I think this a mistake.  It limits both sports and fighting games on the console.  I wonder if Nintendo coming around to two controllers late in the development created some tension between them and EA.  A lot of their games would benefit with two Gamepads.


I also kind of resent Nintendo seemingly shoving asymmetric game play down my throat and I would think developers would feel this way too.

Ah, so it was this late until they figured out an acceptable method to use two Wii U GamePads at once. It's a missed opportunity if the first Wii U Madden game doesn't support two GamePads.

That's odd reasoning. Any game with split-screen multiplayer is an immediate candidate for 2 GamePad support. This seems like a last minute addition which is strange since it's the 1st thing most people thought of.

It's strange, but it doesn't surprise me. Nintendo seemed earnestly blind-sided by the questions about this feature at last E3. I think Nintendo made a misstep on not being ready for this out-of-the-box. I would've expected some dual GamePad gameplay at this E3, but it looks like it'll take a little more time for Nintendo to showcase that aspect of the hardware.

Now wait, it sounds like the title of the article is a little different than its content.

Is it that some Wii U launch games use 2 tablets but that the machine won't be able to support it until a future patch, or is it simply that Wii U launch games don't happen to be ones that tried to use 2 tablets?

The gist I've gotten from this story is that the Wii U won't be 2 GamePad-compatible at launch, but that'll come somewhere down the line with a firmware update.  As such, the launch games won't support 2 GamePads.

I interpreted this to mean the launch lineup merely doesn't have any games that use this.  Nintendo knows what third parties have planned so they probably have some idea if third parties plan to use this or not.  I never thought of the Wii U not even supporting it out-of-the-box.  I just assumed Nintendo implemented it too late to have the launch lineup use it.  They might not even have dev kits to support it out to third parties yet and thus they know no third party game will have it.  It doesn't mean the system doesn't have it at all.

I remain pretty surprised that Nintendo never thought of this until last E3 when everyone suggested it.  I wonder if Nintendo thought of it, figured it wasn't feasible and didn't plan to do it, and then changed their mind when it got brought up.  As a programmer I've had times where we thought of something but felt that it was time consuming to include and was unnecessary, only to have our clients immediately suggest it the first time we reveal the product to them.  Sometimes you take the risk that no one will care about something and it blows up in your face when they immediately notice it.  Nintendo might have felt we wouldn't care about only having one Gamepad and then, oooops, looks like we did.

Still makes no difference to me if there is two gamepad support or not. Later on it'll be nice, but in no way is not having it going to limit the gameplay or the fun that players will have for the system.

Just think of playing a local multiplayer shooter like this. Two people get action on the pads, and one person on the TV. It's like a LAN party in a box!

Word is that the latest Devkits only went out to devs several weeks before E3 2012, and those are the dev kits that have the extra port for the 2nd gMote® along with another slight hardware boost (final gpu?).

It's also why I'm sure that EA hasn't really said anything about Madden just yet as they are slaving away day and night to get dual gMote up and running. I think we might see a late version of Madden, but it will be the best version of Madden.

That's exactly what I've been saying since E3 last year.

Gosh, Nintendo is so stupid. Did anybody else realize that there was no mention at all of four gamepad support? For Nintendo not to know that anything less than this is unacceptable is ridiculous. They are behind the times.

Me too.

Of course, my personal take is that there just aren't that many games that will lend themselves to >1 tablet but I know a lot of folks on this board who feel otherwise!  And hey, at least now when that game comes along the Wii U will be able to support it and everyone can rejoice!

@koovaps

lol! +1

"Gosh, Nintendo is so stupid. Did anybody else realize that there was no mention at all of four gamepad support? For Nintendo not to know that anything less than this is unacceptable is ridiculous. They are behind the times."

I just love how this has nothing to do with anything.

Yeah, they're "behind the times". I mean look at Sony and microsoft! They got FOUR touch screen controller support! Nintendo is SOOOO behind.

4 GamePad support would have been nice if Nintendo could pull it off. I'm pretty satisfied with 2. Since last E3, I was really banking on them getting 2 working because I typically only buy 1 extra controller.

4 or more player support is there. It just has to be asymmetrical.

There are an awful lot of things I can and have criticized Nintendo about regarding the Wii U, but "not having 4 GamePad support" is just unreasonable.  From all reports, the console can barely handle two GamePads after the major hit the framerate takes with 2 active.  There's just not enough processing power in the Wii U to handle more than that.  And it would probably be no better if the Wii U actually was as powerful as its competitor systems probably will be.

I would have at least expected Pikmin 3 local multiplayer to support two pads. I was thinking that there might be an option to put a virtual curtain over the TV screen, so that neither player could see what the other was doing. Allowing each player to have their own separate window into the game would have given the multiplayer an additional element of strategy. Oh well.

Actually, Nintendo Land supports two GamePads for up to six players simultaneously. So the functionality will be there day one.

Where did you see that? This is Nintendo themselves saying it won't be there day one; I doubt they're going to forget the title they spent so much time on at E3.

Maybe I should clarify, I was watching a video interview with Scott Moffitt Where he was showing the GamePad and was answering questions about Nintendo Land. When asked about how many could play, he stated up to six, but didn’t directly say Nintendo Land that had that capability; so I was probably wrong if Reggie is saying those games won’t be available right away. Here’s the video if you would like to analyze it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd1mSFrE9Gc

I would be pleased as punch if they never support two gamepads.

And I'll be pleased as punch if they release some zany, one-off game that manages to use four for no good reason. :D

Yeah, me too. I was just being pissy. I'm just well beyond the point where I seethe and rage if Nintendo doesn't do exactly what I may want them to do. Multiple gamepads is a neat idea, but hardly necessary, especially right away.

If you can come up with an idea that uses four gamepads that would work right with each of them only getting 15 frames a second I'd like to hear it.

Poker.

That would be handy for all those times you've got four GamePads with you but can't scare up a deck of cards.

You asked. :D

Actually, though, I assume you're familiar with Diamond Trust of London.

I could imagine a greater-scale, euro-style board game with lots of 'hidden information' being a hoot with a Wii-like system to help keep everything under wraps.

I take the article to mean that Nintendo didnt prepare for developing titles to use dual game pads in time for launch titles to be programmed for it.  Which is really bizarre that they would decide to do it later in development.  Were they hoping everyone would be doing online stuff where only one person would be at a tv at a time?  Maybe they are making strides for better online with WiiU. 

In the world of big screen tvs, it should be able to handle no less than four if they are wanting it to be a family/friend gathering place.

@insano
@UncleBob

+5 each

You guys are crackin' me up!

No less than 4 GamePads? You do know the Wii U hardware needs to process and send the info for every GamePad? That is less processing power for the actual games. As it stands, two GamePads will already drop games down to 30 FPS.

I am of the opinion that it is NOT about processing power. I think the REAL limiter is the wireless 60 fps latency-free technology Nintendo is using.

I would assume the reason for the drop to 30fps is because the gamepads alternate in which gets new information. Same amount of rendering being done, and same amount of data sent out, but each gamepad only gets new information every other frame. In this situation, they "could" support 3 and even 4 gamepads if they wished to drop the frame rate to 20 and 15 respectfully.

I personally wouldn't object to 15 fps 4 GamePad gameplay, but that'd be a pretty bad user experience for most types of games.

what about something that doesn't need a high frame rate like board games or turn based strategy or RPG?

Or Poker?

Seriously, though... Diamond Trust of London.  Look it up.  Here on NWR. :D

God that'd be awesome.

They should sell a device 2 years down the line that plugs into the back of the GamePad that increases its functionality and doesn't get used more than once.

Heck, why wait 2 years? Release the Wii U Zapper NOW!