We're all hoping Nintendo will confirm Wii U supports two GamePads during its E3 conference, but don't get your expectations up too high — Ubisoft France manager Xavier Poix has told VentureBeat the machine only supports one GamePad.
GamesBeat: How many players can you get on the Wii U at once? Is it four or is it two…?
Poix: On the controller it’s just the one. One person. But you can still play with the four Wiimotes if you have four. So it adds up to five players.
Poix doesn't see that as a disadvantage though, calling its asymmetrical capabilities "a revolution in terms of gameplay":
It’s not one against the other or one with the other, it’s, I’m doing something very different from my partner, but still we’re in the same world and the same game. That’s something really interesting. It’s not a disadvantage. And the best of all the games that are on the iPhone or other mobile games, tactical stuff, are brought… It’s stuff you couldn’t do before in the console market, obviously. Now you have this new layer that’s been added, it’s really cool.
So there you go — don't expect to see two GamePads working in conjunction.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 34
If it wasn't in yesterday's Nintendo Direct I figured it wasn't happening.
Which does raise the BIG question - what happens when your Gamepad breaks?
5 player support? That's amazing! I actually didn't really want 4 people using those gamepads at once, but Mix-and matching it is a good idea... New Co-op multiplayer method maybe?
This is a good thing, but only if the pro controller gets a lot of support - which I am adamant it will. I think most Wii U games will be playable on one screen, so ProPad should get enough support.
CRAP
Oh well, at least it will do 5 players. Thats really cool!
I don't mind to be honest.
As expected. Two sub-screens would be overkill and it would make no sense at all to support two pads when only a tiny fraction of the install base would have more than one. Those pads are not going to be cheap IMHO
The use of two or more Wii U gamepads was apparently important to me but since the Pro controller was shown off, it really no longer matters to me!
However in a two gamer household, I'm sure this will disappoint a few but purely because everyone wants the Gamepad with screen rather than just the Pro Pad! This is how it will work for me...Gamepad for me, Pro controllers for my mates! I am happy!
To be completely honest, that really blows. To me it feels like the 3DS circle pad problem all over again, only this is somewhat understandable (limitations), where the 3DS' issue is not.
He could be talking about the game itself and not the system. As in, only 5 people can play this game, but on other games you can play with 2 Wii U gamepads and 4 Wii remotes. Perhaps.
@warnerdan
I couldn't agree more!
I dont think it would have made a game fun if two people had a Upad. I think the whole point was to give one person a different POV and the other 1,2,3, or 4 other people normal gameplay!!!
Could he just be referring to the capabilities of the current WiiU dev kits at the moment? Or am I just in denial? xD
But with 6 player support, you could have had the same thing. Done the assymetrical stuff when you wanted or have two teams of three, each with two "regular" and one "master" players. Disappointment.
I love asymmetry in multiplayer.
I'm just totally confused by the whole concept.
@warnerdan Lets just hope that they package the pro controllers with it.
@Shake_Zula its a bit confusing to me too. I mean seriously at-least allow two.
And...this is why I am getting the WiiU Pro Controller.
That's fine I don't really have anybody to play with locally. And if I do I they can just use the Wii U Controller Pro. I mean that's what it's for.
Fine with me. I don't like the idea of little kids fighting over the controller but as Nintendo will likely sell it for over $300, rumors or no rumors, I doubt too many little kids will have a Wii U anyways.
@Dodger Yay!
Pro controllers will do just fine. They obviously lack the unique features of the Wii U GamePad, but get the job done.
For some reason, my gut tells me that at some point in the future there will be an update of sorts that will allow 2+ Gamepads to be used. Just feels very Nintendo to me. In the meantime...
5 player games sure would be neat... Like an updated D&D-type game, with 4 main characters and 1 Dungeon Master running the show from the GP for starters. Or totally adding a new dimension to sports games like Madden, FIFA, or hockey comes to mind.
I imagine this as actually being way better than equal multiplayer. Think about it. Imagine say a metroid prime game where the guy on the tablet controls the gunship and provides air support while the guy with the wii remote runs around as samus. Given, that's a fairly poor example, but my point is that multiplayer can now be at a point where it's complimentary and unity between the person with the tablet and the person with the wii remote can offer varied game opportunities.
Mario Party 10 is going to be cool. That's all, really.
That's pretty stupid. What happened to the idea of using these things for secret actions during multiplayer, like choosing football plays, playing card games, or even making responses in Final Jeopardy or Fast Money? Do they expect us to pass it around and take turns doing those things?
am i the only one whos noticed with this game that most of the time the person with the tablet does nothing but move surroundings and imagine having 2 that would just be terrible but yes i would like 2 or even 4 tablets (too expensive for my taste) and would be great but if not nintendo still could change things like the problem with the second 3ds circle pad loss (but not like that at all because thats completely different in every way and nintendo could fix the controller problem easily an just have later games function with it).
Sorry i go nowhere when i rant.........gotta stop doing that.
System... update?
I'm still trying to figure out exactly how the control situation works on Wii.
You get this Wii U GamePad in the box but you can only use one per system, so for local multi-player games you're either going to have to buy additional Wiimotes/Nunchucks or the new Wii U Pro controllers, or perhaps both.
But does this mean developers who want local multi-player basically have to design their games so you don't necessarily have to use the touchscreen, or so only one person gets to enjoy that feature, which kinda defeats the point in some ways. I mean the ONLY thing a developer can guarantee with Wii U is that we will all have one Wii U GamePad and the rest is going to be convoluted as hell for both them and us.
It's almost like the machine in terms of local multi-player is actually just a traditional console, where you have to use traditional controllers or Wiimotes/Nunchucks to get that multi-player experience and then there's this additional screen peripheral you can use along with the more traditional options should you choose but it can't really be an integral or essential part of the multi-player experience other than for a single player.
It all just seems a little bit confusing and convoluted imo, and I think it's going to cost us all a lot of money to actually get the full Wii U experience, unless we only stick with single player locally and for multi-player go online only.
Basically, it seems like Nintendo has found a very smart roundabout way to make all of who buy a Wii U get this extra peripheral, which we might not buy otherwise if it were a separate additional peripheral (like the Balance Board or Motion Plus for example), but we'll probably all still have to have our traditional controllers or Wiimotes/Nunchucks too anyway, especially if we want to play the likes of older Wii games, local multi-player on new Wii U games, or any eShop and Virtual Console games that might have multi-player etc.
I'm thinking that I'll just have one Wii U GamePad (no Wii U Pro's because I get the same functionality from the Wii U GamePad anyway) and one Wiimote/Nunchuck combo (so I can play any specific full motion controlled games and older Wii games), and that's it. This way it doesn't cost me a fortune and I don't have a crap load of different controllers lying around. Then, if I really want any kind of multi-player I'll just have to do it online.
My thought - developers aren't going to lose interest on the pad quickly. It seems like something that REALLY has to be the base for an entire game to use it right if there's only one, which kills any cross-console portability.
@EvisceratorX
Funny you should use that as an example. That sounds like one of the demos Nintendo had at E3 last year!
(shrugs) ok
Damn, damn, damn... I was hoping for support of two controllers. There are many games where it would be advantagious for the one player not to see what the other player was doing, such as selecting sports plays or playing a tactical game such as Battleship (lame example, I know, but you get the point).
Oh well, I'm mostly a lone gamer, anyways so this won't affect me much. It would be really baddonkey though pitting five players against each other with a U-pad and four classic controllers. I sincerely hope that the Classic controllers get better third party support this time around.
Even if it was only used in limited fashion, I would still like to be able to take my U pad over a friends house with perhaps Mii info, various other game info, etc. loaded on it, but that pad is awesome enough just being a great solo pad and 5 player pad, so I won't complain... still would've been nice though.
lies
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