"It's too damn complicated. Nintendo says they want to make things easier for people to adapt to. Having two halves (and thus creating a previously unthinkable problem of losing part of a controller) is going to scare people away more than pretty much anything. Longtime gamers will probably be wary of it let alone newcombers.
Do you really want to wave your arms everywhere to execute something that in the past was a simple button press? Physical fatigue is something you normally avoid by playing games."
I swear to God Ian, sometimes you are so closed minded. Just cuase YOU think it'll be hard to get a hang of, doesn't mean it will be. Who are you to say what is and what isn't?
Miyamoto said that he wanted a controller that was easy to adapt to, but he also said he wanted the controller to provide functionality. He gave SMS as an example of a game that was easy to adapt to yet used every single button, and therefore provided functionality. So obviously he wasn't talking about the cosmetics of the controller (cosmetics meaning how many buttons and so forth were on the controller). Instead he was talking about the controllers ease of use. The ease of use is what won't scare people away. Just look at the DS. It is a perfect example of this. It has 6 buttons, a d-pad, two-screens, and a touchscreen. You would agree it looks really complicated? Well those people who play Nintendogs (i'm talking directly about non-gamers) aren't scared away by such a complicated (looking) system because it is so easy to use. This ease of use is Nintendo's philosopy.
I think controllers today are only scary because they seem so abstract. It's hard for people to interact on a level they'd like to when the whole controller idea seems so weird and complex to them. People feel more at "home" when they use a racing wheel to control a car; or they use a flight stick to land an airplane.
A two-part gyration controller could be the first step to a controller that can adapt to many different situations. It can be the flight stick, the steering wheel, the boxing gloves, the pair of guns, the fishing rod, the hammer, the bow and arrow, the putter, etc. etc. This type of realistic interaction automatically means ease of use. It's that simple, it's Nintendogs simple. Now, it may not cover every area of gaming, but it does a pretty damn good job for something that can't morph into something else.
Think about Nintendo's philosophy for a moment. You'd agree that those DS games, that only use the touchscreen as the means for control, are easy to use. You'd also agree that those same games are the ones that non-gamers would most likely like. Well I got a question for you....what would make gyration so different? Gyration is very precise, to the point where you may have to turn down the sensitivity. So no, you won't be flailing your arms everywhere.
You need to open your mind to the possibilities and it's theoritical ease of use.