http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/11/15/how-the-videogame-industry-shot-itself-in-the-joystick.aspx

After reading Harris' alternative explanation of why the critically maligned Carnival Games had become a hit--a "fundamental disconnect between how the people who review Wii games play them and how everyone else plays them"--we asked him to expand on his remarks for our guest post series P2P. He agreed, and the resulting essay is a thoughtful look at how the evolution of videogame controllers has contributed to the shrinking of the industry's reach, and why the Wii remote and nunchuk--even as the games built around them continue to confound the critical establishment--are beacons of hope for a stagnant medium. Enjoy. 

I like the controller family tree (and how the NES controller is the forefather of almost all of them)

"Surprisingly, there are people who are nothing less than outraged over the success of the Wii. It’s a gimmick, they say. The graphics are crap. The games are crap. And it’s true that sometimes the graphics are crap, and many of the games are, too, but the controller is no gimmick. It’s so much of an advance compared to what Sony and Microsoft are doing that it’s embarrassing."

How brutally honest...

But what i found most interesting was the fact that the Atari 5200 had the same controller complexity as the PS3 and the great video game crash happened.  Further proof for those that believe(d) we were on the verge of another industry crash before the Wii came along.

How the hell could the industry crash when it's making billions?!!

Silly fangirls...

An industry crash in video gaming at this point in time would be... So weird!!!

 Keep increasing the complexity and obstacles to new people entering the market and it starts to lose gamers and fails to add in new ones eventually it stagnates and is replaced by other forms of entertainment, 10-15 years ago TV was never looked upon as an industry that would be dying out, and yet today people ar watching less TV and when they do watch shows they torrent or wait for DVDs, any form of media is vulnearble, and the onluy way to sustain it is to make it more accessible and enticing

The problem is that there have always been games for all demographics, where's the evidence that the videogame market would have crashed under "the old ways"?

 There may have been games for all demographics(doubtful, but for the sake of argument), but controls were a barrier to entry, most would look at a controller and become intimidated, but with Wii that is not an issue, even elderly folks who never played games are having fun

I would have to agree with that point.

 I am 100% positive that people said the same thing about the American Housing market 1 year ago. PS Citibank was one of the highest earning financial service companies and now they may be filling bankruptcy after the 1st of the year.