Ebenezer said:
Agreed. Nintendo isn't pushing asynchronous gaming because they WANT to, they're pushing it because they HAVE to. They don't have any other choice because that's all the console can currently do.
What I want to know is with these "We're looking into it" articles and I believe another clip of Reggie somewhere saying that things are almost finalized, If this WiiU is launching let's say in November'12, how long do they have between now and when everything must be finalized so they can go into mass production? That takes like at least 3 months before release, right? So if they're shooting for November then they've got until August-ish so 13 months. Others say they're looking at an April release. That would give them until about January which would be about 6 months.
If they only have between 6 and 13 months left, and they've been working on WiiU in Miyamotos words for at least 2 years, and they found what they have so far acceptable enough to show off in their world debut, then I don't see things getting significantly better in terms of supporting more than one WiiUPad. They might cave in and add analog sticks and triggers, but I think it's gonna wind up only supporting the one new pad.
Yeah, I'm not expecting a change in the one-controller focus either for various reasons. The main one being that if the limiting factor for just one is the wireless streaming, then the customised GPU is likely to have been fixed at a small second buffer for just one screen for cost/powers reasons.
All the talk that came out after E3 about looking into extra controllers etc. as a response to the negative feedback just came across as incredibly disingenuous. Multiple controllers would have been one of the very first things they looked at with regard to streaming, as well as keeping the latency down. They would have experimented with this already, and the system we see now is a result of those experiments. It will have been designed around the limitations.
I mean since E3 we've gone from all you need is one controller for the benefits of asymmetrical gaming, to they are looking into supporting more than one, to now it can do it but they want to spare people the cost. Well, it never stopped them encouraging people to take their Wiimote to other people's houses before did it? They even let you put your Mii's on it.
All the spinning is very annoying, and I think that explains the overall lack of confidence in the concept that came across at the E3 reveal. For once Nintendo are pushing ahead with a concept that goes against a lot of their philosophy and their strengths. I'm sure there are as many doubts and different views in Nintendo about it, as there are here. Ever since the NES they've pushed a minimum of 2 controllers, people sharing that experience.