A few things hopefully everyone will keep in mind:
- Artwork for patents is usually represented in the most simple way possible in order to make the patent was wide-reaching as possible. This usually results in ugly art and is not indicative of the actual shape of the controller/handheld.
- It will be pretty easy for developers to avoid having your thumbs block important things like HUD elements and buttons by simply not placing them in the wrong areas.
That said, my curiosity is piqued and I'll wait to see what this leads to. It could be really cool, or it could end up like those televisions that shine ambient light around their edges (it's an interesting gimmick, but nothing outside the actual viewable area really matters).
I'm not so worried about the button situation. Nintendo knows people need real buttons. And when they do put buttons on the DS/3DS touch screen, usually it's not for precision actions (like jumping and attacking). Of course, exceptions exist.
Actually I'm not so sure about that. Has anyone here tried the Steam controller? Does its haptic feedback make up for lack of physical buttons where you'd expect them? Could you picture the controller working the same without the face buttons where the RAS usually sits on most regular controllers?
I'm wondering if perhaps Nintendo's exploring dynamc haptic feedback in lieu of regular face buttons, or if that would be possible ATM (again, just going off the Steam controller here).
Another mockup I had made back when the freeform display thing was rumoured:
The idea is a screen form-fitted around a set of physical buttons that could be used for labeling/extra UI functions, which seems to be what Nintendo just patented.
Good work, and it just gave me an idea how they could resolve the physical button issue. See, the buttons and stick don't have to be opaque, they can be translucent perhaps. That way the player can see through them but still get contextual displays under and around the buttons that configures based on each game.
But that may also require a variable-elevated screen. Basically a large touch screen with some parts elevated for physical feedback, with region-specific touch input registration. But in that case the buttons can't really be pressed "in", they would just register the pressure applied on that region of the screen by the player, but otherwise could be programmed to mimic regular buttons.
Not exactly sure how this could be applied with the analog stick though. Maybe by making it more like the 3DS slider? It could still mimic the buttons on the other side though, including being transparent so as not to obscure parts of the screen, b/c that's really the biggest problem w/ both the patent and this mock-up.
