Coming from almost anyone else, it would be a preposterous, almost laughable claim. Even with the breakneck pace of technological advancement, the concept of using thoughts to control games and devices seems more at home in science fiction than in the living room of the near future.

Nobody, however, is likely to laugh at Satoru Iwata’s confident predictions on thought control.

Everyone with an interest in video games — consumers, industry insiders and stock markets alike — has learnt not to ignore (or mock) Nintendo’s crazy ideas.

Under Iwata’s guidance, the company has torn up the rulebook of interactive entertainment, creating new ways for people to interface with games and in doing so, it has become one of the world’s wealthiest companies. No company is quite so qualified to make predictions on the future of video games as Nintendo, because no company has contributed quite so much to their development.

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Almost uniquely among game console creators, Nintendo is happy to be described as a toy company — a role that it has filled since it began making playing cards in Kyoto in 1889. Its main rivals, Sony and Microsoft, prefer to be thought of as media and services empires. Yet Nintendo’s history of quiet but profound innovation has changed how we play, how we talk and how we interact with technology.

In the Eighties and Nineties, it invented or popularised many of the things we take for granted about video games, including handheld game consoles, the ubiquitous “D-pad” (the cross-shaped directional button arrangement sported by most game pads, mobile phones, in-flight entertainment systems and TV remotes) and the analogue stick, a miniature thumb-controlled joystick enabling smooth motion in any direction. More recently, it has torpedoed the sales of more traditional machines with systems that invite you to interact by writing naturally on a screen or moving your body.

Iwata’s mention of thought control — or brain-computer interface (BCI) — reveals that Nintendo’s passion for redefining the way we interact with our computers and game systems is far from exhausted.

He talks on a timescale of 20 years, but it’s unlikely that he would mention the possibility if Nintendo wasn’t already looking into its potential.

The company’s most successful products of late, including its Brain Training and Wii Fit games, have benefited from its relationships with Japan’s research universities. It is not difficult to imagine that some of those could cover the field of brain-computer interfaces.

Twenty years may not sound long, but research on BCI is already moving at a dramatic pace.

This year several companies plan to release consumer devices that allow basic, primitive control of simple games by measuring the brain’s electrical impulses.

Until now, the bulky headgear required to measure brainwaves looked like something from a nightmarish episode of Doctor Who. Today it can be packaged into sleek devices that sit inobtrusively on the forehead or temples.

Considering this pace of change, Iwata’s 20-year timescale may even be positively pessimistic — especially if Nintendo’s formidable backing helps to spur the research.

Moreover, this technology has the potential to change our lives, not just our video games. Thought control will change how all of us interact with technology, but the impact for some will be vast.

The medical implications for disabled or paralysed people are clear, while the advantages of a computer that can sense when someone is in pain or distress will be apparent instantly to anyone with elderly relatives.

Rob Fahey is a games industry analyst

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