Leading business magazine Fast Company has issued its Top 10 list of what it's decided are the "most innovative gaming companies." The list presents an eyebrow-raising mix of choices that make us wonder if "innovative" was really the adjective Fast Company meant to use.

The ranked list can be found on the magazine's site, but we'll offer up some of the highlights. Microsoft is at number eight, innovating (in part) by outselling PS3 and partnering with Netflix. Take-Two, in seventh place, was innovative in not being taken over by EA (and getting some GOTY awards for GTA IV). Let's see ... Harmonix is making a Beatles game, Blizzard sold a lot of Lich King expansions and Nintendo has mass-market appeal. Innovative stuff.

Actually, the only truly innovative item on the list is LittleBigPlanet, Media Molecule's refreshing take on the classic 2D platformer. Might we suggest that next year's list be produced using a journalistic innovation known as "research?"

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

One of the most prominent words in game journalism and discussion today is "innovation" – how can companies innovate successfully, and how come there isn't more of it in the industry? Implicit in this conversation are three assumptions that don't generally get examined with the same thoroughness: that "innovation" is per se important for gaming, that all innovation is essentially the same in content and value, and that companies promote profitability over innovation. I'd like to talk about these unspoken assumptions in light of the banner few years that we've had as gamers.

I think most people would concede that innovation is important, whether to gaming or to consumer packaged goods. But why? At least in gaming, it's largely because our interest tends to dissipate along with challenge; if you're not being shown something interesting, why pay attention to it? Familiarity may not breed contempt, but it definitely doesn't breed excitement (nor sales) either.

During a Forbes piece that takes a look at the future of gaming, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed that Nintendo is already working on their next console. The likelihood that we could actually see or be told anything concrete about it is nonexistent, however. Nintendo's current console is both selling far too well and, we imagine, development of their newest console is in the earliest stages, considering the Wii hasn't been on store shelves for two years yet.

"We are always preparing for the next hardware," Iwata said. "We are under development. ... But the hardware is a kind of box that consumers reluctantly buy in order to play our games." Well, we wouldn't say reluctantly, because most people seem to be more than happy to pick up a Wii.

In terms of future specs, Iwata commented that every new piece of hardware "needs some revolutionary features." He also added that "This time around, it happened to be we had a revolutionary user interface. Will it be the same for the next generation? I really can't tell." Considering what the company did with the Wii, we're totally expecting bigger and better things from Nintendo.

President Iwata also went on to comment about how hard it is for them to innovate beyond what they've done this generation. "It's natural for the current customer to expect Nintendo is going to once again do something different. If the people are expecting so many different things from Nintendo, it's going to be difficult for us to go beyond that expectation again."

[Thanks, Joe!]

After almost three years of restructuring, Sony's über Chief Executive Howard Stringer says the company's "next cycle is actual innovation." Heavy on promise but light on details, Stringer says the PlayStation Network will expand to offer other kinds of content. This is exciting, if only for the fact that if Sony actually puts some major drive behind PSN now and delivers something comparable to Xbox Live, we can finally say goodbye to the competition's yearly fee.

Stringer notes that PS3 sales have become steady since price cuts were announced, a fact aided by constant Wii shortages. It seems 200k machines are now sold weekly in Europe, while 40k to 50k are sold each week in Japan. Poetically, Stringer says that the company has "momentum," which we hope gives Sony the push needed to catch up to what Microsoft has spent years establishing and tweaking with Xbox Live.

Following up on Nolan Bushnell's recent labeling of our post-Pong games as "unadulterated trash," Gametap's Curt Feldman decided to have a chat with the Atari founder on the tel-uh-fohn. In the resulting interview, Nolan Bushnell explains that his scorn is just reserved for a "narrow segment" of gaming, which happens to include (you're not going to like this) Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto. While Rockstar's sandbox gets predictably deplored for its "deification of antisocial behavior," Bungie's critically acclaimed shooter is deemed no more than "Doom 1 in different clothing." As he puts it, "Clothing or not, the clothing is nicer, but the game is the same."

Yesterday, over on Wii Fanboy, we spent a little time discussing some of the best control schemes we've seen so far on the new console. We thought that today might be a good time to get the DS readers in on the action, since after all, the handheld has really brought a lot to the table. What games do you think have really made the best use of the touchscreen? How about the mic? Best games overall? No real rules or categories here -- just talk up what you've liked best about what the DS has to offer.

Monday afternoon brought a pack of indie gaming stars out of their dark workspaces and into the spotlight of the Independent Games Summit. Kyle Gabler (Tower of Goo), Jenova Chen (flOw), Jonathan Blow, and several others were on hand to discuss the role innovation plays in independent game development. The overused "i" word has become a cliché in recent years with commercial developers using it to mask the ugly symptoms of sequelitis. But with smaller dev teams and less emphasis on making money, indie developers actually can focus on creating interesting content and stretching the boundaries of gaming conventions.

As Gabler points out, computing power will continue to progress over the next several decades and exceed our ability to use it. Instead of inventing new gimmicks to distract us, games must focus on the one thing that doesn't change: human emotion. That's the reason Final Fantasy VII will make you cry (if you're a wimp), Beyond Good and Evil will make you hate Big Brother, and Tetris will lead to the development of an odd proclivity for stacking objects.

Did EA Montreal GM Alain Tascan really believe he could get away with bad mouthing Gears of War for lacking innovation? Dude, c'mon, you work for EA; its bread n' butter is copy-pasting last year's game (and somehow making it worse in the process).

The problem here is that 'innovation' is being tossed around as a magic substance that makes a game superior. But what is innovation? How do we measure it? Are Gears' cover-system tweaks innovative? We think so. How about its active reload minigame? Sure, we haven't seen that before. Aliens threatening human existence in a post-apocalyptic shooter? Of course not. But how would Tascan know that? By his own admission, he's never played the game.

Aside: Tascan also bad mouthed reviewers for praising Gears. He did however applaud "two very brave UK-based journalists" who dealt Gears 8/10s -- sadly, low scores in the twisted world of games reviews. One of those outlets was Eurogamer, which picked up on Tascan's rant and used the incident to herald its own "brave" work with a link-back (in the original post; now edited). But once commenters created a stir, upset by Eurogamer's display of hubris, the site removed the link in an attempt to save face. Tsk tsk.

Though you might be inclined to give Square Enix president, Yoichi Wada, an incredulous stare as he discusses the merits of innovation before the release of Final Fantasy Thirteen, a recent interview with Nikkei Business Online points to his fairly levelheaded approach to the topic. "If we don't see some [next-generation] titles that differ from traditional games, the industry is in trouble. Nintendo's DS lineup gives you an idea of the potential..." However, Mr. Wada goes on to say that immmediately tossing out all previous conventions and concepts isn't necessarily the best solution.

"We must change. But if we change all at once, the system will collapse, and since our profits are built on that system, it's a difficult question. So you have to introduce change from a completely unrelated direction within a separate budget framework. This is something all the companies are worrying about right now. Fortunately, we're financially prepared to handle change." It raises the interesting point that change may be easy to trumpet but difficult to usher in, requiring gradual steps and some assistance from current franchises. The earlier point regarding the DS' success is an interesting one, since Nintendo's many franchises and characters were arguably instrumental in introducing a different way of playing games.

The ability of unique hardware to funnel innovation in certain ways also intrigues Square, which is why "Square Enix will collaborate with Taito, a company that produces physical hardware. In our talks with Taito, ideas for an actual physical product have come up. In any case, we will be releasing some 'thing.' It's interesting in that it's not the sort of thing you expect from Square Enix." With that in mind, we now can't wait to play some sort of Final Fantasy game on a Square Enix thing at an undisclosed time in the future.

[Via Gamasutra]

Gamespot's Inside E3 blog points out that Sony didn't steal their motion-sensing PS3 controller from Nintendo-they stole it from Microsoft and Logitech:

They didn't steal from Nintendo. They actually stole from Microsoft (and Logitech). The picture you're looking at here [follow link to see pic] is a picture I took of gyroscopic, motion sensing controllers that Logitech and Microsoft manufactured for the PC in 1999. Yes, 1999 as in more than seven years ago.

...I just wanted to point out that this idea was soooo 20th century, and immediately flamed out on the PC because they were honestly more of a novelty than they were practical.

Of course, that would imply Nintendo stole their novel and impractical- exscuse me-innovative idea as well.

[Thanks Elijah]

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata recently spoke to Bloomberg during the Game Developer's Conference. In regards toward a global launch for the Revolution, Mr. Iwata said "We don't think it's necessary to do the simultaneous worldwide launch simply because others are doing this." Kudos Mr. Iwata...kudos.

It's obvious that Nintendo strives to innovate and remain easily identified as the company attempting to evolve the industry beyond progressively better graphics and essentially define it for a new age, it's just nice to read these affirmations that we've selected the right company to stand behind once in awhile. However lacking in concrete information regarding the Revolution beyond the inclusion of a past competitor's games to its Virtual Console service, we at least now know that the Japanese will once again luck out over the rest of the world and will most likely receive the console first, while we're left to bathe in our salty, warm tears.

[Via Joystiq]

Despite a pleasant atmosphere of European expectation at the start of February, we're halfway through and the charts look as mundane as ever. The Guardian Gamesblog's Greg took a look at this week's UK charts--notable absentees include Psychonauts and We ♥ Katamari. Ouch.

Greg, and blog commenters, ponder the cause of these games' failures--from crazy cartoony packaging to gamers' inability to actually find the titles in shops. It seems most likely that the European release delay is responsible, though; after receiving rave reviews and building up buzz months ago, these titles are all-but-forgotten now.

In Europe, this February is going to be weird; it will see a surfeit of quirky, off-the-wall titles, as this article in the Guardian explains. This month's releases include Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus, We ♥ Katamari and Stubbs the Zombie.

Many of these titles have been heavily anticipated in Europe after gaining praise elsewhere, and a January that's been typically thin on the ground has left gamers with itching wallets, ready to buy anything. However, this coincidental release of several oddball titles in the same month could prove to be too much even for die-hard consumers--some of these games have seen poor sales in other territories and this may not help.

Fortunately they won't vanish from shelves at the end of the month, so Europe is in for a treat.