Touch - A Splintering Effect?

I read this piece on Novint’s Falcon coming to consoles soon with great interest.  We’ve spent a ton of time touching up graphics for immersion, and the Wii shows that there’s a definite interest in a more tactile effect in games.  It seems pretty clear that there’s an opportunity here; however, the Falcon makes me wonder whether an all-in-one solution like the Wii remote is a potential answer.

I like the Wii, but it’s undeniable that it lacks the precision that many people expected when it was first announced.  The Falcon is a much more specialized device; it replicates the feeling of dimension and depth, and can do a convincing impression of holding a gun.  But it probably can’t be adapted to the many, many different experiences that a game is designed to replicate - controlling vehicles, maneuvering an adventure game character, and so on.  But it most likely nails the things it does try to do.

There seems to be a trade-off, then, between how effective an input device is and how specific it is to a designated function.  This probably makes a ton of sense to user experience designers, but I think it’s something that I haven’t processed all that effectively.  As a result, I wonder if we’ve run ourselves into a Catch 22: if we make a multitude of specific devices, they will be unaffordable yet replicate tactile experiences perfectly.  If we do not, they will be far less effective but more affordable.  The upshot, then, is that we may have a clear ceiling on sensory input devices… there’s only so much that we can do in this area before it becomes grossly impractical to continue making such items. 

There logical conclusion, then, is that games that are designed around these experiences will never meet certain standards likely demanded of them by serious gamers.  If you can’t meet the precision of a mouse and keyboard, then many gamers will eschew these devices, relegating them to the world of the casual.  Is this just a technological hurdle that is yet to be overcome?  Quite possibly, but that seems to be the current state of things.