Developers continue to weigh in with their views on the Revolution(ary) controller...

Gamasutra has put up an excellent piece polling various game developers on their thoughts in lieu of the controller unveiling. Specifically, Gamasutra wanted to know their take on whether the radical change would be beneficial to Nintendo, third party developers and ultimately the industry as a whole. Here are several interesting responses, the rest can be found here:

Carlo Delallana, Ubisoft:
This new control system really differentiates Nintendo from its competition and should allow them to position the Revolution in the marketplace very clearly. IDG did a study that shows that more households will go multiconsole when the next-gen systems hit. Gamers may consider the Revolution as a good companion system to their more mainstream consoles (Xbox 360 or PS3). There's a lot of potential with the controller as far as game design, I'm sure designers all over the world are probably thinking of ways to exploit this technology. We could see some really amazing games and possibly new game genres making its debut on the Revolution. How much support the Revolution gets is entirely up to Nintendo. Software sells hardware and the launch line-up for the Revolution and clever marketing from Nintendo will determine if this gamble pays off. This is a chance for developers to break out of the mold of "formulaic game design" and really explore what games can be, possibly expanding the audience at the same time.

Cameron Christian, Luxoflux:
This move is beneficial to Nintendo and the game industry as a whole. We will always be able to push graphics and computing hardware, but it takes something truly innovative to change how we interact with our games. It seems to be the mind set that we have come to the peak of controller design and nothing could beat the PS2 controller configuration. Unfortunately, that mind set limits our industry. We should never stop exploring new ways to interact with our games. With a new interface comes new game genres, and new ways to experience games as a whole. What makes this controller great in design is that not only will it allow for new genre types, but it's also perfectly compatible with current genres out there, and if any thing it can push these old genres to a whole new level in their own right. Yet, with this much functionality the controller is still simple in design and look. Nintendo has built this simplicity into a form people are already comfortable with, a standard TV remote. This will surely grab people that were scared by the complexity of the current controller schemes, yet allow them as much control as a player who uses a PS2 controller.

It's a risky move to develop a whole new way to interact with our games. I'm sure a lot of third parties are scared, and they're worried about the potential for porting their product to the Nintendo system, but once Nintendo releases some first party titles and shows the market how to truly utilize the controller, the fear will wane. I even think that if these third parties port their title right, they will play even better on the Revolution because of the controller. I also feel that Nintendo isn't dependent on the third parties to launch its system; most people I know buy a Nintendo for the first party titles alone. Honestly, we should thank Nintendo for continually pushing the envelope and trying to move our industry to the next level.

Vince Dickinson, EA-Tiburon:
I think it's a fantastic move for the industry (and gamers). Who isn't looking forward to seeing what fun and unique new games Nintendo comes up with? I know I'll be first in line. If anyone can deliver on the promise of expanding the market, it's Nintendo - and they've proved that in Japan with DS Brain Training and Nintendogs. I think it's also a good move for Nintendo's bottom line as well, as it further differentiates them (in a positive manner) from Sony and Microsoft, which is critical. As for third parties, I think it will be successful for companies that invest the resources to create Nintendo-caliber games. I doubt you'll see as much third party support for the Revolution as the PS3 & Xbox 360, which leaves a great big opening of opportunity for adventurous or niche developers to fill. But companies whose businesses are built on raw cross-platform development are going to see the fewest copies sold on the Revolution.

Warren Blyth, NaturalPoint:
This will be great for the industry in general. The majority of our customers are too dense to understand that there are better ways to play games than joysticks, mice, and keyboards. They don't even understand why you'd want to move in true 3D space (all 6 degrees of freedom), or why you'd want to touch a screen instead of positioning a cursor on it. They think that technology from 20 years back is still used to control games because it's still the best. It's ridiculous. I work for a company that has been selling a motion tracking game input device since 2001 (based on your simple head movement, instead of a wand/remote), and we're fascinated to see how Nintendo handles the paradigm shift. It will be a huge benefit for innovative companies (hardware or software) when Nintendo educates the mass market about what new technology can offer.

A positive common theme among developers right now indeed seems to range from cautious optimism to glowing enthusiasm. Hopefully these intitial feelings will parlay themselves into dedicated development efforts... to a man, developers seem to believe that proper focus on the hardware will yield great gaming results. Another interesting feeling I noticed echoed among their statements is that smaller development groups, in the Revolution, may very well have their best shot at realizing their big ideas and potential talent.

Stay tuned to R-E for more Revolution chatter and details.