3 days don't mean shit and release date doesn't mean shit. Nintendo announced touch screen input for their next console in 2011 and both competitors tacked touch screen input onto their current consoles and are actually first to market with this. Does that also mean that Nintendo copied from them? I guess they do, right?

Edit: Also, the earliest release date for the Xbox was November 15 in America, while the gamecube released September 14 in Japan. Since the japanese controller is exactly the same as the one used in the rest of the world, the nintendo controller hit the market 2 months prior to the original xbox controller.

Answering a question with a question hmmm?  Guess you have no answer then.  Might want to take a look at the microsoft sidewinder also, definatly sega inspiried, but still the same form factor as the xbox controller/s and the x360 controller and it was released when, the mid 90s lol.

The first sentence is my answer, the second sentence is an example, and the third/forth questions are either rethorical questions and/or sarcastaball.

Concerning your sidewinder remark, please give me an image of a sidewinder controller that even remotely resembles the xbox controller. I have no idea and I'm scrolling through Google images right now but I can't find one.

Sega and Microsoft had major ties during the late 90s, nothing Microsoft has done controller wise was inprised by anything Nintendo

First of all, the video: Quoting from the youtube description of said video:

"Other manufacturers products are not relevant here. But why you ask? Well, I am NOT looking at who invented what or who introduced which feature into the console market first. I am simply looking at Sega and Microsoft's design choices from one generation to the next. I am NOT saying who or what (if any) external influence affected their design choices."

So he disregards any influence outside of Sega, which makes his whole video kinda pointless. At least to prove your point.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter if Microsoft took his inspiration from Nintendo or Sega (and the Dreamcast Controller in turn took inspiritaion from Nintendo, look diamond shape, button colors). The bottom line is that microsoft is hardly the originator of their controller design. The only thing they did first was the home button and I can give credit where credit is due.

The sidewinder pics have no resemblence to the Xbox brand AT ALL and are indeed heavily influenced from the genesis and sega saturn controllers. There are no analog sticks to be found, no analog triggers and the shape is completely different. Neither shape nor function are in any correlation to the xbox brand.

The Darksider's development team like to distance themselves from comparisons to other games, but I agree it is primarily inspired by Zelda for scope with dungeons and puzzles, but gameplay goes for something much more combo oriented like a Ninja Gaiden, DmC, or God of War.

In Darksider's 2, they have added a ton of RPG tropes like senseless amounts of loot to collect and some other things that add grind to the experience.

The original picutre showed parts of a Nintendo gamecube controller as the design of a x360 controller, I mentioned that the x360 controller is a variant of the xbox controller and the original xbox controller a variant the Sidewinder which is heavily inspired by Sega's controllers (especially the saturn 3d control pad).  If you read my initial post and reply, I mentioned that Microsoft controllers are heavily Sega inspired, in part becuase they had a very strong relationship in the mid-late 90 with co-development of the dreamcast, I never mentioned microsoft controller orignality but I  am disputing they got their current controller inspiration from nintendo.

And I say you are wrong. I don't deny the fact that the sidewinder family was heavily influenced by SEGA design, but it's a stretch to assume that this also applies for the xbox brand. Both Dreamcast and Xbox controller don't share many similarities to their own predecessors but look like they are heavily influenced by Nintendo design. I have shown EXACTLY what those similarities are on the last page.

i know people who frequently rage-break their controllers. I am sure they will want to have a cheap alternative to the pad.

Can't we all just agree that:

The XBox controller is a clear merger of the GameCube and, more so, the Dreamcast controllers?

The Dreamcast controller a clear evolution of the second Saturn controller which was in turn an evolution of the Genesis controller, but merged with Super Nintendo controller button layouts?

The DualShock is a clear evolution of the Super Nintendo controller?

That Nintendo took the overall 360 controller form factor as it is indeed the natural evolution of their own Classic and GameCube controllers while also evolving their own Super Nintendo controller button layout for the WiiU Pro controller?

I don't see the mystery. You only need to put them side-by-side to see clear influences amongst each other.

EDIT: Also, about the controllers, look at (click on) this: 

Click >> << Click

While there are two glaring mistakes (and I dare you to find them), it paints a clear picture of what influenced what.

.. 

Wasn't this thread supposed to be about Darksiders II by the way? Which I'm probably not going to buy, not a hack-and-slash fan. Though the supposed Zelda elements kept me intrigued for a little while, but still, I probably won't.