I told you a few days ago what DudeHuge thought about the Wii U, because getting the perspective of a major player in the games industry is important to be able to gauge how developers are feeling about new hardware. If it’s going to succeed, then it’s important they feel it’s worth developing for. Though Naughty Dog (Uncharted, Crash Bandicoot) probably won’t be doing any developing on the console, it’s still interesting to see what they think. Specifically, Justin Richmond told Nowgamer that he wasn’t quite sold on the idea:
“To be honest with you, the idea of it is very, very cool. But there’s nothing that the Wii U has that the Vita and PS3 doesn’t. You know, it’s an interesting piece of technology, and I’m interested to see how people use it.
I’m not completely sold yet. That the screen isn’t multi-touch, that’s a little weird. It seems there are some very strange holes in it, but to be fair, last time I was sceptical of the original Wii, and look at how that did. I’m sure that he games they make for Wii U will be amazing.”
I’m not sure I entirely agree with Justin, because aside from a larger screen, what the Wii U has that the PS3/Vita don’t, is a guaranteed combined usage scheme. Yes, the gamer you’re programming for might have both, but especially with new and pricey hardware, many won’t. And asking your customers to buy a brand new handheld to get an advancement to a control scheme for a single game would seem like a big ask. With the Wii U, every console will have at least one pad, which guarantees usage. Something to think about.
