Support NeoGAF

[pasterpl]

This.

 

[BlackTron]

They won't do it, but they should just have features in games like Four Swords or Nintendo Land had, that are only available with additional Switch systems to use as controllers/screens. It could work with ordinary Switch 1. You could use DS as a controller in Smash Wii U...not that you'd want to.

Entire games were made tied to this idea. Just make certain modes or mini-games unavailable without all the right stuff. Four Swords doesn't need to be its own game with all these prereqs, it can be a mode in a different game. Make a normal Mario Party with a special mode/class of minigames where everyone needs their own Switch as a controller. The thing is, lots of people actually have Switch, you don't need a cable anymore, and there would be no uneasiness buying an entire game built around a gimmick. It would get used more than all the failed attempts that convinced them to move away from it.

 

[King Dazzar]

The light bars can work in conveying some elements as they can be caught with your peripheral vision. Without the need for looking directly at the controller. I also wouldnt want to lose the touch pad. And on the edge when changing profiles etc, it works better having the UI instantly appear on the TV. So its a general no from me.

 

[SigSwat551]

Yes please, give me a screen to display Astrobot facial expressions.

 

[BlackTron]

Yes please, give me a screen to display Astrobot facial expressions.

You'll have to make do with the painted DualSense and sprinkle of Sony magic.

 

[jufonuk]

Controller on the screen

Like a lot of mobile games

The WiiU GamePad was, no is, the GOAT controller. The screen is very versatile and useful. It's very comfortable, and nice and big.

Sure, it is Fischer Price build quality, and the displays aged badly. That doesn't make it bad.

The rest of you fellow gamers, and the general public in general, are just wrong and suck because you didn't buy it.

I bought the Wii-u I thought it was a great console but we got the switch instead so every cloud.

 

[Griffon]

I corrected it in the OP, in theory you wouldn't have to move your eyes, the idealized screen would only offer asymmetric coop gameplay, remote play and local multiplayer without split screen or with 8 players, 4 on the TV and up to 4 on the gamepad.

Then just play multiplayer with handheld consoles (each player with a Switch or Steam Deck).

Also, online asymmetric games are aplenty and don't require any weird hardware to work.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Then just play multiplayer with handheld consoles (each player with a Switch or Steam Deck).

Also, online asymmetric games are aplenty and don't require any weird hardware to work.

Is there any scenario in the world in your opinion where a second screen on the controller could work commercially?

 

[Trilobit]

No, I prefer to not even think about the controller in my hand and just be completely immersed in the game on the big screen.

 

[Griffon]

Is there any scenario in the world in your opinion where a second screen on the controller could work commercially?

Is there? You tell me.

 

[REDRZA MWS]

As we all know to date, almost 2025, only the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo Wii U have had controllers with a built-in screen.


VMU - The vmu is completely inspired by the 1996 phenomenon, the Tamagotchi. There were a few reasons why Sega created vmu

First, they couldn't make internal memory again, since Sony made the memory card and sold it separately, the consumer, instead of cursing Sony, on the contrary, embraced the proposal, so Sega should follow that path.
second, Sega would like to attract a female audience, and they saw the vmu as an accessory with that appeal.
third, the possibility of transferring data from vmu to vmu without needing the console, being able to do this anywhere just by connecting two vmu.
fourth, the vmu could be useful by displaying the game inventory, leaving the hud clean.
Fifth, the VMU could run simple Tetris-style games.

The Wii U Gamepad has a different concept, Nintendo's designers decided that just doing the vmu functions wouldn't be interesting, so they grew the screen to display a full game. The idea quickly evolved to imitate a Tablet that was the trend at that time.

The Gamepad brought many possibilities but I highlight

play on the gamepad in situations where the TV is in other use.
Asymmetric gameplay, players with a common controller play one way while the gamepad user plays another way.
Local multiplayer for 5 players, 4 on the TV split screen and one player on the gamepad.

However, the Gamepad brought insoluble conceptual problems

Gimmicky need to be cheap to work but the Gamepad had a lot of onboard technology, camera etc. this makes it expensive, there is no free lunch, the xbox one was weaker than the ps4 because of the choices involving knect 2.0 just as the Wii U could have been more cheap without the tablet or more powerful as well.

With that in mind, I imagined some ways to make a screen on the controller work conceptually.

Screen on controller 2024/2025

The WonderSwan is a handheld game console released in 1999 by Bandai with a 2.5'' display, this console used the sorcery of getting up to 40 hours of gameplay using 1 AA battery. The same hypothetical autonomy as a wireless xbox controller using 2 AA batteries.
It would be an excellent evolution for the modern vmu concept.

But what I really like is the concept of the Gamepad, so I thought of a simple gamepad with internal processing for 2D games, the asymmetric gameplay capabilities would be maintained and you can play indie games.

Unfortunately, as cool as a display on the controller may seem, there is no denying that this increases the cost of the device, it also conveys the feeling that a conventional controller would have been a better option.

And do you believe that a controller with a screen is a good idea only in the world of ideas or would there be a way to make this work in a commercial product?

Ask Sega (Dreamcast) or Nintendo (Wii u) how that worked out.

 

[Rickyiez]

Let say you have an amazing 65” oled TV. Would you still look at a screen on your hand ?

 

[RoboFu]

Useless and blinding. The Xbox light is annoying as it is and the Wiiu proved that no one wants to look at the controller while playing.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Horrible idea, no one wants to divide attention in a unnecessary way. DS/3DS only worked because the screens were to close that it helped the UI, like working with dual monitors.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

From all the feedback I received here, it is clear that dual screen is not worth it, I also realized that the market needs a wireless controller but with at least 50 hours of autonomy, a much better feature than a screen on the controller. The price for asymmetric gameplay is very high and the cost far outweighs the benefits.

 

[dcx4610]

It would be the equivalent of browsing the web on your PC only to grab your phone to look at another website. It kinda doesn't make sense. I do think the Wii U made it kind of interesting in select games like for inventory but yeah, you really should never have to take your eyes off the screen. The only screens on controllers that should exist are portal systems.

 

[HogIsland]

stupid gimmick and controllers are already too expensive with inadequate battery life

 

[FoxMcChief]

While I love the idea, we need to keep controller costs as low as possible. First party quality is not what it used to be.

Maybe if they went the Dreamcast route and had us plug in a screen to a controller, I’d be down.

 

[BlackTron]

From all the feedback I received here, it is clear that dual screen is not worth it, I also realized that the market needs a wireless controller but with at least 50 hours of autonomy, a much better feature than a screen on the controller. The price for asymmetric gameplay is very high and the cost far outweighs the benefits.

This is exactly why my idea works though, use some of those ideas, without marrying the concept of the console to it. Just like past gaming innovations that became standard kit, like motion controls. Just toss in a game mode or mini game type that requires stuff people already have like Switches with joycons plugged in.

Mario Kart GBA let you do multiplayer with only one copy of the game, by sending the data over the link cable first. Think a normal Switch 2 game, with optional features like this if you had an extra Switch 2, 1 or Lite laying around. BOTW remaster could work just like before with 1 screen, but you could also use your old Switch as a Sheikah Slate with always on map and quick draw inventory management because...why not really? The feature would be really cool, and the hardware is no longer hanging on it as a forced marketing stunt.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

This is exactly why my idea works though, use some of those ideas, without marrying the concept of the console to it. Just like past gaming innovations that became standard kit, like motion controls. Just toss in a game mode or mini game type that requires stuff people already have like Switches with joycons plugged in.

Mario Kart GBA let you do multiplayer with only one copy of the game, by sending the data over the link cable first. Think a normal Switch 2 game, with optional features like this if you had an extra Switch 2, 1 or Lite laying around. BOTW remaster could work just like before with 1 screen, but you could also use your old Switch as a Sheikah Slate with always on map and quick draw inventory management because...why not really? The feature would be really cool, and the hardware is no longer hanging on it as a forced marketing stunt.

Your idea is good but it deviates from the premise I established, maybe your idea really works but what I thought was the following, an improved Wii U, reduce the manufacturing price of the gamepad by 50%, remove the camera and other unnecessary elements, make more games with perfect use of the gamepad, allowing the new controller to act as a handheld console.
You will agree with me that a x86 Wii U and 1,6 teraflop, 8GB RAM would have allowed Wii U to receive more third party games while Nintendo could focus on the gamepad always replicating the best Nintendo land experiences in its AAA games , now imagine this gamepad with a premium design, ability to change the buttons like the controller xbox elite. We're talking in a different league here compared to the Wii U we received, so much better.

 

[BlackTron]

Your idea is good but it deviates from the premise I established, maybe your idea really works but what I thought was the following, an improved Wii U, reduce the manufacturing price of the gamepad by 50%, remove the camera and other unnecessary elements, make more games with perfect use of the gamepad, allowing the new controller to act as a handheld console.
You will agree with me that a x86 Wii U and 1,6 teraflop, 8GB RAM would have allowed Wii U to receive more third party games while Nintendo could focus on the gamepad always replicating the best Nintendo land experiences in its AAA games , now imagine this gamepad with a premium design, ability to change the buttons like the controller xbox elite. We're talking in a different league here compared to the Wii U we received, so much better.

I don't think that would have worked for a number of reasons, but the biggest issues are the same as what I think held back Wii U. It needs to feature enough screens for each player instead of just 1, like a VMU or linked GBAs did. And without unrealistically driving up the cost of the package or expecting people to buy expensive additional hardware with a very small scope of use, use stuff already out there like GBA did for GC.

So I would say Switch 2 has more potential to deliver on Wii U's ideas than your revision would have, just because it has all the existing Switch systems to use as controllers. There's a significant cost issue getting all the hardware together, and you're talking a more premium iteration with stuff like changeable Elite buttons, and back then too...I don't see it adding up. For that matter, I don't see a connected bundled screen controller as a successful selling hook for a game console. Motion controls were, until they weren't anymore, but still got packed in...so should this, and go back to being a cool extra feature, instead of a system-defining one.

 

[EverydayBeast]

There are certain things that shouldn’t be on a controller and a screen is one of them, the DualShock was very symbolic of the word “controller” yet Sony did not honor the Start and select on the dualsense, the touch pad is poorly received and it isn’t argued.

 

[BlackTron]

There are certain things that shouldn’t be on a controller and a screen is one of them, the DualShock was very symbolic of the word “controller” yet Sony did not honor the Start and select on the dualsense, the touch pad is poorly received and it isn’t argued.

IMO, whichever game company decides to go back to Start/Select deserves to move 150 mil units

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Maybe if they went the Dreamcast route and had us plug in a screen to a controller, I’d be down.

The philosophy adopted by the Wii U is definitely not good, dual screen, Nintendo made a mistake, they should have used a pro controller and increased the processing power instead making the Gamepad.

The vmu concept is less invasive, cheaper and low consumption, it's also not mandatory.

bringing the vmu back requires modifying the engineering of the consoles, first the games would have to be read through the optical media, more ram should be added, no ssd , the vmu would have an internal memory that would be used for management of indie games, dlc and some kind of Discord. Ironically, the Wii U was the last console to have this type of engineering, it only included 32GB internal memory instead of selling it as a memory card.

 

[Bond007]

I liked the VMU- thats about it.
Mainly- as a sports game fan and the ability to make plays/calls via the VMU and your opponent couldnt see or guess what you were doing.

 

[Kamina]

Why would we need that? My eyes should be on the screen, the controller is a purely tactile tool.

 

[Deerock71]

Would be immersive in an Alien or Star Trek game.

 

[WhamBamThankYouMaam]

The dual sense touchpad is pretty much useless (more buttons would have been better). A screen is really, really unneeded.