Famicom Dojo Podcast: System Fragmentation

by Sean "TheOrange" Corse, filed in E3, Events, Famicom Dojo Podcast, Podcasts on Jun.08, 2012

The Wii U Pro Controller presents two problems: 1) It’s just like the Wii Classic or Wii Classic Pro Controllers: the adoption rate is poor, nothing that works on it NEEDS to work on it, and we totally forget about it. 2) It actually takes off, and threatens one of the core value propositions of the Wii U. Only Nintendo makes games for it, and 3rd parties just ignore it after a while. Vinnk and Sean discuss the problem of hardware fragmentation in video game systems, and trot out some well-worn examples as well as more recent ones: the Sega Genesis 32x, Android’s newest Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, and more!

Direct Link: Famicom Dojo Podcast 49: System Fragmentation

Share your thoughts about the Wii U and the rest of E3 in the comments section of our show notes:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/49

Bring home your own copy of the Famicom Dojo Season 1 DVD today:
http://famicomdojo.tv/store/fdojos1.php

Tags: 32x, Android, E3 2012, Ice Cream Sandwich, Nintendo, Sega, Wii U

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http://blog.carlsensei.com Carl

The premise of this episode is wrong. The Pro controller has the same buttons as the GamePad minus the touchscreen. (Yes, the GamePad has ZR and ZL.) If you make a game for the Pro, it’s also going to work with the Pad. In all likelihood, you’ll only be able to use a Pro for players 2–5.

http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

If I must… *exasperated sigh*
Vinnk

Yes, it does have the same buttons as the Wii U controller. What it lacks is the touchscreen. If they make games that heavily use the touchscreen, you will not be able to use the controller pro for them. At the same time, if third party devs don’t know what controller you are using they may shy away from using fancy “second sreen” features that not all controllers can use. But yeah, any game should be playable with either but will you only get the full experience with the game pad? But I hope you are right, I hope they can make it clear and figure it out.

http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

Okay… :/

(Hahaha)
http://blog.carlsensei.com Carl

So yes, all games that make use of the Pro Controller will be playable on the touchscreen Gamepad, but it might not be the case the other way around.

Yes, but that’s how it always goes for extra peripherals. The Pro controller isn’t supposed to do everything ever, it’s just supposed to let you do a limited subset of things. The real point of it is that it lets you have a second controller for much less than the cost of a second GamePad.

http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

How much less, though? Given that they’re fully functional wireless devices, and how much the PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers cost (or a Wiimote/nunchuck combo), we can expect to pay upwards of $60 for each one. How much would a GamePad cost? $100? More?

I guess that also goes to how much the Wii U is going to cost overall. Nintendo has never released a console for more than $250. (And, before the Wii, it had never released on above $200.) I fear we’re going to see something more like $300-350.

http://blog.carlsensei.com Carl

It’s hard to speculate so far in advance, but yes, I do expect the GamePad to be very expensive if bought separately. They announced support for dual GamePads, but they didn’t show any demos of it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if developers never took advantage of it.

http://blog.carlsensei.com Carl

When you were recording this, who would have guessed that nothing else would be announced by Nintendo for the rest of E3…

Vinnk

I could kind of guess.. *exasperated sigh*

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