Nintendo and the future of games

Nintendo president, Sitaro Iwata, has long beleived that video games are heading for a crisis. The gaming industry has been shrinking in Japan, and he beleives it is only a matter of time until the markets in the US and Europe follow.

He beleives this is due to games become too complicated and boring (where are the innovative new forms of gameplay)? While XBox and Playstation continue to fight their same-old same-old polygon wars, Nintendo has been innovating on the interface side to enable new forms of gameplay.

The touchscreen Nintendo DS was their attempt at revolutionizing the handheld market, and the upcoming Nintendo Revolution, with its motion sensitive expandable one-handed controller, will be their swing (literally) at the console market.

There is a great video of Iwata discussing Nintendo's strategy and the success they have had so far. (Long). Certainly the problems he cites -- people grow older and have less time to master games, people cannot handle the complex controls, people are bored with FPS, 3D platformer etc. etc. resonate with me.