games like Madden NFL Football and Grand Theft Auto sell systems, will EA and Rockstar and other companies port their games over to the Revolution? I'm sure Nintendo has some fantastic games of their own planned, but without strong third party developer support the system will assuredly be another failure.

I wonder if they (or some third party) will sell a more traditional controller as well?

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