By the end of the year, both Xbox 360 and PS3 will have added motion controllers to their lineups. In case you’ve forgotten, they’re the only consoles left using joypads as a primary input device, leaving many to wonder: Is this is the end of the thumb pad—you know, the one Nintendo invented?

“Not exactly,” was the general answer I came up with, in a report published this week for Venture Beat. Since Sony and Microsoft are releasing their motion controllers as expansions to their primary joypads, the latter still has life in it yet, experts say. Similarly, even Nintendo hasn’t killed the joypad entirely. They sell Classic Controllers (even a Pro one) for Wii, although secondary to Wii remotes.

Ultimately though, gamers really won’t know if the joypad is extinct until the next round of consoles. “If Sony and Microsoft use motion as their primary controllers next time,” says Jeremy Anderson, an independent developer, “then say goodbye to the console joypad.”

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime said he wouldn’t dare rip off the competition like Sony and Microsoft are doing with Wii.

“I think we would have been embarrassed to do what our competitors are currently doing,” he told Kotaku, when asked what his company’s next console might include. “So, all I can tell you is that we will innovate. We will provide something new. Something that the consumer and the industry will look at and say ‘Wow, I didn’t see that coming.’”

Oh, Reggie. It’s not like your competition is completely devoid of new input ideas. Okay, maybe they are. In any case, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming,” isn’t always the ideal reaction (ahem, Virtual Boy).

Are we really satisfied with the Wii? Should we be? Shouldn’t Nintendo be trying harder? It’s a question IGN’s Matt Casamassina brought up in his December editorial Nintendo is Lazy and You Don’t Care. Although not the only, or the main point in his editorial, Casamassina repeatedly cites both The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy as the “epics” the Wii is missing, the effort Nintendo hasn’t been putting forth. He elaborates, suggesting that gamers what bigger games, with bigger graphics – and – like many before him, asserts that the lack of HD output on the Wii is offending true gamers.

Infendo discussed this article internally awhile back, and some interesting thoughts came from it. As a new “HD Console” owner, something about Casamassina’s suggestion didn’t seem right.

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Jenny McCarthy and Ubisoft help remind us that camera-based gaming is already here with the new Your Shape fitness title that’s out this week.  It’s interesting to note that this is a rudimentary form of what Natal is expected to deliver.  Then again, PS2 had the EyeToy and I even had an Intel webcam back in 1999 that had the same basic functionality, nearly the same time Jenny was jiggling on MTV’s Singled Out (with Attack of the Show’s Chris Hardwick!)

So, uh, yeah .. cameras or what?

I shudder to think where video games would be today without Wii. There would still be games worth playing, but the focus on control, new ideas, and the realization of fresher experiences wouldn’t be as pronounced as they are now.

Like d-pads and analog sticks, motion control is now standard. Well, sort of. While Sony and Microsoft are expected to launch their motion controlling gadetry for PS3 and Xbox 360 next year, both products are add-on devices, not required devices like the Wii Remote is to the Wii. (more…)