While much has been made about the emulation capabilities of the Nintendo Wii, and if you're a fan of yesteryears' titles then you are in heaven right about now. And the precedent this sets has deeper consequences for Nintendo that they have very likely thought through.

In short, get used to Wii's unorthodox control scheme, it'll be here to stay.

For the most part, games all share the same general control scheme and have done so for years. You get some kind of directional control, some buttons, and you're good to go. Because of this commonality, it has been possible to port games across platforms, and even resurrect games from older platforms through emulation.

With the arrival of the Wii, two things happened at once to change the status quo.

First, and most obvious, is the shift in the fundamental way in which games are controlled. I'm sure this will be all kinds of fun in practice, but fast forward 3 or 4 years to the point when the PC emulation scene would normally begin to see the first sign of games booting fully outside of the console. So now these hypothetical Wii emulation scenesters are going to need USB adapters, special input algorithms, and still need original controllers. What a hassle! I predict that very few will bother to overcome all this. Nintendo, in a stroke of pure genius, has created the most fun-focused anti-piracy dongle in the world.

Second, Nintendo has ushered in the true commoditization of legacy video game intellectual property. Nintendo's online sales channel along with Microsoft's Live Arcade will create a persistent and accessible marketplace free from logistical issues of physical media pressings. In doing this, Nintendo created value out of long forgotten IP (is anyone else looking forward to the chance to play Kid Icarus again?), and that's great. But what is more interesting is the precedent this sets.

No longer can games just be written for the consoles of today if next generation systems will posses enough processing horsepower to emulate - and they clearly will. Write an amazing transcendent game today and there is now a very real possibility that it will be kept alive forever in these emergent emulation marketplaces.

In combining the new control scheme with the new marketplace the gravity of Nintendo's decision begins to become apparent. Being one of the pioneers in creating this intellectual property marketplace, Nintendo must be clearly aware of this long-term consequence and opportunity. So when Nintendo bets the farm on this odd control scheme today, they are doing so with the confidence that this will be THE way to control games in the future. If they're right, then they stand to profit from you not only n November 2006 when you purchase Super Mario Galaxy, but again in 2016 when you pay $9.99 to download on the next-next-generation Nintendo console which will still use motion-based control in some way.

You heard it here first. :-)