VG247

Peter Molyneux may have just launched Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube? on smartphone and tablets this week, but he’s not convinced by the way tablet devices are being used by Wii U and via Xbox SmartGlass. He reckons it’s a case of tech guys running wild with ideas without thinking of the logistics.

Speaking with IGN, Molyneux discussed the problems that come with tablet controllers, “The thing about the SmartGlass is that the tablet is a thing that you have with you all the time. Now, in that sense, I understand completely as a consumer and I’m excited to see what these guys do with it. But I do have a problem with it.

“I now have a screen in front of me on my lap and a screen up on the wall that I’m looking at. Which one should I be looking at? Should I be looking up at the big screen and down, or at my lap and up? Should I be checking down on my lap every few seconds? What’s going to incentivize me to move my eyes from the wall to my lap?

“In a way, part of me is excited by this. But part of me is worried that this is a bit of tech which us tech boys get really excited about, and until I see some really great uses of that SmartGlass or the Wii U GamePad, the jury is out for me to be honest with you. I can see it if I’m watching a football game that the scores would come up on the SmartGlass. I’m all there for that.

“I can see if I’m watching a TV episode and it gives me some background on the actors. I’m kind of there, but I can do that on the internet already. The real use for me is how it’s used as part of the entertainment experience, and then that divided attention that you’re demanding of a player is going to be really challenging to balance well.”

What’s your take on the rise of tablet gaming and control functions linked to home consoles? Are you a fan, or are you a staunch supported of standard controllers? Let us know below.

Also, VG247 interviewed Peter Molyneux recently, where he argued that while the industry makes plenty of good games, it has yet to produce a great one. Find out what he means here: Peter Molyneux interview: how to make a great game.

Peter ideas were always hit or miss.

If Peter isn't crazy about it that must mean it's got great potential.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Molyneux is also no longer being paid to be convinced by SmartGlass.

what is he from the 19th fucking century?

bitch obviously is too dumb to multi-task

for pure gaming purposes i think he's right. i've watch a lot of wii U game trailers lately and the thing i've noticed more than anything is that the games blank out one screen to tell you to look at the other, else both screens show the exact same information. ..to which the question is, why did you need the second screen?

what excites me about the screen more than anything is the idea of dynamic buttons. instead of the the very generic "x" or "A" you can actually put up a meaningful button with meaningful artwork. i know my wife has a lot of issues getting her head around the idea that "x" means one thing at one moment and a completely different thing at another moment. if you update the screen i think she'd get it.

..but to that end, wii U, cross-play, and smart glass are all overly technical solutions.

I mostly agree with him. I hate looking down from my display if something is happening. It's nothing at all like having multiple displays in front of you, looking down then up again requires you to refocus your eyes twice. I can jump from one monitor to the other quite easily but I hate having to look down at my remote, or even worse, my controller. It breaks up everything.

Some people are going to love it. My sister constantly has her smartphone out during a movie, looking up this and that. She also misses the hell out of everything and then needs me to explain it, which is bloody annoying. I'm not really interested in SmartGlass because it doesn't give the same tactile cues as a remote with buttons. With a remote, I can do pretty much everything without looking down.

As for the Wii U, I've seen very little that makes me interested in a tablet controller. I don't want to have to keep looking up and down at a radar screen, for example; give me that stuff on a HUD so I don't miss anything. A few of the touchscreen things you can do in ZombieU look pretty nifty, but others look like they would work just as well if you toggled them on the main screen, and a few just look plain gimmicky.

I'm not sold on either one as bringing any real improvements to what I'm doing. I'd still rather have a remote and I'd still not convinced that a tablet controller will bring anything really special. The last part could change, of course, if some developer introduces something awesome, but for now it just doesn't seem like anything really interesting.

The only games that do that are the ones where a second player uses the gamepad to help the player on the screen, like adding platforms in NSMBU or using Murphy in Rayman Legends.

OT: I do believe touch screens can help in both gaming and entertainment if they are execute correctly. The Smartglass is a very cool concept, it helps in entertainment but not in gaming since you can't play complex games in a tablet (well you technically can but it's very annoying imo). As for the Wii U, I think is does add a lot for gaming experiences, by having the normal button layout it helps for more complex games and it have a big touch screen in the middle to help for other things (just like the DS), also the Wii U have the TVii thing for entertainment but we still need to see how it will perform and if the normal consumer likes it.

this is so simple, this guy is wrong since the moment he compare the Wii U vs Smartglass...

Who??