Did Microsoft just make Nintendo's Wii U tablet irrevelant?

[Alby_da_Wolf]

mrstickball said:

Alby_da_Wolf said:

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Edit: some of the sources cited in the OP say it will be cross-platform, not Win 8-only (for the part regarding the phone or tablet), this could widen its audience and success, but about its effects on WiiU, PS3 already offered many of its functions before and nobody said they make Wii U tablet irrelevant. Anyhow, what prevents Ninty from offering these functions too? 3rd party controllers already exist for Wii, Ninty could make it possible for gamers to use smartphones and tablets with enough functionalities and control axes as additional Wii U tablets.

Microsoft said during their own conference that Smartglass was for Android, iOS and Win7/8...

As for Nintendo copying it - what would the point of it be? It wouldn't offer any significant benefit, since they'd already have a tablet, and its obvious that in regards to how the WiiU operates that it may degrade performance (e.g. the citation of FPS dropping when a 2nd tablet is added).

Only if really needed, if the market starts really pretending this feature, obviously. I too don't see Nintendo doing such a thing easily, but if they so choose, the idea isn't totally new, so they should just dodge MS and Sony patents, and if the ones they own or licensed for Wii U aren't enough, they can simply file some new ones and/or license some other ones.