Tell me more.

Anything that keeps heat away from the main circuits of the system (CPU, GPU) is a good thing. It also improves system reliability, given that electrical resistance rises with temperature ( Rh = Rc ( 1 + adt)), which in turn takes digital circuits longer to switch from logical 0 to logical 1. Given that these circuits work off a synchronised clock timer, if the voltage does not reach a certain threshold to achieve logical 1 in time when it should, then the CPU starts processing bad data.

You say inspiration, but this is not inspiration. MS took inspiration from SNES, DC and PS cotrollers and made their very own controller. Nintendo just copied the chasis of MS controller and I actually do think it is kinda shameful and embarassing. I am disappointed by Nintendo. To see an idea and take it one step further is absolutely ok. Nobody can deny, that MS did just that. Had Nintendo made any kind of improvement, any step forward, I wouldn't complain. They didn't do that, they just copied the MS product and no matter how much you fanboys try to defend it, that's just what happened and I have the right to point that out and express my disappointment.  And I am serious about it.

@ Chandler

Most of the stuff you crossed out in your photos actually is bs. The fact that they have 2 analogs and a D-pad? Wow, that's not Nintendo. That's Sony and PS One/PS2 dualshock, they solidified the way a pad should work, the number and general layout of buttons and analogs it should have. I don't see anything bad in Nintendo and MS adopting this standard. The fact that the analogs in N and MS pads are set in different places than in DS? I think it's safe to assume they both didn't want to make an exact copy of Sony pad and on their own found out that such placement of the left analog is best, since it actually is the best place in my opinion. They developed their pads in the same time, so it's highly probable, more than anyone stealing the idea from another. Nobody can prove that they copied this from Nintendo, or Nintendo from MS, so you have no argument here.

The trigger stuff is also funny, since... The Wii U pad has just buttons there, not analog triggers, so it's still a step behind from the standard. You can't copy something that's worse than what you have, right? MS made a step further, so I'm ok with it.

You can put the shape of the MS pad over the Dualshock and it will look as much alike as the GCN pad does. So no argument for you here.

The only thing I can give is the same name of buttons as on the SNES and the same colours of buttons. That is all.

Nintendo copied the whole chasis, the whole shape and feel of the controller. That is actually a meaningful thing to copy, it does matter to customers. You all say that this will be a good controller, because the MS controller is good. The letters encrypted on buttons and the colors don't sell controllers, I never knew they were the same as the ones in SNES and I'm sure that most customers never though about the SNES controller when they got their hand on one of these and that nobody decided to buy one of these because of this simmilarity to the SNES pad. On the other hand, like I said, everyone thinks "MS controller" when they see the Wii U Pro Controller.

Again - I'm not an extremist. I have no problem with taking somebodies idea and taking it one step further to another level, this way we all get better stuff. But when you're just blatantly copying, you deserve a bashing. Even if you're called Nintendo. So stop defending a lost case just for the sake of defending it.

I'm not dissappointed, and if I were that would be pretty lame of me. It's a chassis, it's plastic and it's hollow. It has a shape that works. Bravo.

/nonsense

This is funny, you have people saying how Ninty shamelessly ripped Micro off, but of course the entire Wii idea was copied by Micro and applied to Kinect lol. Kinect Sports, Wii sports, what a coincidence.
OT: Very sexy platform, I can't wait to pick it up. Already have a 500 GB hard drive and a Wii LAN adapter. My beautiful HD tv awaits the HDMI cable that it comes with instead of sold separately.

So your saying that the different analog stick placement in the gamecube and xbox controllers are enough to not make it a simple ripoff/clone/copy of the dual shock controller. But in your first post you are also saying that the different analog placement of the Pro Controller is not enough to not make it a simple ripoff of the xbox360 controller. This is hypocrisy.

I also love the whole "everything that MS copied from Nintendo, buttons, letters, colors etc etc. doesn't matter at all, only the one thing that Nintendo took from MS is the outrageous travesty, they should bow their heads and commit seppuku for this" spin. The bottom line is, Microsoft used Nintendo assets and SEGA assets on their xbox controllers to make gamers feel at home on their console and now Nintendo is cashing the favor in with the shape of the new controller and suddenly it's a travesty. Get a grip, man. I actually really really hope MS sues for this because this would burn them, hard. Good thing is that MS is actually smart.

Oh and no, MS and N did not develope their controllers at the same time, I have already proven in this very thread that MS had knowledge of the GC controller about 5 months ahead of their own reveal.

I can't believe you guys have argued so much over this. All 3 companies have been gradually improving their controllers based on their own as well as competing controllers.

Lets start with the SNES controller. A decent controller for the time.

Sony took the idea and improved it with extra shoulder buttons and extra casing for more comfortable grip (original PS1 controller).

Nintendo introduced an analog stick on N64. Sony brought in dual analog sticks which greatly benefited 3D games (although not truly realised until PS2).

Nintendo and Microsoft both use dual analog designs in Gamecube and Xbox realising the benefit of 2 analog sticks. They change the layout realising the increased use of the left analog stick over the D-pad. The shape of the casing is based on their own R&D and marketing.

Not going to get into motions controllers, but needless to say, improvements based on their own R&D and looking at the competition continues.

I have never said that. Plus, the button placement doesn't change the fact, that they copied the whole shape of the body of the controller, which is what I'm criticising them for. If one car company copies the body of another company's car, they can't claim it's ok, cause they changed the lamps in the control panel.

MS used ideas of their competition, but changed and developed them significantly. The differences between the X-box pad and DC/PS2/GCN pads are really noticable, each one is different and unique, while the shape of the Wii U Pro Controller is a 99% exact copy of the X360 controller. If you can't see that, it means you are blind dude. Microsoft in their pad hasn't bluntly copied anything that influences a gamer experience, especially not from Nintendo. They saw some good ideas and took them one step further every time. Nintendo didn't bother doing that, that's why they deserve some bashing. My stance is that what MS did was taking inspiration and I'm fine with that. But what Nintendo did with their newest controller can no longer be considered inspiration. They just crossed the thin line. You see this pad and you immediately think about the X360 pad. That didn't happen earlier with the X-box pad, or any other pad actually. But I guess you can never convince a fanboy.

And you really think that they didn't have their controller ready at that point? You think they were sitting there without a controller just waiting for Nintendo to release their controller so that they can finally prepare their own one during just a few days? Seriously, the X-box pad doesn't really resemble the GCN pad. You look at them and they look totally different. Yes, they moved the D-pad, but like Scoobes said, it's way more probable that they realised this was the better placement during their own development. Cause it's just that - better, than the Sony idea. You can't prove that it wasn't like that, so you can't claim they copied Nintendo. The time frame is too short to justify such a claim.

I'd like to know, if they can get so much power out of that small device, why not make a console roughly the same size as the PS3 or 360, maybe a little smaller, and get even more power out of it?