I remember when I saw the first videos of the "wand" that I stated they had to "imitate" the nunchuk too or else they would have serious problems for games as shooters. Same case with Natal.

@Bamboleo

You fail: Vectrex had an analog stick in 1982. Atari 5200 had an analog stick in 1983. Know your history.

You're needlessly confrontational, and not addressing the gist of my argumentation.

I'm talking of early eighties here. And for several years after the great console crash home computing meant mainstream gaming, especially in Europe. It was not a geeky minority, it was all there was to gaming and it's where the consoles had to restart from/compete against.

If all you saw is Nintendo, of course anything they did would look new to you. But gaming is -and was- a much bigger and varied world and Nintendo drew inspiration from the existing as much as anybody else, and rightly so.

@Damnyouall

thanks for another example, forgot about the 5200 and didn't really know much about the vectrex.

@ Damnyouall

You fail like no else does: Vectrex and Atari 5200 had not analog sticks. They were simply Directional sticks.

Analog sticks = accept different input of direction and angle.

directional sticks = accepts up to 8 directions (4 in the first sticks) and doesn't recognize the angle you're holding.

To sum up, directional sticks are "elongated D-Pads".

Ok, you're making a fool out of yourself now. From wikipedia

Many, if not most, 1970s video game consoles featured an analog joystick, see under, the VC 4000 (1978) for more info. In 1982 Atari released the first controller with a potentiometer-based analog stick^[2] for their Atari 5200 home console. However, the non-centering joystick design proved to be ungainly and unreliable, alienating many consumers at the time. During that same year, General Consumer Electronics introduced the Vectrex, a vector graphics based system which used a self-centering analog stick, obviously a precursor to the modern design.

...

In 1995, Sony (realizing that analog technology could be useful) created a potentiometer-based analog joystick for use in Flight-Simulation games. The Sony Dual Analog FlightStick featured twin analog sticks and was used in games such as "Descent" to provide a much greater degree of freedom than the typical digital joysticks of the day.

In 1996 Nintendo introduced a thumb-operated control stick on their Nintendo 64 controller.

"You fail like no else does". That's funny on multiple levels.

Now we're drifting from facts to our own opinions.

 While I respect yours, you have to realize that if things were as you describe, Nintendo wouldn't be considered by the gaming community, and press, as the 'creators' of such features in home console gaming as D-pad, Rumble, analog sticks, shoulder buttons, etc.

Thing is, they are considered to be the ones bringing that, and Sony is already famous from many years now to adopt the Nintendo creations.

And Computer gaming is not home console gaming since I recognized the difference between a computer and a console back in the 80's when I first saw a commodore (or Spectrum, I'm not sure which was the first, but I clearly remember the Jumping Chickens game)

To the bolded: again, if all you hear is a certain community, you might mistake it for being all there is to the gaming community, or the gaming press. I'm saying that you should expand your horizons and research better.

"People said so" is hardly a great rebutt.

sixaxis

When is the last time Nintendo ever used a patent as an "offensive" weapon?

In Nintendo's eyes, chasing other big companies is a waste of time and money. After all, Sony chasing Nintendo's market/movement controller idea just makes *Sony* look bad - and may bring even more customers over to the Wii.

Push too hard, and Sony counter-sue with their patents - and it all gets very messy.

Blatant copyright infringements is one thing - but this is another. Its just not worth it - Nintendo may even be glad the Sony controller is so close to the Nintendo one.