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Despite the Wii U's gamepad and Microsoft's Smartglass – and yours truly – suggesting that the addition of a second screen and the mix up between touch and traditional gaming controllers is something worth investing our interest in, Peter Molyneux, currently working on his next big project at 22 Cans, isn't convinced.
He wasn't all doom and gloom, saying that he was excited by what it could bring, but he did admit to having “a problem” with it.”I now have a screen in front of me on my lap and a screen up on the wall that I’m looking at,” he said. “Which one should I be looking at? Should I be looking up at the big screen and down, or at my lap and up? Should I be checking down on my lap every few seconds? What’s going to incentivize me to move my eyes from the wall to my lap?”
While IGN brought up the point that perhaps it's generational, that older people that haven't grown up with touchscreen devices see them as secondary, while younger gamers might see them as more primary. Molyneux disagreed however: “I think what people do when they have multiple screens is something very simple. They will listen to the big screen whilst distracting themselves on the small screen. That’s not what SmartGlass and Wii U are talking about.”
Ultimately he said that it would come down to what games could be made using the new technology. He as a point too, since the original Wiimotes drew a lot of attention in their early days and opened us up to motion controlled gaming. However beyond dance games, there hasn't been a particularly strong use for the technology in the long run.
KitGuru Says: I think Smartglass has a lot of potential, as I've mentioned before, but there's other schools of thought. Where do you guys stand?
As a controller I’ve read that SmartGlass is great, making it much easier to control the Xbox 360. I think that the Wii U’s controller will also be good for this, as well as function as a separate device, i.e. for playing or media watching while the TV is being used.
For gaming, I think that the question is: what’s easier to do, switch modes during a game or move your eyes to your local screen? If you bring up a map or an inventory screen or some such, and you can have them constantly open on a tablet, and with better interaction, does that improve the game experience? I’m leaning towards answering yes on this, but I’m not sure.
Still, I think that Peter Molyneux does have a point. Most gamers want to move as little as possible, have their hands on a controller and their eyes on the screen. The Wii did open up a new world, and Kinect opened it up further, but it’s still mainly a distraction. (Not that this will prevent me from buying a 360 soon for the specific purpose of Kinect games.)