I think it was Satoru Iwata of Nintendo that once said something like 'if MS and Sony introduce motion controls, we will use something else. We are always trying to do something different."

I'd like to know what that is.. What other possible venues can they use?

MS is already pursuing an even more intuitive control style, and sony has 1:1 down to a science, and will probably be part of a breakaway controller.

Anyways, what could possiblyu give Nintendo the kind of edge they had this year? A console controlled by a wii fit board? VR glasses with a wii mote?

Personally I think they were just talkin' some trash as they usually do, and will actually still use a similar wiimote style controller.

Sony has 1:1 down to a science? When did they do this?

Have you seen their demos at e3? Have you seen tiger woods golf on wii?

There is no slowdown or trailing, it's true 1:1.

I'm not saying M+ is terrible or a failure, in fact it's probably one of the ebst implementations of a peripheral this gen. It's just that the sony one is slightly better.

The point of this fact was just to point out that Nintendo can't simply improve tracking to differentiate themselves.

You really ask: What's next???

Nintendo showed it on the last E3. It is the Wii-Vitality Sensor. Pulse-controlled videogaming will be the next big thing ...

@hentai

haha nice one! ZING!!!1

I am interested in seeing whether Nintendo really sticks to the Blue Ocean strategy and keeps trying to push the boundaries further, or if they just get down and dirty in this new motion-powered red ocean of theirs, especially since a motion war is a war they could win, as opposed to a silicon arms race

People that have been around videogames for a while know that innovation doesn't come form the same company.

First ninteno innovated, then Sega took the torch, then sony did it...

I wouldn't look for the "next big thing" from nintendo again.

@disolitude

I actually don't think any of them are going to be able to innovate next gen. There simply isn't the technology for it.
Video Games are pretty much caught up with technology for the meantime, even Natal isn't that much of a leap as motion controls are. It will be some time before anything new comes out...
Meanwhile I expect all of them to be playing catch up to the standards ie, motion, online, Hard drive, wireless, High density media, download.

meh. I'll stick to the traditional if it's still around

True, I think there will be many little innovations rather than 1 big innovation.  I think 3d will be the next small innovation. There are 3D glasses fo computers that already make existing PC games look stunning. Such as these...

http://techie-pinoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/nvidia_3d_vision.jpg

There are problems with this currently due to lack of horsepower in machines and lack of hardware (need 120 hz refresh rate on TV's monitors).

However I'm sure drivers can be made to make all 360 games backwards compatible in 3d on the xbox 720...etc