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Dual-tablet Wii U support incoming

Nintendo is working on bringing multiplayer touchscreen support to the Wii U, meaning more than one tablet can be used at once.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
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Joe Svetlik
2 min read

The Wii U isn't even on sale yet, but Nintendo is already working hard to upgrade it. The Japanese company wants to enable multiplayer touchscreen games, so more than one person can play using a tablet-style controller at once, Develop reports.

Nintendo previously said that only one tablet could be used at once, but now a game development executive says the company is working to change that.

There are indications within the Wii U codebase hinting the console is being prepped for multiplayer tablet support. Nintendo is very close to solving it, according to the source, though it's highly unlikely four-player tablet support will ever be enabled.

"Nintendo now know they absolutely need to support two tablets," the source said. "At E3 they didn't commit to this, but they know how important it is to make it technically feasible to support two screens.

"Even if that affects frame rate, as a developer and player, I don't care. It needs to work. Developers will design appropriate games for this. If you're building a quiz game you're not going to give a s**t about the frame rate."

The Wii U was unveiled back in June at gaming conference E3. The tablet-style controller features a 6.2-inch touchscreen, though only one is usable with each Wii U due to frame rate issues. (There is also the prohibitive cost of buying another controller.) You can also carry on playing games on the tablet if someone needs to catch up on The X Factor on the TV.

Nintendo is under fire from cheaper, more throwaway games for tablets and smart phones. The tablet-style controller could well be an attempt to draw in the iPad crowd, though we'll have to see how the price goes down with them.

There's still no confirmed UK price or release date for the Wii U, but we're expecting it sometime in the spring or summer. 

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