Miyamoto on Wii U: Dual GamePads possible, not likely soon

Nintendo game designer and producer Shigeru Miyamoto discussed the possibility of allowing players to use a second GamePad controller for Wii U games in a recent interview with IGN, reinforcing the platform's previously announced two-GamePad capabilities. He notes, however, that the added functionality is "not within our objectives in the short-term."

"Certainly as we've been working on Wii U, I think we're at a point where we don't feel it's realistic to expect people to purchase two GamePads yet," Miyamoto said. "We're still trying to get as many people as possible to buy the system itself, and that's where our focus is right now. For the time being, two GamePad gameplay is not within our objectives in the short-term."

Miyamoto continued: "From a technical standpoint, I think if we decided to pursue that, technically we would be able to and we can perform system updates that would allow for that. It's also very interesting from a gameplay perspective idea because there are a lot of possibilities with two GamePads.

"But, at the same time, taking that kind of approach would again be a drain on resources and require us to continue to utilize our development resources for that. So then it would become a question of where do we want to devote our resources: Is it to creating regular GamePad games, or creating games centered around two GamePads?"

While the console is not yet able to support multiple GamePads, the Wii U offers players several controller options within multiplayer games. The recent Mario Kart 8 supports the Wii U's GamePad, Wii U Pro Controllers, and Wii Remotes, along with attached Wii Classic Controllers and Nunchuks.

[Image: Nintendo]