I owned a microsoft sidewinder freestyle pro joybad - the think was built incredibly strong, and not disimilar in feel to that of a 360 pad. MS were trying something new at that point, and the pads were expensive. But they found these features only suited a few games, and actually the only ones that worked well were motocross maddness and flight sim. But at the time MS were doing it because it was forward thinking.

Gunpei Yokoi in his book (Game House) talks much of his concept of " Withered Technology" which is something nintendo has followed strictly since embarking on his first products. The idea of adopting mature technologies which have become inexpensive and apply them in new ways rather than looking for expensive technologies.

The game boy was a classic example, the screen was a product of bitter rivalry between calculator manufacturers and that is no different to that of accellorometers today - which have been cost reduced to the point where they only cost a couple of pence each. Due to the automotive industry. What is interesting is that the PS3&60 go almost completely contrary to this principle. What may be changing at present is that these ideas and concepts embodied in his work seem to only work well on a small scale - why the ds is doing so well.

Things like his virtual boy strayed away from these princples and tried to push technolgy, and have failed, so I think we have seen very much a renaissance with Nintendo over the past two or three years.

The future is semi-collaborative, and if you think that manufactures will be able to survive this and following genreations on their own you are sadly mistaken. The industry has always looked to its competitors for one-up-manship, and this will always be the case. Being completely unique is just too risqe. It' s also worth saying that MS is just as innovate as the traditional manufacturers, it is not a market leader in its other fields accidently. The work they did with SEGA witht he DC was ahead of its time by 5 years. Sega would have been nowhere with the western developers without their input at that time.

As for software layers, the key is going to be plug-ability again - not a nice word, but basically meaning that for profit margins developers have to get their product out to as many formats as possible, the hardware manufacturers know this so will only stray so far from the mainstream. The Wii pushes this boundary, but still remains mainstream with supporting traditional material.

I owned a microsoft sidewinder freestyle pro joybad - the think was built incredibly strong, and not disimilar in feel to that of a 360 pad. MS were trying something new at that point, and the pads were expensive. But they found these features only suited a few games, and actually the only ones that worked well were motocross maddness and flight sim. But at the time MS were doing it because it was forward thinking.

I thought about mentioning the build on it. It definitely had the texture and weight of the xbox controllers, but did offer a better grip IMO, and I liked the sega saturn style button layout.