Since Nintendo announced its latest console at E3 a few years back with the code name "Revolution" we all knew that it would be something special. But just what was it that was going to be so revolutionary? Collectively, our first thoughts went to the then yet to be revealed controller, and this is where a problem began, but we didn't know it at the time and we continued along our line of thinking. What would it look like? Was it going to be the second coming of the power glove? Some kind of mind reading device? A gelatinous blob?

When Nintendo finally revealed the Wiimote, we all had the answer that we had been looking for. It certainly seemed revolutionary, or at the very least far different from anything the competition was doing. Nintendo presented a clip of all the things that developers might use the new device for and some of us began to see the potential. This thing would give us precision in FPSs like the consoles had never seen. It would allow for easy control of strategy games like those on the PC. Sports games would find innumerable benefit from the motion sensing. Innovation would pour out of the little white remote, we could all see it, despite the naysayers. But as the years have come and gone many of us have been left thinking, "Just were is that promised revolution?"

When the Wii was released it was almost immediately noticed that the Wiimote wasn't going to be able to do everything we had hoped. But there came an answer to its limitations soon enough in the form of the Wii Motion Plus. This would be the real revolution. Finally, the Wiimote would do everything that was promised from the beginning.

6-7 months after Mo+'s release and nary a ripple has been felt in the industry. Nintendo itself has released only a single compatible game for the device, Wii Sports Resort, and, so far, only has plans to release one other, Zelda Wii.

And if you think about it, Nintendo hasn't given that much more support to its standard Wiimote. Think about their biggest games since the Wii's release. SMG only gave token support for motion control: you had to shake the wiimote to spin, point at star bits, etc. But nobody focused on that. What made SMG so fantastic was the gravity mechanic (and the bee suit!). Most were glad that it didn't overuse motion controls. SSBB: on default, there were no motion controls, and the option existed to use GC controllers. People loved it for this and still call for it in games today. Mario Kart Wii: Motion control was available and advertised, but it certainly wasn't anything that hadn't been done before, and, as with SSBB, the option was there to not use the Wiimote altogether. NSMBWii: again, token support. In fact nothing about the Wiimote has been at all revolutionary. "Nintendo has failed!" everyone cries. Or have they?

--->Point: As you might recall, the problem began when the Wii was revealed as the Revolution, sans its mysterious controller. We went strait to the missing piece and thought we'd solved the puzzle. We were wrong. There was something else that we couldn't see, the real revolutionary idea that Nintendo had in mind. The audience.

While some of you might be saying to yourselves, "Well, duh!" I have to admit that I haven't been able to really understand this until recently as I watch Sony and Microsoft attempt to create revolutions of their own and steal a portion of the Wii audience. Natal is a neat concept and the Wand is a blatant rip off, but ultimately they are both wrong headed. They are creating a motion input method for their consoles simply for the sake of doing it, just so that they can say, "We have fun motion controls, too!" But the audience just won't be there. This is probably for another blog, though.

Nintendo used motion controls as a means to an end. Expanding the audience of Nintendo gamers to include those who had stopped playing games long ago, those who had never played, and those who played Solitaire and Bejeweled on their computers for hours on end was the real revolution. Motion controls were only one of the weapons it would employ in its struggle. The Wiimote was the artillery, the simplicity of its new titles and interface the bombs, the VC was the guns, and nostalgia the near endless supply of ammunition.

So, what does it matter?

Well for one, it can tell us a bit about the future for Nintendo. If the Wiimote is only a tool for a larger purpose, then can we really expect it to hang around forever? It is, in fact, exactly what a lot of people said it was and so many Ninty fans denied, a gimmick. To constantly expand the audience, Nintendo is going to have to constantly change its gimmick. Just take a look around you, right now in your room/living room/ where ever you keep the Wii in your house chances are good you own at least one input method extension of some kind, be that the Balance Board, Mo+, Zapper, WiiWheel, heck even the Nunchuck might need to be considered. This is not going to stop. Get used to it now. The Vitality Sensor will be upon us soon. Do not make the mistake of thinking that will be the end. Nintendo has to keep coming up with these things to accomplish their goals. The more weapons they employ, the better chance they have of getting everyone to buy and play a Wii.

As a bit of a side note, none of this is inherently bad for those who feel threatened by the expanded audience. Real innovation is being born out of these devices (again, look at something like Natal, probably going to fail, but wow, think of the stuff that could come out of that thing!). A lot of the games that use motion controls are really quite fun and use them well. I don't think I have to say more than Wii Sports or Tiger Woods '10 to prove that.

We also can assume that Nintendo's next console, whenever it comes out, will not do everything that it can to perfect the motion control system, but instead do everything that it can to perfect the way it expands the audience. Sure, this might include better motion controls, but nothing is guaranteed. Currently, I believe that the system will be five things things: 1. Cheap 2. Simple 3. Expandable 4. HD (only because people like pretty things, and its a lot cheaper than it used to be) 5. and made by Nintendo. I can say for sure absolutely nothing else. Why can I say these for sure? Well, because with the exception of HD, this is exactly how the Wii was, and it has worked for Nintendo so well. If I'm taking some guesses I would also say that it will have a more robust online, though still no where near XBL, and possibly more multimedia functions like the announced Netflix deal. That's it. How can we even guess at anything else when there are so many possible ways for them to draw in a larger audience? If this were the Xbox audience, well we know what they want, but a non-gamer audience, that's up in the air.

More importantly, what does the audience revolution tell us about the future of gaming in general? Well, at the same time it tells us a whole lot and a whole little. All you "hardcore" gamers out there, chill. Nothing will really change for you. As long as you keep buying the games that you love, they are going to keep being made. You may eventually become a minority, buy you are a loyal minority, a loyal minority with money.

But we have to be honest here and talk about what most people reading this will fear. As new devs come up, they are going to have to make a choice: make games for "gamers" (RPGs, Strategies, FPSs, etc) or make games for the new audience (2d platformers, puzzles, mini/party games, etc.) [For the record, these are all still games, people! Interactive entertainment no matter which way you cut it! We shouldn't separate ourselves so much!]. Which do they choose? A lot more is going to go into this choice than "which one has the bigger audience?" such as "which one do we know how to make? which one are we good at making? which one will we get a publisher for?" In some case, this will push new games in one direction, in other cases, the other. Either way, the only thing that will probably change is the quality of what are now known as "casual" games and perhaps the frequency of what are now called "hardcore" games. If the thought of not having 3-4 "hardcore" games to play every single month scares you, you may need to adapt. The rest of us should be fine.

In reality, the Revolution that we thought we were going to get with the Wii was insignificant. Additionally, a focus on motion controls would have been nothing at all really. Controllers change all the time and they are never thought of as revolutionary, though they do give us more options. A new revolution in gaming may have begun, but it has nothing to do with technology, and everything to do with the audience.