Nintendo: buttons on a controller are essential

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last few weeks, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard about the Wii 2/Project Cafe/Stream and its fantastically rumored controller that will reportedly include a 6.2-inch touchscreen (IGN’s mock-up above). Inside sources say the controller is like a mini iPad with buttons around it. Will Nintendo ever ditch physical buttons? Not likely. Here’s what Nintendo president Satoru Iwata thinks about buttons on a controller:

“Whenever we make a new game console, we’ve done it without throwing away buttons and the directional pad,” Iwata said. “The reason for that it’s better to have them, because buttons and directional pads benefit gameplay response.”

“Taking this into account,” Iwata continued, “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.”

Enough said. Buttons rock. So do D-pads. The Wii 2 is rumored to have eight buttons. Take that Kinect!