Considering that Nintendo made waving controllers around in the air an industry standard with its Wii console, one wonders what the company will do for an encore.  Yesterday's talk of a new Nintendo home console launching in 2012 with an E3 reveal in a few weeks has sent everyone speculating, and CVG has word that the next big controller innovation involves controllers with small embedded high definition screens.  How's that going to work?

What's most exciting about the Wii successor however is its all-new controller, which industry sources have indicated is not simply an upgraded Wii Remote, and will even feature a built-in HD screen.  Our sources did not specify whether or not the controller displays will feature any other functionality, such as that of the DS's touch screen, but it's easy to imagine the sort of innovation an extra screen could bring to Wii 2 games.

How very Dreamcastian!  Sega fans will surely remember the Visual Memory Unit's little LCD screen which could attach to a Dreamcast controller, and that's the impression I'm getting with this at first glance.  Nintendo has tried a similar concept before, too.  The Game Boy Advance could link to the GameCube to allow certain games to drop the action from the television to the handheld system (The Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Adventures immediately springs to mind), but since very few people had all of the technology required to make the most of the gimmick (a television, a GameCube, a supported game, four Game Boy Advances, four link cables, and three friends to play with you in the same room at the same time), this may be Nintendo's second strike at the idea.  Launch with this functionality right in the box and the potential audience for those sorts of games skyrockets compared to offering extra add-ons later.  Mark this one up as another "Hmm, could be" in advance of any kind of official announcement, but the possibilities are intriguing.

(via Game Informer)