Wii U tablet controller
At E3 this year, Nintendo’s gaming guru Shigeru Miyamoto said that the company’s next-gen console, Wii U, would support just one tablet controller. In response, the Internet howled. Perhaps still stinging from public reaction to the 3D feature of the 3DS, it looks like Nintendo has caved on the Wii U.
A report by Develop, citing an anonymous industry source, says that Nintendo’s engineers are currently working overtime to figure out how to make the next-gen machine operate simultaneously with two of its touchscreen tablet controllers, instead of just one. The Wii U’s technical specs were the reason Miyamoto gave this Summer as the reason why they were sticking with a single-tablet approach (Wii remotes would be used for multiplayer, under that plan), as Nintendo wants to keep the console’s price as low as possible. But now Nintendo has decided that the fans are right: one tablet just isn’t good enough. Develop’s source also said that engineers are working to resolve issues with RAM capacity and processor speed. Nintendo intends to have the Wii U’s specs finalized in time for E3 2012.
Because of the toll the tablet controllers take on system resources, it’s unlikely that the Wii U will ever run more than two tablets at a time. (So sorry, no four-player co-op.) One assumes that, just like the Wii, Wii U will ship with a single controller, with further controllers available as additional purchases.