E3 2011: Wii U console and controller won't be sold separately

cooloneuk on 8 Jun '11 said:

If what the rep is saying is true then that is ridiculous. for 2 or 4 players and having to use the Wiimotes, I might as well just stick to the Wii then.

Ppl should be able to sync more than one of the tablet controllers for multiplaying, since this will be a massive difference to what the other 2 consoles are offering. Although the Wii was only designed to have 4 controllers I found out it was possible to connect 16 controllers to one Wii console at the same time.

We should just wait and see, because the big N would be insane to miss an opportunity like this

The_Jaster on 8 Jun '11 said:

Maybe it won't matter as Online takes more precedent these days over local MP, plus I only ever had 2 wii remotes so its not a big deal to me.
I guess it saves on price too as it would be ridiculous to price a controller between £80 to £100 this way is best I think but I do admit syncing more that 1 would be pretty cool.

conceptwhite_fox on 8 Jun '11 said:

To be quite honest, when I first laid my eyes upon this, my first thought was "Oh, this looks like a WiiPad for parents to see what their kids are playing on their brand spanking new Wii U with sexy slim controllers..."

Boy, oh boy was I wrong!

HeavenlyGamer on 8 Jun '11 said:

If what the rep is saying is true then that is ridiculous. for 2 or 4 players and having to use the Wiimotes, I might as well just stick to the Wii then.

Ppl should be able to sync more than one of the tablet controllers for multiplaying, since this will be a massive difference to what the other 2 consoles are offering. Although the Wii was only designed to have 4 controllers I found out it was possible to connect 16 controllers to one Wii console at the same time.

We should just wait and see, because the big N would be insane to miss an opportunity like this

You had a project to figure out how many controllers you can connect to one single Wii? I think your next project should be getting a girlfriend asap!

jiggzy king on 8 Jun '11 said:

Thats just got to be a temporary thing, to stop shortages a-la wiimote... plus they probably dont want anyone to know how much it'll cost until we're all sucked in! if they say "its £80-£120, you mugs only get one in the box"(defo) then we'll all groan. where as if they woo us with hd-goodness FIRST, we wont give a monkies how much it will cost.. we'll just need it..."STAT!"

of course you'll be able to buy another one eventually...

the wii was cack... and im a ninty-fan... never owned one, never wanted to.. but im buying this, and im naming it, and im playing it... end of!
They need to add gamertags and a decent online.. once they realise they can do the standard stuff to charm the everyday players and still do the ninty stuff for the casual gamers AND the groovy s*it for the hardcore, the world will be theirs..
(I'll still keep my 360 as well though thank-you-very-much) But the 3rd parties are all over this, so thats the major wii-flaw corrected.

yes nintendo
yes.

but the name sucks.

no nintendo
no!

LordVonPS3 on 8 Jun '11 said:

The most important question here is:
... What if I accidentally break my controller?

Will Nintendo send a replacement (for a fee)? Do I have to buy a new console....?

The issue of using multiple controllers isn't one of just reading multiple controller's button inputs... The issue is to do with updating multiple controller screens along with the system's VRAM memory and related performance requirements that come with it. For every new controller - you would need to render an entire scene and at what resolution?!? It creates all kinds of issues around texture loading and caching (as in theory players could be in different places), let alone scene rendering buffers, anti-aliasing (extra RAM needed), particle and shadow buffers, etc, etc... Streaming all that data to multiple screens would then be the next logical problem after this! You'd need multiple, parallel wi-fi channels to shift all that data fast enough and you'd need a very fast bus or multiple channels to get the data out of VRAM to the wi-fi as well!

I'm guessing 30fps is achievable on the controller and nothing more.

For the rumoured Wii U specifications and this method of sharing 1080p visuals, multiple screen controllers would be out of the question unless the screens were v.low rez or turned off.

KippDynamite on 8 Jun '11 said:

To be fair, I rarely need more than one controller for my gaming habits, but being restricted to one fancy controller seems odd for a system that:
1. is unique/marketable mostly due to it's unique controller, and
2. panders so much to super-happy-great-family-togetherness-time.

On a side note, I expect to see news stories in 20 months about children cracking each others' skulls while fighting over the fancy controller, much like their shattered plasma TV's were cracked 5 years ago.

humanhand on 8 Jun '11 said:

This makes no sense whatsoever. You would think it would be something they could make a little scratch off of. Don't break your controller kids.

solamon77 on 8 Jun '11 said:

Nintendo always seems to include at least one ridiculous decision in every console they produce:

NES = Side loaded carts so it errors a lot
SNES = Over the top censoring
N64 = Cartridge based when CDs were the norm
Gamecube = Weird proprietary disc format and controllers that really only worked well with games specifically designed for them.
Wii = No HD support, arduous online support
Gameboy Advance = Only 2 face buttons preventing developers from porting SNES titles
Virtual Boy = .....
DS = No analog stick, terrible online support
Wii U = Only one screen controller, lack of hard drive

I guess it wouldn't be Nintendo without something like this happening! What happens if you break your controller?

potnoodle1 on 8 Jun '11 said:

The most important question here is:
... What if I accidentally break my controller?

Will Nintendo send a replacement (for a fee)? Do I have to buy a new console....?

The issue of using multiple controllers isn't one of just reading multiple controller's button inputs... The issue is to do with updating multiple controller screens along with the system's VRAM memory and related performance requirements that come with it. For every new controller - you would need to render an entire scene and at what resolution?!? It creates all kinds of issues around texture loading and caching (as in theory players could be in different places), let alone scene rendering buffers, anti-aliasing (extra RAM needed), particle and shadow buffers, etc, etc... Streaming all that data to multiple screens would then be the next logical problem after this! You'd need multiple, parallel wi-fi channels to shift all that data fast enough and you'd need a very fast bus or multiple channels to get the data out of VRAM to the wi-fi as well!

I'm guessing 30fps is achievable on the controller and nothing more.

For the rumoured Wii U specifications and this method of sharing 1080p visuals, multiple screen controllers would be out of the question unless the screens were v.low rez or turned off.

Yeah, that's spot on to what I was thinking as well. Though if it's just a simple in-game item inventory or a flat 2D map then the problem is lessoned somewhat.

verynaughtyboy on 8 Jun '11 said:

How will you be able to use a Wii-mote as an alternative controller when it only has one analogue stick. For example, your mate comes around and you decide to play a split screen FPS. You have dual analogue control, which you need for that sort of game, and he has one stick and a huge disadvantage.

This must be a temporary thing. Nintendo are going to wait until they've built huge anticipation and sold millions of units and then announce availability of controllers at a high price. Maybe if we knew the cost of a second controller it might put us off buying a the console.

Balladeer on 8 Jun '11 said:

This is thick. This is Nintendo being very, very thick. Are they trying to kill off local multiplayer?

kettiby on 8 Jun '11 said:

This is thick. This is Nintendo being very, very thick. Are they trying to kill off local multiplayer?

Local multiplayer was effectively killed off by Xbox Live and PSN. I'd say Nintendo are catching up.

snk_kid on 8 Jun '11 said:

It makes perfect sense, too support streaming the game to 4 Controllers is going to be computationally too expensive even for today's generation of GPUs without the help of another gpu core or SLI/cross-fire setup. Think about it, the Wii-U would need to render 4 different views of the scene, encode video in real-time, stream the data to each device all at the same time sending/receiving input data. Lets not forget about the bandwidth requirements for streaming video too 4 devices.

There is no way that this system is going to support up to 4 Wii-U controllers without some kind of compromise such as not support streaming to all controllers.

pRM8 on 8 Jun '11 said:

For a company who constantly promote local multi-player with almost all adverts showing at least 2 or more people playing together this seems like a totally ridiculous idea.

So basically its going to be a fight who gets to use the fancy controller in households around the world

Metatasian on 8 Jun '11 said:

FAIL!

To be honest the whole thing looks s**te anyway!

Balladeer on 8 Jun '11 said:

Local multiplayer was effectively killed off by Xbox Live and PSN. I'd say Nintendo are catching up.

Which is why it's always been Nintendo's forté. Anyway, I'm much more interested in playing someone I know in the same room, able to lamp them one if they hit me with a red shell on the last stretch, than playing with faceless noboies over the Internet.

They better have voice chat this time around...

jubbgi01 on 8 Jun '11 said:

Here's hoping for a wavebird to go with the console. A controller that isn't as rubbish as the classic controller, with all the buttons of the tablet, but without the screen in the middle.

boskersrevenge on 8 Jun '11 said:

Or a fight not to use the big-arsed controller in favour of something neater.

humanhand on 8 Jun '11 said:

Considering they have wide interest from the casual market, a very family oriented market, one fancy controller doesn't seem right. Oh, but wait... you can set it down and play checkers or whatever that game was... eh-ugh.

The_Jaster on 8 Jun '11 said:

How will you be able to use a Wii-mote as an alternative controller when it only has one analogue stick. For example, your mate comes around and you decide to play a split screen FPS. You have dual analogue control, which you need for that sort of game, and he has one stick and a huge disadvantage.

you obviously haven't played or heard about Black ops on the wii with a remote & nunchuck controls IMO FPS is better that way than with dual analogue sticks.

petrolhead on 8 Jun '11 said:

This story by C&VG is obviously just ANOTHER example of video game gutter press attempting to sensationalise a nothing story.

FFS

It's not even been released or it's details finalised.

Get over it C&VG and write some real articles.

MD1500 on 8 Jun '11 said:

This makes sense.

Think of the name: Wii U (We You)

Think of the logo: The U is inside the shape of the tablet controller.

U (You) get to play with the tablet controller, while Wii (We) don't.

The demos showed games where the person with the tablet controller got to see a different view compared to the other players. We VS You.

I think the system will only use one tablet controller. That's what it's all about.

cooloneuk on 8 Jun '11 said:

If what the rep is saying is true then that is ridiculous. for 2 or 4 players and having to use the Wiimotes, I might as well just stick to the Wii then.

Ppl should be able to sync more than one of the tablet controllers for multiplaying, since this will be a massive difference to what the other 2 consoles are offering. Although the Wii was only designed to have 4 controllers I found out it was possible to connect 16 controllers to one Wii console at the same time.

We should just wait and see, because the big N would be insane to miss an opportunity like this

You had a project to figure out how many controllers you can connect to one single Wii? I think your next project should be getting a girlfriend asap!

FYI, I'm engaged to be married ta very glad and also I only come across that info by accident in one of the game booklets I read for the Wii.

rbt2 on 8 Jun '11 said:

This makes sense.

Think of the name: Wii U (We You)

Think of the logo: The U is inside the shape of the tablet controller.

U (You) get to play with the tablet controller, while Wii (We) don't.

The demos showed games where the person with the tablet controller got to see a different view compared to the other players. We VS You.

I think the system will only use one tablet controller. That's what it's all about.

I like your way of thinking and I wish to subscribe to your news letter.

boskersrevenge on 8 Jun '11 said:

It's good, but details are surfacing that there might be the ability to use more than one tablet on a Peeyoo.

verynaughtyboy on 8 Jun '11 said:

How will you be able to use a Wii-mote as an alternative controller when it only has one analogue stick. For example, your mate comes around and you decide to play a split screen FPS. You have dual analogue control, which you need for that sort of game, and he has one stick and a huge disadvantage.

you obviously haven't played or heard about Black ops on the wii with a remote & nunchuck controls IMO FPS is better that way than with dual analogue sticks.

In fact I have heard of Black Ops on Wii. I personally think it's crap, I don't like FPS with Wii-mote! Many people like me would rather play with dual analogue. Consider your suggestion though... You buy your Wii U which means your bank balance will take a bit of a hit. You then think about the situation that I postulated above... Do you now have to buy two Wii-motes and two nunchuks?! (Assuming you don't already own them) That's ridiculous! I don't mean to be rude to you Jaster and I'm truly sorry if it comes across that way. I just think Nintendo saying that you can't buy the controller on its own is a bit odd - Nintendo are prone to some odd practices.

ricflair on 8 Jun '11 said:

I'm sure there will be a Classic Controller Pro for it. The current one for the wii, which you have to connect (I just spelled that kinect!) to the wiimote to use it wirelessly, costs £15.

The_Jaster on 8 Jun '11 said:

Its all up in the air at the minute anyway as this really hasn't been confirmed/denied by Nintendo has it?
But what is some peoples gripe if it is just one screen controller & rest of your friends play with wii remotes/CCP? you could easily take turns in who uses the new controller, even have winner stays on battles.

Plus 5 player games are possible now too.

@verynaughtyboy

I do already have 2 wii remotes, plus wii U isn't out for a year which gives anyone plenty of time to buy wii remotes if they don't have any.
So you do know of wii black ops (I thought you may have) then you also know FPS games work on wii them without a problem.........you may not like how it controls compared to twin sticks but it does work so to say "he has one stick and a huge disadvantage." is a bit silly has ccp users & wii remotes players play against each other all the time on Black ops & Ive won plenty of games with both a ccp & wii remote the latter just gives me better twitch reactions so I prefer it.

I agree it is odd if its the case (not confirmed yet as far as I know) plus it keeps away having to price it as the cost will be built into the console bundle......they may put a warranty on the controller to cover you if it does break but I stand by Nintendo build quality as Ive never had a major console breakage with them. (my 3DS start button broke recently though & it was fixed at sent back to me within 8 days)

verynaughtyboy on 8 Jun '11 said:

@Jaster

I see your point but I'd like to make clear that I didn't say Wii-mote didn't work with FPS but that I and some others don't like it and it doesn't work for us. I'm very interested to hear that you say Wii-mote works really well for you. Most people I know have complained about pointing and aiming, I personally find it messy and tedious but that's probably just me being crap. The main point I made I stand by though. I know lots of core-gamers who don't own Wiis and play with dual analogue. If they want to play a split screen FPS then that's how they'll want to control it. I think most if not all people on this site will be used to playing COD, Battlefield, Halo, Killzone etc with dual analogue control and if they were to have to play a FPS with a Wii-mote then they would be at a disadvantage because they're not used to it! I believe you if you say it actually works as well but it must take some adjustment time ergo disadvantage.

The_Jaster on 9 Jun '11 said:

Fair doo's, there is an adjustment period for it just like when you first picked up a normal controller, I think some just click with it & other don't.
I reckon there will be classic controller support for the Wii U Nintendo have said all wii accessories work for it so to me that means dual stick CCP......oh I also get my buttons muddled up when I try the twin sticks now lol on wii black ops but that's not the fault of the controller just me being used to another style of input, I think if more people tried it there overall opinion may change. (or not)

But at least they tried.....what grinds my gears are the ones who don't & just say rubbish out of weird sense of loyalty to another business company.

coatesykid on 16 Jul '11 said:

but I stand by Nintendo build quality as Ive never had a major console breakage with them

I guess you never had a NES then cus mine broke down all the time flashing red light and only playing games when it felt like it

The_Jaster on 16 Jul '11 said:

I did have a NES, apart from the odd game crashing on me now & again I stand by what I said the console itself didn't break on me.

Very_Silver_Ownz on 16 Jul '11 said:

but I stand by Nintendo build quality as Ive never had a major console breakage with them

I guess you never had a NES then cus mine broke down all the time flashing red light and only playing games when it felt like it

Only Nintendo console I have owned was the Gamecube and it was pretty reliable more then the PS2 except that the GC controllers broke all the time.

The_Jaster on 16 Jul '11 said:

@VSO

Were you throwing them in fits of rage?

cooloneuk on 3 Aug '11 said:

I have owned virtually every Nintendo console to date since the NES right upto the current Wii as well as the original Game Boy, GBC, GBA and DS. I have not had ANY of my consoles brake for me or go faulty. I've had all my consoles from new. My NES, I still have since 1988. Still works.