Sat, Jul 09, 2011 | 14:29 BST
Riccitiello: EA’s “just beginning to realize,” what it can do with Wii U
EA CEO John Riccitiello has said the firm is just “beginning to realize,” what it can do with the Wii U tablet, as having an extra screen “transcends anything,” he has “ever done before” with a controller.
Speaking with Industry Gamers, Riccitiello believes there are plenty of different things which can be done using the controller in games.
“It’s a high definition platform and I love the controller,” he said. “I just think it’s cool. You’re a gamer – so you’ve got the screen here [in your hands] and you’ve got the [TV] screen there and you’ve got full control. Personally, while there’s some great experiences on Move, and there’s some great experiences on Kinect, I’m not a motion control guy. It’s still too imprecise for me. I like shooting something and hitting it. I like turning a corner and feeling precision.
“So I still like my swizzle sticks and my shoulder buttons and my Xs and Os, etc. But there is something about having that second screen that transcends anything I’ve ever done before.
“I can draw a pass pattern for Madden, I can be playing an FPS up here while I’m calling in air strikes or whatever I want to do. I can give all the detailed control off the screen, I can see another part of a map… I always find it breaks the spell for me when I’m playing a game with a squad and I have to stop the action and move up for them. Now I can just move them down here [on the tablet].
“I think there’s something really powerful about a second screen that I think really matters. I think we’re just beginning to realize what we can do with it and I think it’s obvious we can do a lot with it.”
There isn’t an exact date for when Wii U will be released just yet, but it is expected sometime after April 2012.
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Posted in: Development, EA, Wii U
Tags: John Riccitiello
9 comments
#1
OlderGamer
09/07/11, 5:49 pm
I think he is spot on. Lots of people talk about what WiiU isn’t. I’d rather focus on what WiiU is and what it can do. So its not another PS360, got two of those already.
I think this second screen idea is near revolutionary. I loved having a screen on Dreamcast VMUs. And Nintendo is just expanding that idea by taking it and running with it. I can’t wait to play this thing.
#2
Phoenixblight
09/07/11, 6:03 pm
@1
I couldn’t agree more. I can’t wait to see what Nintendo and the developers do with the new controller scheme. We need to move past the whole 16 button controls. I think the only reason why core and hard core gamers don’t look at motion controls as a viable control is because no triple A developer has tried to make a game around it.
#3
OlderGamer
09/07/11, 6:14 pm
Nice to see we agree on something PB
#4
lelik
09/07/11, 10:43 pm
I don’t see how turning a console into a DS is going to transcend anything. It probably should have been done already, all nintendo is doing is creating the blueprint for sony and microsoft to one up them. I see this sort of controller being better suited for more hardcore games, and having very little impact on the current wii audience of teens, moms, and teen moms.
#5
Dannybuoy
09/07/11, 11:02 pm
Couldnt PS Vita do exactly the same thing on PS3 or PS4?
#6
rrw
10/07/11, 12:32 am
@6 technically yes, i suspect dev will port gam that have wii u feature to get ported on ps3+vita
but of course you need ps3 owner to have vita, BUT they can make the feature optional
#7
IrrationalGamer
10/07/11, 3:10 pm
They need to improve the joysticks. As they are right now, they’re similar to 3DS, and I don’t think they’d be great for aiming in FPS games.
I played with it at E3.
#8
schnide
10/07/11, 7:53 pm
Except that anything you can do with the extra screen can’t be essential to the game, because the feature that allows the WiiU to beam the TV picture to the controller when other people in the room want to watch TV will render that unusable.
#9
OlderGamer
11/07/11, 3:48 pm
Just as a bit of reason, PS3 + Vita will never do what WiiU will do.
Its not that PS3+Vita couldn’t, its that it won’t. Because the numbers of people that own a PS3 and a Vita will be too low to make programing for that combination pointless. Too few people would use it.
I know alot of you Sony boys are all up in arms saying your system can, but in reality you know it isn’t the samething. give it some thought you know I am right.
@Schnide, I thought the samething, but you will prolly be able to toggle back and forth from info on controler screen to gameplay screen. But also, my guess would be that beam it to your controler, prolly won’t be the norm either. My guess is that smaller downloadable games from VC or WiiWare will prolly use this feature. But full blown WiiU games, prolly not so much. But I expect a couple of launch games to try and prove me wrong. But we will see what games are made 2 and 3 years after launch.