I'm just glad they are testing new things, if you want traditional controllers there's PS, Xbox and PC.

Do I have to experience getting stabbed firsthand to know it hurts?

Do I have to experience the bubonic plague firsthand to know it's unpleasant?

Do I have to consume horse feces for myself to know it tastes like shit?

The negativity here is so premature. Nintendo's hardware innovations are invariably made successful by the games that they create to compliment their hardware. For example, the WiiMote would have not been huge had it not been for Wii Sports, the N64 controller could have been a complete flop had it not been for Super Mario 64 and who knows if the Game Boy would have taken off had it not been for Tetris.

I want to see Nintendo properly reveal the NX before I make any hasty conclusions. What I see in these photos is probably an engineering sample that was never meant to be seen by the public. It is being shown in the most unflattering way possible and we don't even know what most of its features are going to be. Even more importantly, we have no idea what sort of killer app Nintendo is planning to release to utilize this new controller.

Yes, this could be the Gamepad version 2.0, in which case Nintendo is finished in the home console market. If this controller cannot capture the lightning of the WiiMote, though, it does not automatically mean that the NX is going to be the next Wii U. Nintendo's past is not as black and white as the Wii and the Wii U and people seem to conveniently forget that Nintendo has had many more modest successes in their past that have stemmed from their hardware innovations. For example, if this new controller ends up being the next N64 controller, would that necessarily be a bad thing? The N64 controller was weird looking, but it also established industry standards like the analog stick, the rumble pack and it pretty much gave life to the 3rd person platforming genre. I could see this new controller being something similar to the N64 controller and I am struggling to see how that is necessarily a bad thing.

And BTW, I am sure that there were many angry people back in 1996 who didn't want to game with an ugly and awkward controller a lot like we are seeing right now with this new controller. Mario 64 shut those people up back then and I am waiting to see what killer app Nintendo has incoming to do the same in 2016!

Overall, I am excited about the new controller and hopefully optimistic!

Lolz OP is trying to dictate what gamers must want and buy. That will fail everytime. Third party devs will not support this and without that there will be no sales.

And the Wii did not sale because of "simple, streamlined design" it sold for a period of time because of being heavily pushed by CNN, CNET, ABC, FOX, NBC, etc (the mainstream media). That will not happen again. And hardly any core gamer would say they enjoyed the Wii's motion controls. Shutters thinking back to games like the pirates of the Caribbean on Wii.

The controller is different than normal controllers and because of that devs will not put in the extra money needed to develop for them.

So much negativity without seeing it in game.

"Many people who've tried offscreen gameplay like the feature."

There's a pointless phrase. The Wii U proves that the market is not interested in offscreen gameplay, therefore if Nintendo try to persue this route, they are guarenteed to fail. Again. 

The screen is small, so real estate is a problem. Also the fact that anything on the screen could be obscured by real life physical buttons is rediculous - it'd become irritating incredibly quickly. 

Nintendo's focus on controllers started with the Wii and they are still pursing this avenue of thought, which should worry investors greatly as it demonstrates they have no idea why the Wii was popular. The Wii was popular because of it's controller, BUT the majority of the market which bought the Wii were "casual", or better yet, transient, gamers who will not be coming back to the Nintendo fold because they are not gamers - playing Wii Sports with friends after a few drinks doesn't make someone a gamer. These people are not interested in another console as the Wii served them just fine. Therefore Nintendo should realise the Wii was a one-hit wonder and by innovating on the pad, they will not be able to replicate its success.

Exactamundo, they are trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. Upon the plethora of reasons for the Wii U's performance, a key reason was that as well.

I even made a thread on it: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=207685&page=1

Nintendo is a formulaic company by their nature though, once they have success with what they perceive to be a "formula" they will try it again almost assuredly. 

The thing about this is Nintendo didn't even invent the Wiimote ... they purchased it from an American inventor who tried to sell it to Microsoft and Sony first. 

Nintendo's "original" attempt at wooing casuals with the Wii U failed horribly. 

And the other issue was we kept hearing how casuals are a different audience, but that is a two way street. I think some Nintendo fans wanted causal fans but thought they should then behave like core gamers, as in they should continue to like games and buy consoles if you keep pumping out more or less the same thing.