Atari founder praises Nintendo's new controller

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has praised Nintendo's new "freestyle" Revolution remote - claiming that controllers such as Sony's Dualshock are scaring away gamers because their designs are too complex.

Speaking at the Digital Interactive Entertainment Conference in Kyoto, Bushnell said: "The 3D controller that Nintendo is on to is a very good idea.”

"If you look at today’s controller with triangles, Xs, squares and circles, it’s scary. It’s like a keyboard. People are interface phobic.”

According to Bushnell, overly complex controllers are one of the reasons people have turned away from gaming. He claimed that there were 44 million gamers in 1982 - a figure which stands at just 18 million today.

"Complexity lost the casual gamer; violence lost the woman gamer," Bushnell said.

Bushnell founded Atari back in the 1970s and enjoyed huge commercial success with arcade classic Pong. He later sold the company and established the Chuck E. Cheese chain of restaurants, and is now planning to open a series of pizzerias with tabletop games for diners to play.