The Wii U brings dual screen gaming to the living room in 2012… wait a moment, you can have that sooner than you think?
At E3 this year, I got hands-on with Nintendo’s Wii U hardware. The innovative Wii U controller brings dual screen gaming to your living room. The idea being that we already do a lot of dual screening, what with Nintendo’s very own DS handheld, and using smartphones or laptops while watching TV.
I tried a few demos at Nintendo’s booth and was surprised at how well it worked. The main premise is to be able to, at anytime, switch the game from the big screen, to your controller’s screen allowing you to play-on uninterrupted while the rest of the family or friends watch TV. On an HD Zelda demo this worked flawlessly, with no lag whatsoever. Other examples will no-doubt use it for inventory screens or maps, as well as for secondary viewpoints and even a viewfinder for sniping. For those a little bit confused by the new Wii U, it is not simply a peripheral, the Wii U is a brand-new HD box too, but the controller got most of the limelight causing many people to believe it was just an add-on for the current Wii.
Around the same time as the Wii U announcement I received an email from Firemint (the creators of Real Racing and Flight Control) announcing that by utilising the new Video Mirroring over Airplay functionality of iOS 5 it will be possible to play Real Racing 2 HD from an iPad onto Apple TV and onto your HD TV for wireless dual screen 1080p gaming. Now this isn’t just Video Mirroring in Real Racing, Firemint allow you to play the game in full screen on the TV, with only track info and menus on the iPad screen, as well as tilt controls for your vehicle. This has been available for a while now through the use of Apple’s HDMI out adapter, but while it was cool, being tethered to the TV was a bit of a backwards step. Today we got hands-on with Real Racing 2 running on an iPad 2 and AppleTV running iOS5 and we can confirm that it works great (see the video evidence below). Due to the game engine only running on one screen while the iPad only shows limited graphics of data, the game is able to run without a hitch, and I was able to drive around the track with no problems.
So, have Apple inadvertently stolen some of Nintendo’s thunder? Well, in a way yes. Sure, only Real Racing 2 works in this manner for now, with all other games running in Video Mirror mode and with a pretty laggy framerate at that, but it is a promising first step for other developers to work their magic and bring a similar experience to other games.
Of course the iPad 2 and AppleTV combo is not exactly a cheap bundle, with a base iPad 2 at $499 and an Apple TV at $99, then you are looking at a minimum of $598. The Wii U, on the other hand, will no doubt be released at a $250-299 price point (to be competitive with 360 and PS3). However, it will only be a dedicated gaming machine, whereas the iPad is typically used for gaming secondary to other tasks, as is the Apple TV.
Whether this iPad/Apple TV dual screen gaming takes off, or is just a fad, who knows?… But it’s certainly exciting to see the possibilities, and a year before the Wii U at that.
