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You might remember back in the early days of the Wii U, there was some chatter about allowing two Wii U GamePads at once on the same game, locally. This would obviously be for local multiplayer, but sadly, the feature never came to be. We never got an official explanation as to why, but just today we’ve gotten insight from former NoA president, Reggie Fils-Aimé.

In an interview with MinnMaxx, Reggie Fils-Aimé said local GamePad multiplayer on Wii U never happened for two reasons. First, as most suspected, the install base of the Wii U was just too low for Nintendo to explore the idea. Building out the functionality would have been too costly an endeavor considering the Wii U’s sales.

Second, Nintendo never had an idea for a game where you needed to Wii U GamePads. If you’re going to work on that kind of functionality for a system, you certainly need a game to showcase it. If Nintendo couldn’t come up with anything worthwhile, they simply weren’t going to spend the time making the functionality possible.

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Comments (8)

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sligeach_eire

The first reason is nonsense. You couldn't even buy a replacement Wii U gamepad. People keep saying the Wii U bombed. Of course it did, because Nintendo never fully backed it, along with a catalogue of other mistakes. Look at the initial presentations, so much went unfulfilled. One of the last games that came to the console was Reversi 32, it wasn't made by Nintendo, even though they showed it off in the first presentation years prior.

I don't believe the second reason either. As the first comment here suggested Four Swords Adventures. That wouldn't have been taxing either. Does Reggie really expect us to believe that? All those great minds at Nintendo couldn't come up with any good ideas? Pull the other one.

tlk777

1+ y ago

Four Swords Adventures. There u go.


hawk

1+ y ago

It was pretty evident early in the WiiU's life that they weren't going to have multi-gamepad games even when they said it was something they would consider.


thdragonwolf

1+ y ago

"Second, Nintendo never had an idea for a game where you needed to Wii U GamePads." ... you needed TWO Wii U GamePads.


mattdog1000000

1+ y ago

There are homebrew avenues to experience it, at least :P


vinlauria

1+ y ago

I call BS on this. Multi-GamePad play was what I was specifically waiting for and there's tons of stuff I could see being done with it.


sligeach_eire

1+ y ago

The first reason is nonsense. You couldn't even buy a replacement Wii U gamepad. People keep saying the Wii U bombed. Of course it did, because Nintendo never fully backed it, along with a catalogue of other mistakes. Look at the initial presentations, so much went unfulfilled. One of the last games that came to the console was Reversi 32, it wasn't made by Nintendo, even though they showed it off in the first presentation years prior.

I don't believe the second reason either. As the first comment here suggested Four Swords Adventures. That wouldn't have been taxing either. Does Reggie really expect us to believe that? All those great minds at Nintendo couldn't come up with any good ideas? Pull the other one.


streex

1+ y ago

All those employees and not 1 could come up with a good idea? Either they need to hire a completely new team of creatives or this answer is fluff. Not even Miyamoto...hmmm.....


haleman1704

1+ y ago

Well, I've been waiting until the Wii U's end of life for a killer app for ONE gamepad that isn't named Nintendoland, but maybe that's just my opinion.