E3: Nintendo's Wii U Supports Two Gamepads

[WMDogma]

E3: Nintendo's Wii U Supports Two Gamepads

[img_inline src="http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/92/92907.png"]
Nintendo banishes worries there was limited multiplayer on the Wii U.

During its press conference at E3 this morning, Nintendo released a few new details of Nintendo's newest console, the Wii U, and the capabilities of its gamepad. Most importantly, it announced that the Wii U will support two separate gamepads at one time.

In addition, Nintendo also gave a quick tour of a more final version of Wii U gamepad's technology, which almost turns it into a handheld gaming console all on its own. Along with a touchscreen built into the pad, the Wii U also includes motion controls, a microphone, camera and stereo speakers.

All these features are meant to support a new kind of gameplay. "The new disruption is called asymmetric gameplay," said Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo America. What "asymmetric gameplay" means is that the person playing the game on the Wii U gamepad will have different mechanics and even goals than the player using the TV. Ubisoft President Yves Guillemot said the innovative "asymmetric gameplay" is what drew his company's designers to making games for the platform.

The design of the Wii U gamepad certainly implies that you and a friend will be able to team up to play a game cooperatively (or competitively), putting to rest any doubts that the Wii U would have limited multiplayer capability. It does raise another interesting question: Could the Wii U allow two individuals to play two different games from each other off of the same console?

We should find out more soon when The Escapist team gets its hands on the Wii U this week at E3.

See all our coverage directly from the E3 2012 show floor. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/conferences/e3-2012]

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[Epona]

It should support 4 Upads optionally. You should be able to have any combination of Upads and Pro controllers or Wiimotes.

You know the whole "different goals for different players" makes me wonder if it's going to be like Mario Galaxy where the second player had nothing fun to do. You know, sort of like how Sonic 2 was a 2 player game but Tails was no fun to control at all?

So, is the Upad going to be a standalone handheld or will it be tethered to the WiiU (ie, remote play)?

 

[Dastardly]

"The WiiU, now twice as expensive for half as many players!"

EDIT: I take this comment back. After reading some other features, it's become clear that more than two players can participate. It's just that only two at a time could use the new gamepad, while the others use Wiimotes or other controllers. Still underwhelming, since it means you can't have four players in a full-featured gamepad-oriented game, but not as bad as I thought.

 

[jFr[e]ak93]

Welcome back to the 90's! Thanks Nintendo for the nostalgia, now back to this decade...

OT, this is pretty weak, why not make the other two optional?

 

[Phase_9]

But...but...what about my Smash Bros?

 

[Epona]

"The WiiU, now twice as expensive for half as many players!"

EDIT: I take this comment back. After reading some other features, it's become clear that more than two players can participate. It's just that only two at a time could use the new gamepad, while the others use Wiimotes or other controllers. Still underwhelming, since it means you can't have four players in a full-featured gamepad-oriented game, but not as bad as I thought.

If you have 4 players then the game can't use the full functionality of the Upad because it would be unfair to atleast 2 of the players. This is just bad design, if your controllers are too expensive for consumers to buy 3 extra controllers then you need to redesign the controller, not create this fragmentation.

What if the Wii only supported two Wiimotes and everyone else had to use Classic Controllers.

 

[Dastardly]

If you have 4 players then the game can't use the full functionality of the Upad because it would be unfair to atleast 2 of the players. This is just bad design, if your controllers are too expensive for consumers to buy 3 extra controllers then you need to redesign the controller, not create this fragmentation.

What if the Wii only supported two Wiimotes and everyone else had to use Classic Controllers.

Oh, I'm not disagreeing on that. But it's still better than what I originally thought -- a new console that can only support two players at a time, period.

I don't think the issue is the expense of the controllers, however. I think the issue is that it's a helluva lot of hardware, and the machine can only support two of them. So, it was probably down to either stripping features off of the gamepad, or limiting how many you can use with a system. I can't blame them for choosing what they did -- a stripped-down gamepad might not command the same attention this one does.

 

[Epona]

If you have 4 players then the game can't use the full functionality of the Upad because it would be unfair to atleast 2 of the players. This is just bad design, if your controllers are too expensive for consumers to buy 3 extra controllers then you need to redesign the controller, not create this fragmentation.

What if the Wii only supported two Wiimotes and everyone else had to use Classic Controllers.

Oh, I'm not disagreeing on that. But it's still better than what I originally thought -- a new console that can only support two players at a time, period.

I don't think the issue is the expense of the controllers, however. I think the issue is that it's a helluva lot of hardware, and the machine can only support two of them. So, it was probably down to either stripping features off of the gamepad, or limiting how many you can use with a system. I can't blame them for choosing what they did -- a stripped-down gamepad might not command the same attention this one does.

I think it was the cost of the controllers that prompted this move. Either way though I can blame them because if your controller is too expensive or too resource hungry to be practical to use 4 of them at once, you redesign the controller. Is the gimmick really more important than not fragmenting your 3rd and 4th players? I think it's even possible that games that are meant to be multiplayer wouldn't even bother with Upad functionality.

 

[Dryk]

"The WiiU, now twice as expensive for half as many players!"

EDIT: I take this comment back. After reading some other features, it's become clear that more than two players can participate. It's just that only two at a time could use the new gamepad, while the others use Wiimotes or other controllers. Still underwhelming, since it means you can't have four players in a full-featured gamepad-oriented game, but not as bad as I thought.

If you have 4 players then the game can't use the full functionality of the Upad because it would be unfair to atleast 2 of the players. This is just bad design, if your controllers are too expensive for consumers to buy 3 extra controllers then you need to redesign the controller, not create this fragmentation.

They've already announced that streaming to that second pad drops them both back to 30fps because they just render alternate frames on each of them ... there's NO room to use four with the hardware they have. It would cost more in processors not controllers

Not to mention it means rendering more delicious pixels

720p - 921600 pixels
1080p - 2073600 pixels

1 Wii U pad - 409600 pixels
2 Wii U pads - 819200 pixels
4 Wii U pads - 1638400 pixels

 

[Epona]

"The WiiU, now twice as expensive for half as many players!"

EDIT: I take this comment back. After reading some other features, it's become clear that more than two players can participate. It's just that only two at a time could use the new gamepad, while the others use Wiimotes or other controllers. Still underwhelming, since it means you can't have four players in a full-featured gamepad-oriented game, but not as bad as I thought.

If you have 4 players then the game can't use the full functionality of the Upad because it would be unfair to atleast 2 of the players. This is just bad design, if your controllers are too expensive for consumers to buy 3 extra controllers then you need to redesign the controller, not create this fragmentation.

They've already announced that streaming to that second pad drops them both back to 30fps because they just render alternate frames on each of them ... there's NO room to use four with the hardware they have. It would cost more in processors not controllers

Not to mention it means rendering more delicious pixels

720p - 921600 pixels
1080p - 2073600 pixels

1 Wii U pad - 409600 pixels
2 Wii U pads - 819200 pixels
4 Wii U pads - 1638400 pixels

So they designed a 4 player system that couldn't handle 4 standard controllers and instead of redesigning the controllers or the system they just decided to give players 3 and 4 inferior controllers.

That's just insane.

 

[blizzaradragon]

But...but...what about my Smash Bros?

Well that comes down to if they need to use the screen or not. If not, then presumably you can have two people use the tablets and two people use the 360-esque controllers. Otherwise they've said you can connect with the 3DS, so presumably you can have friends using their 3DS to play as well.

OT: I'm glad they can support two. Honestly I didn't think they even needed to do it, since from what I've gathered most of the games that would use the tablet to it's full effect are either single-player anyway and ones that are multiplayer will have the tablet user being the gimp fifth player, but still glad they did. Besides, I don't see the 360 supporting more than one or two tablets connecting to it to be used in a similar fashion or 3-4 Vitas connecting to the PS3.

 

[weirdee]

i suppose the main disconnect here is that people were expecting things to stay the same with controllers and want to continue exploring with the games themselves, while nintendo continues to try expanding a system's overall possibilities along different paths

however, we need both of these influences to ground us in our current situation while looking ahead

we'll see if it works out with just the one or two, then keep moving it up...i feel like having just one or two players in a very tight, focused experience may be good for quality control in the future, seeing as the loose nature of the wii let a lot of subpar work in

 

[Dryk]

So they designed a 4 player system that couldn't handle 4 standard controllers and instead of redesigning the controllers or the system they just decided to give players 3 and 4 inferior controllers.

That's just insane.

Not as insane as you might think. They might be looking at how the Wii turned out and figuring that not enough people are going to bother thinking of a good reason to have four of them in a multiplayer game.

I can think of one though, card games.

 

[Something Amyss]

WiiU: You can have four players if you don't mind losing two friends.

 

[chadachada123]

So they designed a 4 player system that couldn't handle 4 standard controllers and instead of redesigning the controllers or the system they just decided to give players 3 and 4 inferior controllers.

That's just insane.

Not as insane as you might think. They might be looking at how the Wii turned out and figuring that not enough people are going to bother thinking of a good reason to have four of them in a multiplayer game.

I can think of one though, card games.

But what about *practically every Brawl-player, period*? It's sold over 10 million copies, and I'm sure well-over 50% of them have played 3 or 4-player mode before (and probably 70% of THOSE playing with Gamecube controllers, the only good controller).

Unless they make Super Smash Bros WiiU able to use the Pro controller for all four players, they're going to effectively turn off a huge chunk of their audience.

 

[Dryk]

But what about *practically every Brawl-player, period*? It's sold over 10 million copies, and I'm sure well-over 50% of them have played 3 or 4-player mode before (and probably 70% of THOSE playing with Gamecube controllers, the only good controller).

Unless they make Super Smash Bros WiiU able to use the Pro controller for all four players, they're going to effectively turn off a huge chunk of their audience.

Well the pro controller is pretty much just a tablet controller, I was planning on using it anyway even though I think the layout is dumb. There's no doubt in my mind that most people will be using the pro controller to play Smash Bros.