An article translated by a GAFfer:
Exclusively for Loading.se, A source close to Nintendo has all the information regarding the company's next home console.
June 7th is the date that everyone has been waiting for. Nintendo unveils their next home console at E3 in Los Angeles. But Loading can already now reveal some of the hottest (and most trustworthy) rumors about the machine. This is all we got to know about Nintendo Feel.
Our source, who has a close connection to the company, speaks about the console in a conversation with us. We choose to deliver the information unedited and untranslated [from Eng to Swe]:
– Nintendo wants to change the way we play – again. The success of Wii was essentially proof that the controller is every bit as important as graphical technology. When Nintendo unveils its next piece of hardware on June 7th, the presentation will be as much about the feel, as the look, of its new games. The revolutionary aspect will once again be found in the controller itself.
After Touch comes Feel
We already know Nintendo is developing a controller with a built-in screen. Since that info got leaked there have been paralels between Apple's iPad and how Nintendo used the GBA as a controller for a few Gamecube-games. But this new "Screen-controller" brings another dimension - Feel. Our source uses the name "Nintendo Feel"
– Haptic technology is a form of tactile feedback used to simulate the experience of touching different objects shown on screen. The player can move their fingertips across a surface and clearly feel the difference between soft, smooth or rugged textures. Electronic companies across the world have been conducting research in this field for years. It’s been rumored that Apple is close to patenting a similar technology, and we’ve seen the Toshiba demonstration of ‘New Sensation UI Solution’, that applies a thin film over a screen in order to achieve a haptic effect. In Nintendo’s case, this is a natural progression of both the Nintendo DS touch screen and the Wii technology.
Hardcore meats Casual
After having recieved the information on Nintendo Feel from our source we have gotten confirmation that the technology exists. Toshiba seems to have shown it to the public and we have had a Novint Falcon in the office for a long time. Novint was one of the first companies to introduce haptic feedback to the gaming world.
According to our source the work for the new console has been going on for a few years, and throughout this whole time the goal has been to create an as direct and easy-to-understand concept as the Wii.
– You have to try Nintendo Feel to really understand. But the idea itself is very easy to sell, no matter if you are aiming for hardcore players or the wider audience that was first introduced to games through DS, Wii or Kinect.
And sure, anyone can suddenly realize the feeling of fur agains the fingertips would do for Nintendogs. You don't have to be unfamiliar to The Legend of Zelda to understand the epicness in drawing patterns in a desert, feeling the breeze from a lake, the burning sensation from lava or realizing the structure of a very old tree.
At the same time, Nintendo Feel is an experience that doesn't want to explain itself in words, but rather tell the player through his hands. Which is probably why Nintendo will bring playable demos to E3, even tho the finished console won't be available until 2012.
[Translating asap].
