Nintendo Considers Connecting Wii U and 3DS

[Marshall Honorof]

Nintendo Considers Connecting Wii U and 3DS

Connectivity is a distant possibility, but a possibility nonetheless.

Nintendo has historically been pretty good about providing connectivity between its handhelds and traditional consoles. The SNES had the GBA link cable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Game_Boy], among other things. The Wii and the DS didn't mesh quite as well, but according to Shigeru Miyamoto, the Wii U and the 3DS may see some cross-platform features in the future. In spite of the challenges linking the two systems provides, Nintendo is open to doing it at some point - just not right away.

While there was some limited Wii/DS connectivity [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii#Nintendo_DS_connectivity], Nintendo didn't focus much on linking the two systems together. "If we are going to [link the] Wii U and 3DS, there would be three screens to consider," Miyamoto points out. "The reason why we were not so eager to do a similar thing between Wii and DS if that it would have become very complicated using two screens on the DS and one screen on the Wii."

In addition to the logistics of balancing three screens at once, Nintendo has philosophical concerns about catering to a relatively small group that owns both devices. "[One] of the great lessons we have learned is the simple fact that those who own both are much fewer than those who don't own both. So what we decided early on when considering the Wii U design was that we had to make it so that every single purchaser of the Wii U is going to have the same play conditions, the same equipment."

Nintendo may not have any immediate plans to connect the Wii U and the 3DS, but it hasn't ruled out linking them, either. "There are things that can easily done by transferring data between Wii and DS or 3DS systems," Miyamoto remarks. The good news is that the advent of ubiquitous WiFi means that if the two devices can link together, players probably won't be required to buy an additional cable to do so.

Source: IGN [http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/05/nintendo-interested-in-wii-u3ds-connectivity]

Permalink

 

[gardian06]

Well why do you think that there isn't as much overlap between the 2. I don't know because you forgot how to market products for better together, or is it because of the marketing demographics are different. you tell me Nintendo.

 

[bladester1]

Nintendo, I'll give this to you for free. Let us use the 3DS like the WiiU tablet controller... and give us another stick for the 3DS...

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Nintendo, why do you hate me and repeatedly bork anything involving networking of any kind, whether it's local or Internet-based? Four Swords Adventures was one of the best multiplayer games ever (and FF:CC wasn't bad either), but it was such a pain to get four people, four GBAs, four link cables, and a GameCube together in one place. The Wii and DS both sold massively better than their predecessors and could easily connect wirelessly, and my friends and I waited and hoped for something to take advantage of it in a similar way...and kept waiting...and kept waiting...and eventually moved to different states and gave up and play PC games with each other online instead now.

I know a bunch of people who would play the hell out of new games that work like FSA and FF:CC did if someone would just make the damn things though, not that the Wii U supports enough tablet controllers for it, or handhelds either going by this article. Oh well.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Wouldn't it be four screens, not three? The two 3DS screens, the WiiU gamepad, and the one on the TV. Unless math changed with Daylight Savings, and everything goes back an increment. And how would you hold both of them?

 

[Qitz]

Isn't Capcom doing something like that anyways with Monster Hunter Tri G? Maybe not the exact same thing, where they'll let you use the same save data between the two, maybe some others but I can't remember it off the top of my head.

I don't see why "we're not sure how many people have both" would be a reason to NOT do it, hell, wouldn't having it actually BE A REASON for people to sell both? Shit, make a special, limited time bundle where you get a WiiU AND A 3DS with it.

 

[sethisjimmy]

I think it's kinda sad they're only "considering" this. Four Swords Adventures and Crystal Chronicles were great, and I enjoyed the Tingle Tuner in Wind Waker.

The 3 screen problem sounds like a bit of a copout, there really isn't anything difficult simply adding another screen for another player to control. You could just put an extra map there or an inventory viewer. Worst case scenario they just use one instead of two of the 3DS's screens.

 

[TJC]

Nintendo, there better be a freaking huge Pokemon stadium-like game on the WiiU which enables me to upload my time-consumingly trained critters from the inevitable Pokemon 3D and allows Real-time combat with them, assigning the four attacks to the four action buttons and changing my pokemon via the touchscreen and it better be in glorious HD and fracking awesome.

Considering that Pokemon still sells like crack on a bagel, WHY AREN'T YOU DOING THIS ALREADY D:< ?

Seriously, though, you have franchises that are BEGGING for such a connectivity and with digital downloads and the eShop you can even make it affordable while still making a profit out of it!

 

[Berenzen]

How could you forget the Gameboy Player, which allowed the Gamecube to fully emulate the GBA. it and the GBA link cablemanaged to lead to

Spoiler: The Gigaquad

For those who don't know what it is:

Spoiler: It is this, because it's too much of a clusterfuck to explain outside of a picture

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Wouldn't it be four screens, not three? The two 3DS screens, the WiiU gamepad, and the one on the TV. Unless math changed with Daylight Savings, and everything goes back an increment. And how would you hold both of them?

Do you have enough hands to hold both sides of the Wii U gamepad as well as both sides of the 3DS? I certainly don't.

You know... I'm 1000% sure that they don't want people to use both the Wii U gamepad and the 3DS at the same time, and i'm also certain they never once were stupid enough to even consider that a possibility considering the number of limbs on your average human being.

And yet they're continuously touting the idea that as many as five people can all gather around one tv to play a single game, but the idea that maybe two of those players could swap the wiimotes for a 3DS isn't that ridiculous. My comment was meant to point out how excessive the idea is, my mistake for forgetting the /sarcasm and /hyperbole indicators.

 

[Yopaz]

Wouldn't it be four screens, not three? The two 3DS screens, the WiiU gamepad, and the one on the TV. Unless math changed with Daylight Savings, and everything goes back an increment. And how would you hold both of them?

Do you have enough hands to hold both sides of the Wii U gamepad as well as both sides of the 3DS? I certainly don't.

You know... I'm 1000% sure that they don't want people to use both the Wii U gamepad and the 3DS at the same time, and i'm also certain they never once were stupid enough to even consider that a possibility considering the number of limbs on your average human being.

Proof that Nintendo doesn't always consider the amount of limbs a human being possess:

OT: I hope that they will come up with something eventually. Using it as an alternative to the Wii U pad is one option for Mario Party style games where having things on a secondary screen might be an advantage. There's also Four Swords Adventures which was awesome with the GBA connectivity.