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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - If consoles sales are all about the software, then what's the point Wii U's second screen?

PigPen on 23 September 2013
oniyide said:
richardhutnik said:
badgenome said:

I think it's there just because Nintendo is set on the idea that they can't just make a console anymore. It has to be different from their previous console, and it has to be different from the competition. While this worked for the Wii, the difference is that the Wii had a good gimmick and a killer app that explained that gimmick perfectly to customers. The Wii U seems to be something that Nintendo themselves isn't even really enthusiastic about, the screen having been a differentiator that they don't necessarily believe in but felt obligated to make.

There may be a killer app yet for the Wii U, but Nintendoland was definitely not it, and the fact that the basic idea of a second screen isn't really appreciably different from the DS with which Nintendo is already very familiar by now makes me think there isn't one coming. If there is, it will likely be something built around asymmetrical multiplayer, which is quite different from what's been done on the DS.

Is it the case of drowning in a blue ocean you insist on creating?  What I saw now is that both Microsoft and Sony ended up preparing the interface end around, with their own offerings.  If it ever ended up being critical, they could respond.

thats how it should be, building a whole console around one feature is insane IMHO, it worked for WIi initially but quickly found how limited that was, function wise. IMHO

Y'all can say whatever, but it'll look stupid to hate the gamepad but love the little black swipe thing Sony has going on with its controller.



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Dr.EisDrachenJaeger on 23 September 2013
Fusioncode said:
Nintendo seems to be moving away from the second screen being the selling point of the WiiU. I guess they realized that people don't really care about it.


People sure do love to talk about what people "care or dont care about"



TheJimbo1234 on 23 September 2013
FarleyMcFirefly said:
Why not? They innovate. They create new and exciting ways to play that amazing software.


So missed the point. It is only innovating if it actually works. This is why sqaure wheels on a car is a stupid idea rather than an innovation! How does it make games better? That is what OP asked.....



cyberninja45 on 23 September 2013
richardhutnik said:
badgenome said:
richardhutnik said:

Is it the case of drowning in a blue ocean you insist on creating?  What I saw now is that both Microsoft and Sony ended up preparing the interface end around, with their own offerings.  If it ever ended up being critical, they could respond.

Their second screen options are a bit of a hedge against that, but I wonder how successful they'd be if it came to it. On the one hand, it's not something that comes with their systems which limits the appeal to developers. But on the other, tablets and smartphones are things that most people have anyway. It's not like trying to answer the Wiimote with proprietary devices like Kinect and Move.

I guess it would really depend on why the Wii U would have caught on. If it's just a second screen, they're probably okay with tablet and phone support. But if it was something like off-screen play or a situation where you'd need a Gamepad like combination of touch screen and buttons, only Sony could really answer it and the Vita/PS4 combo is a pretty expensive one so wouldn't be successful.

Nintendo probably thought it would be a big killer app feature and they could have the lowest price offering in the area.  They probably did the same with thinking about 3D on the 3DS and found out that it was the price offering and incremental upgrade in an area where they have little competition in dedicated gaming handhelds, that did it.  They also have been holding on to trying to find ways to not bleed a ton of ink to try to win over people.  I am sure the Gamecube had them hurt a lot, and they have been going the blue ocean path.

I still now have visions of the Wii U merging with the DS line in the future, and them combining platforms.  The 2DS is a tip off for me.  This combining of portable and handheld, could be be very interesting though.  

It would be very unwise for nintendo to merge their handheld and console platforms,  keeping it separate is a much better business option (could you imagine if a wiiU sales situation came up with their combined platform and their was no handhled to fall back on), I don't know why people expect them to do this.

OT as I have said since the wiiU was initailly showcased back in 2011 that tablet controller thing is what is going to kill the console and nintendo should have never made it their main controller option, mainly because it is a couple of steps backward from the wiimote. I still cannot understand what they were thinking.



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Dr.EisDrachenJaeger on 23 September 2013

They knew the MMO's were coming so they made a touch interface



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Soundwave on 23 September 2013

Nintendo struck gold with the DS/Wii so basically Wii U/3DS were going to have to have some kind of "hardware gimmick/novelty/hook" (depending on how you view it) no matter what.

A 3D screen and a tablet controller were simply the best things Nintendo's R&D could come up with so they went with that.

I think that's really all there is to it.

It is in a lot of ways the direction Yamauchi mandated for the company around his "retirement" though truthfully I think he was still very much managing the company's general direction until around 2005 when the Wii was being finalized. 



joora on 23 September 2013

I can see it being a welcome addition for a potential Okami sequel :)

There really is a million possibilities to use the screen for better immersion or more usability of certain games. It's just a case of developers wanting invest to develop new and innovative ways of using it. Let's hope Nintendo shows some good use in their first party offerings.



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POE on 23 September 2013

To make different ways to play the software



MikeRox on 23 September 2013
richardhutnik said:
FarleyMcFirefly said:
Why not? They innovate. They create new and exciting ways to play that amazing software.

Care to explain what forms of new and exciting gameplay by the second screen, is actually out there and do able?  I would like to see practical examples of it in the real world, that will compel people to get a Wii U, the way motion control did with the Wii.  And that is the question.  I am looking for it beyond just a slogan level statement.


For me, the pad is basically meant to be a DS for your TV. The Wii added a stylus to home consoles (roughly) and now we get the second screen.

This allows for new sofware concepts to be tried. We've not really seen anything yet. I think part of that was due to diverting all the resources into 3DS software in 2011. However, this video shows the kind of potential Wii U has for me to become a killer single system multiplayer console, which lets face it, is something Nintendo have always been great at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r9tMvwi_9Y



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Jizz_Beard_thePirate on 23 September 2013

Cause Nintendo don't follow sheeps that do the same thing over and over again



                  

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