Third party developer talks Revolution controller

I don't buy this. Hot/cold capabilities sounds like it would be a) prone to breaking b) prone to weakening other parts of the controller c) difficult to manage (just wait for the first person to burn themselves on a malfunctioning controller - or worse, one functioning properly) and/or d) way too expensive.

I would love to see nintendo's new controller already, but I don't buy this either. First of all, what happens when a kid with really sweety hands short circuts the thing? It would be neat to see a sort of "smart rumble" feature that shock certain parts of the controller when you got hit. It would be cool if when you got shot from the right, the right side of your controller shock. I would love to see a controller that shock so much that it fell out of your hands when you died/got tackled.

Personally though I figured that this is another company/group/person trying to get it's 15 minutes of fame. Let's just be glad that these guys didn't try and fool us with a baddly done photoshop picture.

I heard it cures cancer! ;)

my thoughts exactly Footsteps, another thing is; how could this possibly be energy efficient? the wavebird sacrificed rumble for wireless, I don't think they'd be able to do this without having a mere three hour play time between charges.

just give me gyroscopic control and I'll be happy

I HEARD IT'S DATING VINCE VAUGHN...

not to mention something constantly going from hot to cold might cause some condensation issues, i guess depending on the ambient humidity. and we all know how well condensation and electronics work together.

I heard it causes cancer.

sound a lot like my weiner. Except for the wifi part...

I like the wireless and easy charging, but xbox360 and ps3 have that as well, not so revolutionary considering the amount people have been talking about this controller.

Temperature feedback is incredibly stupid. I'm inclined to disbelieve this whole report because of that.

Tactile feedback would really be revolutionary though, giving the player real feedback as to how he could move his controller, etc.

I think if they can do all of this, good for them. But it will take a hell of alot more then some warm / cold and push / pull to impress me.

Charlie.

Nintendo were the first to have *good* wireless features in both multiplayer and controllers. And having a wired charge was a *seriously* obvious next move from them or indeed for anything/anyone - that latter being people adopting Nintendo's wireless features from Wavebird and GBA.

Thus said my post is pointless as A. in time these things would have come eventually anyway (Nintendo are just amazing at doing them first then being copied) and B. this source is about as credible as me saying I'm Gates just checking on the latest news.

But yes I agree that hot/cold feedback could be stupid, then again they have made stupid sounding things great - bongo controlled platformer as a great example.

Also agree that tactile feedback could be awesome, is this implemented in any other sector.

I'm sure Nintendo have stated that it's not a new innovation, but as the way innovation goes it's new in gaming and such.

In closing this is crap anyway, and besides we don't know if it's even revolutionary as in changing the way we "play" or the way it "works" - either or I'm sold on the retro gaming and new 1st/2nd party titles anyway, who wouldn't be.

I don't think that is is physically possible (ie, according to the laws of physics) for the controller to be able to move sideways based soley on interal forces.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, therefor, of the controller is pushing left to mimick something on screen, the force mechanic pushing the controller form inside itself is also pushing right with the same amount of intensity.

i seriously doubt the hot/cold thing, but i hope they go in that direction. i want the companies to do as much as possible ot make the gaming experience more real.

i'm sure they don't mean 802.11 wifi...cause that'd just be crazy.

A "kid with really sweety hands"?

Sweety hands.

Somehow that's grosser to me than sweaty hands.

imp, with an adjustable gyro, I can see it being possible to make it feel like the controller is trying to twist itself...

can't say I want that in a controller, but I do see it being possible

Heat and cold? I call BS based on this alone.

The controllers are going to be wireless, according to this guy. There's NO WAY you could get fast heating in a lightweight battery-powered controller for anything more than a few glorious minutes. You can't heat up elements in the controller within a few seconds, and repeat that for hours without a charge. Not with a device that weighs less than 1lbs. Heck, 5lbs.

And COOLING!? What is this guy smoking? Make some credible claims, now! How many portable cooling devices have you seen on the market that do anything other than blow air or MAYBE mist water? That's right, there are none. Compressors like your AC in your car are VERY power hungry. There's a reason people turn off the AC in their small cars to save power, and people don't use the AC in their house year-round. It draws a LOT of power. At least one order of magnitude more than a controller would be able to supply. Even if this controller were wired it would be unfeasible, because the Revolution would need a giant power supply to quickly cool 2-4 joysticks.

This guy should have made claims that were technically FEASIBLE. At least then people COULD believe him. This is OBVIOUS BS because he screwed up and made one impossible claim.

The heating and cooling isnt that amazing. Its called the Peltier effect, a solid state device wherein one side gets real cold and the other gets warm.

Those coolers that run off your car electrics have used this tech for years. I think some silent PC's use them too.

The heating and cooling isnt that amazing. Its called the Peltier effect, a solid state device wherein one side gets real cold and the other gets warm.

Those coolers that run off your car electrics have used this tech for years. I think some silent PC's use them too.

Imp's point about physics is poorly informed, but Chris K's is well reasoned. Energy-efficient cooling in a package small enough to fit into a game controller would be a Revolution for much more than the video game industry. If N could do this, they'd beat out loads of electrical engineers who've been looking for this stuff for decades. Pretty far-fetched. Physics says that forces come in equal and opposite pairs, that's true, but you have to remember that usually the two forces in question are object A acting on object B and vice versa. So the E&O of the force of the controller pushing against the hand is the force of the hand holding the controller. From a conservation of energy POV, energy is conserved because electrical energy from the battery is converted to mechanical energy.

It is time for Nintendo to go the way of SEGA & become a multi-platform software house.

I am not personally a fan of their software but it does have mass appeal & should be allowed to reach the greatest audience via more widely available hardware.

Trying to justify a hardware presence based on a cool PERIPHERAL reminds me of when Apple was first out of the gates with a mouse!

Don't get mad Nintendo-philes. Think about it. I'm right.

"sound a lot like my weiner. Except for the wifi part..."

So your weiner can be recharged?

@#21. Sega was in a life or death situation when they went 3rd party. Stay in hardware- go out of business, or cut your losses and keep on truckin' without the hardware. Nintendo is nowhere close to what Sega went through. Why would Nintendo exit the hardware business if they are still making money off of it? It makes little sense. Now, if Nintendo was posting constant losses, like Sega over the course of multiple years, then I would see your point.

As for the controller, who knows. It's possible that it is geared to hone in on more natural movements, like a gyroscope. A gyroscope would eliminate the need for the second analog stick, therefore making it less "intimidating" for the nongamers. With a more SNES style layout, plus the added features, you might be able to make a simple, yet very functional controller. Kind of like DualShock without the R&L 2&3 buttons and one less analog stick.

Gianni Gotti

[Please] Read my comment:
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000777050094/#c331666

Also, I really doubt the 'revolutionary' feature will be just a "cool peripheral." It will be something to make gaming easier and less intimidating as suggested by Cameron above...like the joystick thing they first put on the N64 and everyone coppied.

Nintendo is a toy company [been around as such for over a hundred years]. Much of what exists in the way of game controlers today stems from something first used by Nintendo. Guaranteed whatever is implemented into the Revolution will be adopted by all other consols next generation.

This whole post is bullshit! I consider myself a Nintendo fan but not at all an insider. Let's face it, given all the speculative info we've been given even a child could come up with this.
We know it goiong to be wireless; why does it need to be WiFI? Who cares?
The hot/cold feedback is a lwasuit waiting to happen.
Tactile feedback is a fancy way of saying rumblepak. Thats what it was called when the Arcade machine of Afterburner 3 came out in the early 90's--tactile force feedback.
Gamecube controller port used for charging--again who cares?
This post really tells us nothing. Although its a pretty poor excuse for you Nintendo haters to bring up the "Nintendo should go 3rd party" argument. Iwata and several top execs in Nintendo have said the day Nintendo doesn't make a console is the day Nintendo goes out of business.
Sega was suffering for marketing disasters with the Sega Cd, 32X, Nomad, Saturn. By the time a good gaming machine came out (Dreamcast) it was already too late for them. They were way in the red and couldn't afford to keep making the hardware.
Nintendo is the only company consistently turning a profit from its gaming division (don't forget in Japan Nintendo makes toys, card games, arcade amusements). They are almost tied for second place when you look at xbox vs. gamecube worldwide sales. They sold more consoles than Sony in 2004. To top it all off the DS is way outselling the PSP in Japan. Nintendo go 3rd party--not anytime soon!

word, atari and colecovision were using "the joystick" thing back in the early 1980's... Nintendo has done nothing revolutionary in the design of controllers (yet).

Nintendo is trying to enable all of it's games to be played on it's next gen system, and to do that they need to incorporate backwards thinking into the new design... no small task given the different designs they have used over the last 15 or so years.

I've been keeping a close eye on the Revolution controller because I have believed for a while now that the gaming industry has hit a slump mostly due to a lack of creative games. It's no one's fault, really. There are only so many analogies you can make between a game character's movements and two-sticks, a pair of shoulder-modifier/triggers (I like the PS2's 4 shoulders, but... bah), and face buttons (XBox tried 6, failed horribly). The dual-analog stick configuration has realized its full potention, and we're running out of face-buttons to perform actions with, so we'll have to limit the actions perfomable by the player. Well, no more! The game controller needs a revamp, and Nintendo is the one who will get it right. After all, was it not them who brought us the analog stick? Without them, would we have Halo? (no stick, no dual-stick, no halo on consoles - oh, did I not say I'm an xbox freak?)

For years now, the videogame arcade has used custom controller games to gain the love of the people. The only games that you would find people playing today at an arcade are DDR, Driving games, and shooting games, and that's just because the peripherals needed to enjoy these games at home would be costly. The Big N is smart enough to know that the next easy revolution in home console gaming would have to be taking these custom controls, which means more genres and more actions. But Nintendo ain't the only ones who have figured that out, they're just the only ones who were smart enough to understand cost-effectiveness. What their own internal revolution is is learning how to make this shit for cheap through their cost-reduction engineering. (google for the article on Nintendo's cost-control stuff in the DS)

I don't know if this guy in this blog is for real, but many of the things he's said have made sense thusfar. I don't think it's all completely true, but I also think that nintendo could be taking its developers for a ride, as well. The biggest thing that doesn't add up - the mention of the FACE BUTTONS. Iwata has stated that there will be no face buttons on the Revolution's controller. The rest of the stuff, well, was all just common sense.

Mercury tilt sensors have been in games for a while (think intel and logitech wireless controllers and look through their old catalog. I remember a blue intel controller that let me tilt to control a motorbike). The next logical step up from tilt was the gyroscopes, which Nintendo has patented as a game controller or something. And for something to move your hand sideways is easy. (Hell, I have my brother's toy downstairs that makes me feel like it was tilting my hand, it's sort of a beyblade knock-off, thing, but not really.) Go to a sports store and look for one of those arm exerciser things where you spin this ball in your hand and just keep rotating it; after a while it starts to REALLY whip up a force on you. As for the cooling/heating effect, inquiring minds can look up: http://www.digit-life.com/articles/peltiercoolers/ on the Peltier effect, and try and figure out if the math qualifies. I don't know, can the Revolution's battery cause a tiny spot on the controller (doesn't have to be more than a half inch squared big... small area, medium intensity, you feel it, but it doesn't hurt) to heat up/cool down using the peltier effect, and do it energy-efficiently?

As for haptic feedback - also the next evolution. C'mon, the Nintendo rumblepak was first! Think they don't know all about feedback and how important it is? I've been SUCKING at Burnout 3 ever since one of my rumbles on my gamepad started malfunctioning. I NEEDED to feel when my car was touching and grinding with another car or not through the rumble. Force feedback, when used properly, is perfect, because your sense of touch tunes your acute finger movements. Just ask any Live Soundman how often then look at a mixer board, or notice the next time you turn your volume knob or set your graphic equalizer (a real one). It's not hard to make these devices, as anyone who's ever read "Build your own VR Systems" type books can tell you, but it's whether or not they've managed to build it cheaply enough to include in a $30 retail price controller.

I can't wait for the revolution. I've been saving many artist concept photoshop/3dmax pictures, waiting to see who was the closest. I don't really think that this guy is full out who he says he is, just because of the way he's disclosing the information, and some inaccuracies that haven't yet been qualified. i.e. hot/cold was revealed in the 3rd entry, not 2nd, and face buttons have been denied by Iwata, and without face buttons, the controller really should be seperated into TWO pieces, not one. Dual-gyroscope, if it could be manufactured cheaply, would be the wave of the future. I mean, your player character on screen has two hands, no?

Maybe the controler is transformable into another controler? IE: normal controller can be transformed (like a transformer! lol) into a gun? =D Ok, i'm stupid =(

Oh, jc... You are ignoring that Nintendo brought the concept of 'Analog Joystick' to the console arena on the N64... You could make Mario creep or run, and not simply based on how long you held the d-pad, but how far you moved the joystick.

So I would say that they DID bring something revolutionary to the market - inspiring Sony to release their version of the analog joystick on their next cycle, and it's been an analog control world ever since... Except for that d-pad on the DS. Weird move, Nintendo.

Gianni Gotti

You need to understand the games industry a little more, as being someone who does actually knoe the facts reading your post is hard to say the least.

To save me the hassle of a very large post, click these links and actually form a logical opinion on Nintendo:

http://nintendoinsider.com/site/EEEFylpkElFffmiBlr.php

http://nintendoinsider.com/site/EEEZuAypVuTuOJPzyb.php

If you can't feel bothered Nintendo didn't get beaten by Nintendo and are still the most profitable in the business.

Now tell me why they should quit and drop profits.

Why should they stop being the most (by far) innovative.

I'll leave with a radical notion here, if people want Nintendo games they should buy the most durable, relaible and efficient Hardware around - Nintendo made Hardware.

Is that such an odd concept, I think not.

This comment was typed by a Sony and Nintendo gamer pissed of by the gaming communitys false media driven ignorance.

I dont belive that the hot and cold reigons will be feedback, but it would be cool if on a cold day your controller heated up to keep your hands warm while gaming and vice versa for a hot day

Too early, works coffee too weak.

Yeah typo with "Know" and "If you can't feel bothered Nintendo didn't get beaten by Nintendo" - of course that's "If you can't feel bothered Nintendo didn't get beaten by Sony".

My bad.

While a hot/cold region would definitely pull the player in, I think it would be either under or over used (either almost no game would use it, or games would have it everywhere and it would soon get annoying/pointless). I'm not particularly interested in it, but okay, whatever.

Now, gyroscopes I am interested in. It'd be great to be able to control straffing or other movements by tilting the controller. I would think that they'd need a button that you'd have to hold to activate it though, to limit unwanted movements. It would kind of make sense, too, since that could get rid of the second analog (which might as well not have been there on the GC).

I'm still waiting and hoping, but with the sly mentions and hyping going on, it better be good. It could be the thing that pulls Nintendo up this generation.

Yeah, I heard it glows in the dark with 3 wild flavors and it is ripped for her pleasure!

???? Finially a controller that will cost much more than the console itself!?!?

got logic?

28 ; ill trooper.

I had an N64. While Nintendo may have made a step ahead with the analogue joystick... and let's not forget the rumble pack as well, they also made a step back with the layout.

I don't know how many times I cursed that controller because I would have to take my left hand off the analogue to use the d-pad.

hot cold would require too much energy, would change quick enough and cold... WTF is that good for? when you do a snow mission in a FPS?!? Useless and stupid. The said they want to make it easy for anyone to play, how is this helping? Also, the gamecube ports are likely jsut for playing gamecube and oldschool (downloaded) and hardcore games like multiplatform releases.

For #36, the Big N does'nt focus on fps. Think Metroid, say you in the drifts, the entire place is covered in snow. Having the sensation of cold in the controller adds another point into realism in games, same goes for the heat. Heck if Nintendo does go with the hotcold thing, they'll go with the Peltier cooling system, as stated prev. Also if the cold is timed right they can create the feeling of wind, all that is needed is some calculations of the system on the direction and speed of the wind and send the info. to the controllers so that the controllers time the cold to pulse in waves across from the controller. Or if its is a sunny day, or a desert scene, they can create a warm brisk wind by doing the wave washing of the heat, maybe along with a very very slight rumble to add more feeling to it. And I strongly suggest that you read all the comments before you post. The power demand of the controller has been covered several times.

Has anyone ever been to Epcot in Disney World? They had this booth with a thing you could put your hand on that had alternating hot and cold spots ever centimeter or so. The result was a really trippy effect on your senses, going beyond the simple feeling of hot and cold. If you orchestrate that a certain way, you can actually inspire feelings of something similar to texture. Having a thermal controller can actually do more than just simulate the game environment's temperature.