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Nintendo's Wii U has "major issue" with capability

Dean Takahashi discusses issues with the Wii U's tablet controller

Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference left many unsatisfied with its content, with many people citing the software as a disappointment. However, to GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi, limitations with the tablet controller are the most disappointing aspect to him.

"They have a major issue with the capability of the Wii U console where it has a single processor but it has to drive multiple displays," said Takahashi. "A single graphics chip inside the console has to drive the big screen, the main game screen, but it also has to provide the imagery for the tablet controller, the game pad. And yet the system itself isn't that powerful."

"Nintendo only showed games with one game pad controller and the TV," he noted. "Most games out there, if you're in a social setting, you want two controllers. Nintendo didn't show any games that do that. They admitted in a Q&A that the games are going to run slower if you have two game pads and playing on a main display. That's a fairly big issue for them."

Currently, Nintendo is trying to push the capabilities of the system in an "asymmetric" sense, but Takahashi isn't completely bullish on that. "They made a good case that you can play with one controller and multiple Wii controllers, what they call asymmetric gaming where one person is looking at the small tablet screen and trying to deploy zombies while the people playing with the controllers were all on the main screen," said Takahashi. "You come up with very creative, different kinds of games where it's one against four, or one person going online. They tried to justify and turn into an advantage this major weakness of the Wii U, but I think a lot of people saw this as a weakness."

"The games themselves were creative. They tried to do something like Wii Sports with NintendoLand, which has mini-games in it that explore the capabilities of the tablet and the touch screen. But there wasn't an obvious blockbuster within those games. They may have had a good one in ZombieU, but in the demos it didn't necessarily play that well. Nintendo came up as a pretty big disappointment at E3," he concluded.

Read the full interview on [a]list.

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David Radd avatar

David Radd

Writer - GamesIndustry International/[a]list

David Radd has worked as a gaming journalist since 2004 at sites such as GamerFeed, Gigex and GameDaily Biz. He was previously senior editor at IndustryGamers.

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