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Lutherjw has brought to our attention a story that has been evolving this week. The main point is that Nintendo has been awarded an Emmy for it's revolutionary D-Pad controller.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has awarded Nintendo an Emmy® Award for its invention of the plus-shaped D-pad, one in a long string of Nintendo's controller innovations. The award was presented in recognition of the technological achievement of the D-pad, which radically changed how people interact with their video games and, by extension, their televisions. Nintendo received the award in Las Vegas during the Technological & Engineering Emmy Awards, which kicked off this week's Consumer Electronics Show.

The D-pad first debuted on the controllers for the Nintendo Entertainment System® in 1985, and has been standard on all video games controllers ever since. The D-pad replaced joysticks and represented an early example of how Nintendo was willing to shake up the status quo in the search for a better gaming experience.

"Nintendo has long been a pioneer in the way that people interact with their games," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "Our commitment to pushing the envelope continues today with our motion-sensitive Wii Remote controllers, which again rewrite the rules. We are grateful for this award and thank the academy for the honor.

We're a big fan of the plus-shaped D-pad here at N-Plus (you see what we did there), and it's great that Nintendo have been recognised for another revolution in gaming.

There's a comical aspect to this story in that Sony were also recognised for their Dual-Shock controller (for what exact reason I do not know - did it bring any particularly new to the gaming experience? I guess two thumbsticks is now pretty standard on joypads). Sony, however, got all confused and thought they had won the award for the PS3 SIXAXIS controller. They even released a press statement about it. Cue a bit of back-peddling and apologising.