Satoru Iwata dismisses the idea that Nintendo's next console will implement a tablet form, or at least in their traditional sense...

Taking questions after his investors briefing earlier this week, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata seemingly dismissed the idea that the company's next console would take the fight directly to the grip Apple's iPad holds on the tablet market. Via Kotaku, Iwata was quoted as saying:

"Whenever we make a new game console, we've done it without throwing away buttons and the directional pad. The reason for that it's better to have them, because buttons and directional pads benefit gameplay response. Taking this into account, Nintendo isn't planning on completely ditching buttons, nor is Nintendo thinking of taking tablets as they are today and implementing them in a game console."

While we already knew Nintendo had no interest in ditching buttons, the comments may go some way in debunking various reports that play up their 'Project Café' controller's similarity to a tablet device.

After all the apocalyptically wacky rumours surrounding Nintendo's next-gen console's controller, what form do you think it will take?