A portion of a GameSpot interview with Bill Trinen...
GS: Is there a target number you're shooting for with regards to first-party launch titles?
BT: There is. But we'll update you.
GS: Interoperability of devices seems to be growing in the household today. What is the role of the 3DS in the Wii U's future?
You got a little hint of that today when we confirmed Monster Hunter 3 for Wii U as well as for 3DS. And so that's going to be a good example of the interoperability between 3DS and Wii U. Also, we confirmed publicly already at E3 in 2011 that Smash Bros. is also going to do that. We know it's coming and that different developers are going to have different ideas about how to use that. And certainly our internal teams are thinking of that as well. Primarily, on launch day and during that launch window, what we’re really going to be focusing on is what are the unique experiences we can create with the GamePad.
GS: Is Nintendo deliberately refraining from making many multi-GamePad-supported games, presumably due to the high cost of the controller? Because we haven't seen a lot of that.
No, actually, the initial launch window games, none of those are going to feature multiple GamePad support. For that reason specifically, the GamePad won't be sold as a standalone accessory on launch date. Once the content comes, and the teams are working on content that supports two GamePads…
GS: At Nintendo?
Yeah, our teams are thinking about it. I'm sure to a certain degree the third-parties are also looking at that. But our anticipation is we'll start to see that sometime next year.
GS: The Wii U has often been mistaken as a simple Wii peripheral. CNN ran a story about it being a peripheral; it was mistaken on Jimmy Fallon, and a Wall Street story from today even had it wrong. Is this a problem? How are you going about addressing that messaging issue?
I think early on maybe we didn't do a good enough job explaining it. Certainly at E3 2011, probably one of the big learnings was, from the images we put out of the system, they all focused on the GamePad itself and some of them didn't even have the console in there, and that's probably where the original confusion stemmed from. And so ever since then you’ll notice, particularly when you look at the package front that we showed at the presentation today, you see the GamePad prominently, and you see the console prominently. Those two are intricately tied together and that's why we’ve been talking so much today about that seamlessly connected screen, because that’s really what it is. It is a brand new console and the console itself is doing a lot in terms of what’s inside that box. I think the other thing that’s really going to be key for people, particularly when we show things like Nintendo TVii… is that it's connecting through the Wii U console. And so we're still working on that. Clearly we're paying close attention to that and I don't think it's going to be an issue going forward.
Full interview here
GS: Is there a target number you're shooting for with regards to first-party launch titles?
BT: There is. But we'll update you.
GS: Interoperability of devices seems to be growing in the household today. What is the role of the 3DS in the Wii U's future?
You got a little hint of that today when we confirmed Monster Hunter 3 for Wii U as well as for 3DS. And so that's going to be a good example of the interoperability between 3DS and Wii U. Also, we confirmed publicly already at E3 in 2011 that Smash Bros. is also going to do that. We know it's coming and that different developers are going to have different ideas about how to use that. And certainly our internal teams are thinking of that as well. Primarily, on launch day and during that launch window, what we’re really going to be focusing on is what are the unique experiences we can create with the GamePad.
GS: Is Nintendo deliberately refraining from making many multi-GamePad-supported games, presumably due to the high cost of the controller? Because we haven't seen a lot of that.
No, actually, the initial launch window games, none of those are going to feature multiple GamePad support. For that reason specifically, the GamePad won't be sold as a standalone accessory on launch date. Once the content comes, and the teams are working on content that supports two GamePads…
GS: At Nintendo?
Yeah, our teams are thinking about it. I'm sure to a certain degree the third-parties are also looking at that. But our anticipation is we'll start to see that sometime next year.
GS: The Wii U has often been mistaken as a simple Wii peripheral. CNN ran a story about it being a peripheral; it was mistaken on Jimmy Fallon, and a Wall Street story from today even had it wrong. Is this a problem? How are you going about addressing that messaging issue?
I think early on maybe we didn't do a good enough job explaining it. Certainly at E3 2011, probably one of the big learnings was, from the images we put out of the system, they all focused on the GamePad itself and some of them didn't even have the console in there, and that's probably where the original confusion stemmed from. And so ever since then you’ll notice, particularly when you look at the package front that we showed at the presentation today, you see the GamePad prominently, and you see the console prominently. Those two are intricately tied together and that's why we’ve been talking so much today about that seamlessly connected screen, because that’s really what it is. It is a brand new console and the console itself is doing a lot in terms of what’s inside that box. I think the other thing that’s really going to be key for people, particularly when we show things like Nintendo TVii… is that it's connecting through the Wii U console. And so we're still working on that. Clearly we're paying close attention to that and I don't think it's going to be an issue going forward.
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But... what if your WiiU Gamepad breaks?
You can call Nintendo for a replacement or wait to buy a new one in stores when they are released.
Yeah I heard you can buy it straight from Nintendo, and they'll be available soon anyways.
Wait...Wall Street Journal mistook it for a Wii peripheral in an article from today?! Yikes, if people reporting on the thing can't tell, how will the masses?
if your wiiU gamepad breaks
you can buy a new one for just $299.99
AND it comes with a free wiiu console
Damn, santiago has been slackin for a little over a month.
But anyway, God damn I'm so excited for the Wii u
@AmicableWalrus
The article is a month or more old.
This is the problem I have with Wii U. Nintendo is putting too much faith in the consumer; they'll probably think it's just a remake or add on. A totally new name, numbers, or super/ultra/mega/etc should be used.
I doubt I will ever be buying a 2nd gamepad. One should be good enough along with 4 pro controllers for Smash Bros and similar games. I really don't understand why they ever allowed two gamepads in the first place. It isn't really needed.
i dont know if it was confirmed before but the system goes into wii mode for virtual console and wiiware games. i know they said VC wouldnt be playable on the gamepad but i didnt know it would be seperate from the VC you would have in the eshop.
i wonder how it will work with new VC games if they continue to release them?
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