E3 2012: First Wii U 'problems' arise

[garyopa]

Recalibration issues, 30 FPS when using two controllers...



Check out what some Media sites are reporting from the their recent hands-on previews. Also, Iwata said that supporting two Wii U GamePads comes at a cost...

Nintendo have finally shown the final version of their Wii U hardware, and media is already reporting some issues, mainly related with the Wii U GamePad.

1. The first one is being reported by Kotaku, and involves the 'Ninja Star' Nintendo Land mini-game. According to them the Wii U has the same controller-syncing problems that required manual recalibration of the Wii Motion Plus Remote.

The problem is that the Wii U sometimes wants you to point the GamePad at the TV, but the GamePad doesn't have a Wii Remote-style pointing sensor. So, the gyro sensors in the GamePad have to calibrate a center position and then try to help the Wii U to remember that relative center point. Before long, it fails to track accurately.

Watch the video to see how that goes, and note that it is not a fault of the gyro itself, which in several Wii U games I played today is easily able to understand the tilt and rotation of the GamePad. It just can't remember it's relative position to a TV very well.

You can check out the video showcasing the issue here.

2. Another "issue" was directly announced by Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata. If you remember, Nintendo announced that the Wii U will support two Wii U GamePads.

However, you shouldn't be too excited, because when you use two of them simultaneously, the framerate will be halved (most likely, only on the controllers).

Via Twitter, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said, "When you use two, the framerate halves to 30 frames per second."

So that means all those 60fps Wii U games Nintendo has been banging on about slow to 30fps if you fire up a second Wii U GamePad.

Iwata added that, "At launch, we'll start by offering games that use only one [Wii U GamePad] and then expand from there". So this issue could be fixed in the future.

3. And finally, this one isn't enterly Nintendo's fault. But, we all know that keeping the "Wii U" name and by not showing a lot from the console itself, can confuse some consumers, who could assume that the Wii U GamePad is just a "Wii accessory".

The prove of this is that Mainstream press can get confused too, as CNN posted an article titled: "Will forthcoming Wii U controller breathe new life into aging Wii console"

(CNN) -- Will Nintendo's forthcoming Wii U controller breathe new life into its aging Wii console?

Hard to say at this point, but the Wii U is a solid accessory that will bring a fresh element to Nintendo gaming.

I got my hands on the redesigned device -- which was first previewed a year ago -- after Nintendo's Electronic Entertainment Expo event in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Yes, some of these problems are "minor", however, they could get annoying even for the "normal consumer". What do you think?

NEWS SOURCE #1: Two controllers slows down your Wii-U games (via) Kotaku
NEWS SOURCE #2: Forum Thread #477171 (via) NeoGAF

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[Ahmed_p800]

LoL at CNN!

The 30fps limitation is understandable!
I mean WiiU would be rendering 3 screens at a time, that is too much, infact, 30fps on 3 displays is very respectable if you ask me!

The battery part, I must admit, is bad, Im comparing this to my Vita experience, I find myself charging every now and then while playing, I hope they improve the performance, because im planning to get one...in Black ;-)

[billysastard]

just to clarify there is a word missing from part 1 it should say that it doesnt have an ir sensor on the side as you hold the pad sideways for the ninja game.

oh and another point not listed is the battery life, 3.5 - 5 hours with a 2.5 hour recharge time, lets just hope the recharge cable is nice and long.

[JonathanD]

just to clarify there is a word missing from part 1 it should say that it doesnt have an ir sensor on the side as you hold the pad sideways for the ninja game.

oh and another point not listed is the battery life, 3.5 - 5 hours with a 2.5 hour recharge time, lets just hope the recharge cable is nice and long.

I hope its a bog standard USB cable like the PS3 controller uses. Failing in that I was kind of wishing for a charging cradle like I use for my Wiimotes.

[billysastard]

I hope its a bog standard USB cable like the PS3 controller uses. Failing in that I was kind of wishing for a charging cradle like I use for my Wiimotes.

both, usb on the top, the 2 gold spots (like 3ds) on the bottom.

[Diztructor]

lol so nintendo release a system that lacks the power to use more than one of its ifad controllers that its forcing gamers to use, i guess then we should only play 1 player games.

as if the system is already strugling to play games and its not even released yet, now what can you expect in a year or two, devs having to dum down its games to increase its frame rate.

[billysastard]

lol so nintendo release a system that lacks the power to use more than one of its ifad controllers that its forcing gamers to use, i guess then we should only play 1 player games.

as if the system is already strugling to play games and its not even released yet, now what can you expect in a year or two, devs having to dum down its games to increase its frame rate.

1) no, it lacks the power to stream different data to two seperate upads so it cuts the pads display from 60 to 30fps a little like 3d cuts the resolution by half to display both frames

2) its not struggling and to be fair its not likely that it will have an issue in a couple of years as programmers get used to the system and better tools are built to use it more fully, remember anything currently shown is still 6 months away from release so still has time to improve (and in the case of multi platform stuff devs have said its looking better than the last gen systems already), lets face it when maio world and contra 4 and castlevania came out in the snes launch window they all had framerate issues but that was a machine that later in life also saw killer instinct and donkey kong country.