This can go straight to hell. I still don't believe this is from Nintendo itself but wherever it's from, it can go to hell.

"Since the sticks have motors to provide force, they can move the stick... but also NOT move it. IE, lock it in place"
Like servo motors? Yeah no, those can easily break. No rational engineer would use servo motors to try to counteract the force of a human thumb.

I see a lot of potential with some of these concepts, just not in the way you describe them or how the patents presents them. You've really made an effort here, it's a great analysis and I think we can all tell that a lot of thinking went behind this, but I'm not buying it. Or rather, I'm hoping it's not true. Nintendo are crazy enough to try something like this out, I just think they would loose any credit they have left with core gamers, and casuals have moved on to mobile. Making this... A thing, would be targeting an audience that wouldn't want it and an audience that isn't there.

The only thing that could make this work is haptic feedback; so you FEEL the buttons on the screen, even though they aren't really there.

Sounds expensive...

I don't think the cores are their target tbh as they tried targeting them with the U, this to me looks more like another broad approach given the design looks very iPhone like which may infact appeal to casuals as well as certain groups of general gamers. It may very well find success as it doesn't resemble a standard controller and looks more like a tech device like the iPhone.

To me it looks like the controller shifts input depending on what's going on in the game, this means that rather than needing to have a universal button layout the controller can accomodate any layout via it's input system changing to suit the situation. The more I think about it the more genius the idea seems as essentially all that will matter in future gens is just the shape of a controller.

I hope this is an optional controller if it is real. I just don't like the idea. I get that its probably trying to aim at new gamers and lots of phone games or touch screen games deal with your fingers obscuring the view so obviously some people don't mind. I get that its 'possible' that Nintendo can make their games work, to an extent on this, but I can only see it being change for the sake of it. Nintendo games work wonderfully on traditional controls.

Third parties might struggle though, the PS4 and Xbone both have very similar controllers but now it looks like developers will have to wrestle with this new design if they want to release on all three consoles. I remember in the days of the Wii some games didn't receive Wii ports because of the default control set up. Of course Nintendo didn't manage to court much third party support on Wii U and that offered standard controls (I love the gamepad) so clearly its not a deal breaker.

I am a huge fan of Nintendo games so I'll probably end up getting the NX and hopefully Nintendo will find a way to make its old fans happy, there is a reason why the Gamecube controller is still widely regarded their best one. I'm definitely not excited by the idea of this controller though.

Reminds me of the vitas design in some ways, accept the vitas ugly sibling.

it probably is, yes. But it's the only way I see this thing being even remotely successful.

Thats the great thing about innovation.  When executed correctly, it toally changes how you view a product.  Case in point would be the Iphone.  I remember when it was first rumored with a touch screen.  People were so negative without ever using the device but once it launched and people had a chance to try it, it totally change the way they thought about a mobile phone.

hey, with a design like that, they'll need any help they can get ;)