After the Nintendo e3 press conference and the web articles I have read today I am left with one question:
How many of these tablets can be used simultaneously?

To put it in the simplest terms: Will a 4 Swords Experience be possible with the Wii U? Will we be able to have four private screens available along with a common HD display on the TV?

Does anyone have a solid answer to this?

Here's the solid answer. "Not sold separately."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/306087/news/wii-u-consol...

There's another story which says they are looking into the feasibility of supporting two of the controllers but it may not happen:

http://kotaku.com/5809706/nintendo-looking-into-games-that-su...

I haven't seen any footage of them using more than one WiiU controller but I don't see why Nintendo wouldn't want people to empty their pockets and buy four. There are definitely games that use 4 Wii controllers and a WiiU controller though.

Still, I would hope that playing with 4 WiiU controllers isn't a standard way of doing multiplayer. It could get really expensive really fast.................

(edit: oh, ok.... well there you go. Seems like they won't be doing multiple WiiU controllers)

Don't worry; there is no way they'll ever require you to have more than one display controller for multiplayer. DrKarl just wanted to know if it was possible if you wanted to. It sounds like support for two is conceivably possible but won't necessarily happen. And it sounds like the marketing people are definitely not planning for it at this time.

If this is true and you can only use one "tablet controller" then I will be disappointed. I love the wii but don't want to have to use the wiimote for local multiplayer.

Well, it could make playing party games or FPS more fun if 8 people in one area could play at the same time. Plus let's say 1 or more of your friends owns a WiiU, they could simply just bring over their controller (although that's highly unlikely for my group of friends ><)

Well ... not really. If there was a "four swords" like experience then it definitely would require multiple WiiU controllers for it to work

Still, I'm pretty happy it's limited to one Wii U controller and I'm REALLY happy that the Wii Remote will still be needed as much as it is.

On one hand I'm kinda torn apart that you can only use one Wii U controller, but on the other hand I don't actually get to play multiplayer games often so I really don't care. And it's probably a smart idea for Nintendo to use the same hardware in conjunction with new technology.

I love how the Wii U controller looks but im glad you can still use wii remotes. FPS especially. But aside from that, I do hope the Wii U controllers are not limited. I would prefer if its were our choice what to use rather than limiting it to one person.

I love how the Wii U is backwards compatible with Wii discs and remotes. It makes the transition far more natural.

It really doesn't make anyway sense if you can only connect one of the new tablet controllers to your console. I doubt that will be the case.

I hope that Nintendo figures out a way to allow, but not require, multiple tablets. It's kind of like the balance board. I think that it's silly that we can't use 2 balance boards at the same time.

However, I'm very, very happy that they're making the Wii U backwards compatible with the Wiimote and Wii games. I just hope that developers don't get so excited about the tablet that they forget about the Wiimote. For instance, in the Nintendo's presentation, they showed a baseball game being played with the tablet. Why would you want to use the tablet rather than the Wiimote when batting in a baseball game?? Using the tablet for catching the ball makes sense, but using it for batting is just dumb.

Yes, have one use the Wiimote, and the other the tablet... when your out you switch!

It does seem that they're envisioning the tablet as being singular for the standard setup, with all multiplayer content focuses on using a combination of controllers.

Hmm... good point that this makes the classic 4 Swords Adventures setup a bit more difficult, but then again I can see them inventing clever new ways to make that work. There are endless possibilities... many might focus on making the multiplayer asymmetrical (like the demos they've been showing), so perhaps only one Link at a time can venture off from the group. Or, maybe the tablet player has a completely different role, not even controlling a Link but controlling the enemies or obstacles as an opponent. Or, perhaps they'll have you prop the tablet up on the table in front of everyone, with the overworld on the TV and the underworld of caves, dungeons, etc being displayed at all times on the tablet.

Who knows, but it does seem like the 4 Swords formula would need to be rearranged a bit.

Rendering 4 (or 5 if you include the TV screen) unique videos would suck up a lot of processing power and would slow down/degrade the main image. It would also take up an enormous amount of wifi bandwidth. Even for a high end PC, it would be difficult to support more than 1 or 2 and maintain image quality/high fps/no slowdown/lag.

"Wii U use the screen controller? I want to use it too!"

I get the feeling they're thinking of the controller as a 1p personal display for when you can't use the big screen. Console gaming, but portable, kind of thing. 4 players each with their own personal display would likely break both the tech and your bank account.

As it's compatible with all Wii accessories I'd imagine the Classic Controller Pro will come into play for multiplayer in hardcore titles, which is good news for everyone, really.

I think multiple controllers for multiple players is an interesting idea but Nintendo will hopefully get around that problem by, you know, doing a decent online service this time

543923858 1/3.

Honestly though I think they said all you would need is one of the tablet controllers per Wii U. Which I hope is the case cause I cant see those things being that low of a price.

Im guessing only one even though using multiple ones would be cool for mutiplayer. Read on gonintendo that you can only get the joypad with the system.

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