Nintendo is reportedly sending developers of smartphone games conversion software to encourage game designers to port their products to the Wii U. Considering the touchpad nature of the Wii U’s GamePad controller, this is a logical if not desperate move. Sure, you could probably play games like Angry Birds on the GamePad, but will that be enough to save the Wii U?
The obvious problem with the plan of offering smartphone apps on the Wii U is that many people already have smartphones, so why would they want to play the same games on a console? The GamePad has a bigger screen than even many phablets on the market today, so that could seem like a draw, but the disadvantage is that the GamePad doesn’t support multitouch features that so many games rely on.
It also seems like a kind of denigration to relegate the Wii U to playing the same games as a phone. The strength of the Wii U should be in utilizing its unique controller in an interesting way along with a game being played on the console, not simply using the GamePad as a sub-par portable device. Nintendo’s strong suit right now seems to be their portable devices, so why compete against themselves?
The bright side is that Nintendo is at least making an effort here. We get criticized for being too hard on Nintendo, but I still think that’s only because we love it and want to see the company doing better work than it has been. They’ve already cut sales projections, and their sales numbers in January were depressing. We’d love to see a world where Nintendo is thriving and churning out great games every year instead of watching it flounder with weak product launches and too few flagship games. That’s just not the world we live in right now.
(Japan Times via The Next Web, image via FaruSantos)
- Nintendo has already pushed back some major Wii U titles
- Nintendo’s president denies rumor that they’ll drop the Wii U price
- They’re not even doing a big press conference at E3 this year
