

Nintendo's WiiU: Touchscreen, coming 2012 - phren0logy
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/touch-screen-controller-wiiu-unveiled-coming-in-2012.ars?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+Featured+Content%29

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jerf
While we've never had a full-color screen in our hands with a console, we have
had _displays_ in our hands before, with the Dreamcast. I would consider it a
bit of a warning that the Dreamcast's promises of how the display would be
useful almost entirely failed to pan out. I think the core problem is that on
average, you're not going to split your attention between two screens, if for
no other reason than physically acquiring a screen with your eyes is a
significant fraction of a second. The fraction of a second spent changing
screens better have a really good payoff.

For every use case given for the auxiliary screen, I'd ask, could it have been
done on the Dreamcast (even if not quite as well), and if so, why didn't it
work there and why will it work on the WiiU? Merely saying "now it's in color"
really isn't good enough, I think.

I can generate hypothetical uses as much as the next guy ("call plays in
sports games!" "multiplayer shooters!" "rear-view windows!"), but once I tone
down the excitement (easy after years of practice) and really think about the
pragmatic issues of trying to use this auxiliary screen, I'm not actually
coming up with many situations in which the auxiliary screen is the _best
solution_ , which is the real criterion to measure uses of it by, as opposed
to _a_ solution. Play calling works, but that's an awfully elaborate screen
for such a use case. Rear-view displays don't work at all. Locally multiplayer
shooters are OK, but what will the main screen be doing?

An example in the current generation: Light gun games are best with motion
controllers (haven't tried Move but assume it will be at least as good as the
Wii), because that game style really uses the controls, a two-dimensional
high-speed directional input system that can harness muscle memory; with only
a little practice I can flick reliably from one side of the screen to another
and it isn't long before there is no longer any barrier between where I am
thinking the reticle should be, and where my muscles are putting it. I have
never had such fun with this genre as I have on the Wii. Motion controls are
not merely _a_ solution, but are the _best_ solution, beating out even "badly-
calibrated arcade gun without on-screen reticle". Whereas "wiggle the stick to
attack" is not an argument in favor of motion controls, because while it is
_a_ solution, it is not the _best_ solution, and the Wii's reputation has
suffered from the number of games that have tacked this on so they can claim
"motion control". Motion control as a whole has had a big problem with being a
solution instead of the best solution. Given the price of the screen here,
both in dollars and in controller comfort, I don't see it being the best
solution to enough problems to make it worth it.

(Opinion calibration: I was actually up on the Wii, precisely because motion
control really did open a lot of things up, and I consider it still underused.
Unfortunately, sophisticated uses rapidly become very complicated AI problems
to try to figure out what it is you actually meant. I'm also at least modestly
up on the 3DS' long term potential, but it's going to take probably 2 full
game generations before the developers themselves get over seeing it as a
gimmick and start "truly" developing for it. I don't consider myself a
reflexive naysayer. I really do think this isn't very likely to turn out to be
useful for games, though. But I could be wrong; this could be the iPad of the
space. Who knows.)

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scott_s
It works fine in the DS. Status and maps generally go on the other screen,
which prevents the "pause, go to menu, look for something, resume what you
were doing" flow. You just glance up.

The Zelda mock-up seems like a clear win to me: the controller has the full
item menu, and you could just tap the items you want to equip. Yeah, there
would be a context switch to look at and manipulate the screen on the
controller, but the same is true for using a pause-based menu. The difference
here is that the main screen remains unchanged. I think that incurs less of a
cognitive context switch.

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pmjordan
The DS screens are roughly the same distance from your eyes, though, so
switching between them doesn't require refocusing, which is both tiring and
slow.

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ansy
It's an extension of the Nintendo DS formula. Except the top screen is the TV
and the bottom screen is embedded in the controller. The controller's cost
will be a huge factor. It could be as much as $100 ... or more.

Nintendo just needs to make a phone. A Nintendo DS with a cellular antenna
that's free after carrier rebates. How could that not work? Every kid would
get it. A lot of adults, too. If you really wanted an iPhone or Android, you
could just buy a normal Nintendo DS. There's so much opportunity there, it's
baffling. Even if all it did was play Mario and have the same features as a
flip phone it would sell.

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k_harrigton
If the Wii U supported more than 1 new controller at a time the cost would be
a huge factor. I don't think it does. If it did I believe they would've
mentioned it at the conference. Instead they showed a picture of a
controller/screen and 4 wiimotes.

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alanfalcon
If Nintendo didn't disdain indie developers so much, this would be a much more
exciting announcement. This kind of innovative thinking is wasted on the mega
corporations who hardly take advantage of it.

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mortenjorck
If Apple puts out an SDK for the Apple TV in September, things could get
exciting pretty fast.

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joezydeco
Isn't WWDC where most SDKs get announced?

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zdw
Usually. Apple hasn't talked about iOS 5's impact on the AppleTV, other than a
mention that the iCloud photostream would be accessible from there as well.

The previous gen AppleTV is still running the equivalent of MacOS X 10.4, so
hopefully the new one won't get the same neglect.

I'm thinking that at most they'd work with other large content providers
(Hulu, etc. in addition to Netflix), or will push Airplay + other devices as
solutions on the AppleTV.

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jsz0
As a non-console gamer is really amazes me how complex it has gotten. There's
gotta be at least 4 different controllers that will work on the WiiU? How do
you decide which one to use? Are some games unplayable without the right
controller? The Xbox and Playstation seem to be even more complicated with
add-ons like the Kinect and a controller with tons of buttons/combos to
memorize. It's really daunting to me at this point. I don't think I could
pickup a console/game and have any fun at all. I would have to figure out
which accessories to buy first and probably sit down and read the manual (do
games still come with manuals) before I could even attempt to play. The
complexity doesn't seem to be hurting the industry yet but it makes me wonder
how far they can push it before it just becomes completely inaccessible to
normal people.

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ryanisinallofus
It's crazy. They found a problem, and solved it in a novel way. This makes
having a console possible in my single tv house.

Too bad this won't be out for Christmas or I'd be getting one this year.

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steveb
I kept thinking about the iPad as I watched the video. Nintendo sees
opportunity in freeing users from the TV, Apple sees opportunity in freeing
users from desktops.

Nintendo, being a game company, keeps the console as the focus, and has the
controller as the accessory.

Apple, a device company, has the smarts in the controller, and AppleTV is the
accessory.

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modernerd
WiiU announcement video from E3 2011:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eniBUtc4Uws>

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desigooner
FWIW Quite a lot of the game footage was from XBox 360 + PS3 games.

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rexf
I'm interested in how much they will charge for the WiiU controller. The Wii
had controller-itis with the wiimote + nunchuck + motion plus. At least the
WiiU will re-use the Wii's controllers.

Also, how does the 3DS fit in the equation? If the WiiU controller works for
standalone gaming, it could compete against the 3DS.

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kakaylor
From the article (referring to the controller):

"Please understand that it was not designed to be a portable video game
machine," Nintendo President Saturo Iwata explained.

Looks like it won't compete against the 3DS.

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genbattle
Can't say i'm impressed by Nintendo's offering. It's like they've spent the
last 5 years resting on their laurels, then in the last few months before E3
they slap something together with every possible feature you can have in a
single controller, and upgraded the hardware to handle HD graphics.

The console itself is fairly decent for it's size, it would be interesting to
see whether long-term hardware issues will arise out of shrinking down such
high-performance components. All of the tech demos seem very smoke-and-mirrors
at this stage; when the Wii was revealed there were real demos with playable
games that people could pick up and enjoy. Overall the hardware feels current-
gen, and with MS and Sony already planning their next consoles, it won't be
long until Nintendo is again at the back of the hardware rankings. No media
playback seems like a bit of an oversight; it uses a proprietary disk format,
and there is no mention of media playback, except Youtube integration. Seems
it will follow the same path as the Wii did with DVD/media playback.

The controller seems strange; you can use it in several different ways, but it
seems to be optimized to a tablet-type usage scenario. The placement of the
shoulder buttons seems very awkward with the size and shape of the controller.
As i said, it just looks like they've tried to incorporate everything
including the kitchen sink at the last minute, with no _real_ use-cases or
target applications.

In the end the biggest disappointment for me is that Nintendo hasn't addressed
the areas it admitted it failed with the Wii. Not so long ago they said they
knew they had failed to engage developers on the same level as MS and Sony,
and they had failed to create a healthy online ecosystem. Their announcements
at E3 haven't addressed either of these failures, so I can only assume that
they are still working on a solution, or they are going to continue with the
same strategies that they have used in the past.

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MetallicCloud
Whilst I agree with you, can you really blame Nintendo for continue to do what
they're doing?

By just releasing low cost hardware and iterating the same franchises, they
are making a killing without having to barely anything. As long as people are
willing to open up their wallets, there's no reason to change.

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dhechols
This looks like the most uncomfortable thing in the world to hold. It looks
expensive, gimmicky, and prone to breaking.

By the time they launch this, Microsoft will be announcing new firmware for
Kinect with even more extreme fidelity than they have now, and Sony will start
hyping their next console.

Add to that the lackluster sales of the (gimmicky, low battery life) 3DS, and
I'd say Nintendo just jumped on the fail whale.

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superkarn
"This looks like the most uncomfortable thing in the world to hold"

Most of Nintendo's previous controllers have been quite comfortable and
ergonomic compared to their competitors.

That said, the WiiU does look kinda awkward.

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podperson
I've owned several Nintendo platforms (N64, Wii, DS) now, and every one has
been starved for compelling titles. Indeed, the best titles (imo) have been
the same damn things with minor variations over and over. This seems to work
for Nintendo, but it's hard to get excited about a new gimmicky hardware
platform which will have the same titles slightly changed.

It is funny to see Nintendo appearing to go back to conventional controls
having lured Microsoft and Sony into the gimmick gesture control tarpit.

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mahyarm
All that hardware and I worry about the weight. The ipad is tiring to hold up
in your hands long term, if that thing has any sort of battery life, it would
be fairly tiring to hold up too.

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joelanman
I thought that, but then this will presumably be all plastic, like current
Wii/DS hardware. If so it'd be significantly lighter.

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brianbreslin
ok so someone explain this to me. this device negates the need for a Wii? or
is an extension for the wii? so are they updating the graphics on the wii?
Sorry I'm slightly confused by this (and i've been gaming for 20 years+)

How does this connect to a tv?

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fhars
You are taking the wireless controller for the console, the console looks like
that
[http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=21727778#p21727...](http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=21727778#p21727778)
and connects to the tv with a cable.

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brianbreslin
ah thank you! no one was showing the console in the pics. thus confusing me.

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jon914
The Iwata Asks interview for Wii U has been posted. Some interesting insights
into the thought process that went into it.

<http://e3.nintendo.com/iwataasks/>

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nathanb
Any idea if it's backward-compatible with the Wii?

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indy
Yes, it's fully backwards compatible

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zdw
No word on gamecube backwards compatibility like the Wii had.

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ja2ke
Wii's hardware is nearly literally the GameCube's hardware with extra video
memory, so odds are high that backwards compatibility would continue.

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pmjordan
They've only mentioned 12cm discs so far, and no word on GC controller ports.

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tocomment
When is the next Zelda coming out btw?

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flannell
I watched it live. Once the controller was confirmed I immediately thought
about a feature Microsoft did in Vista called SideShow.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SideShow>

