Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that the idea behind the Wii U’s unique tablet controller wasn’t inspired by Apples immensely popular iPad. According to Miyamoto Nintendo had been working on the concept of a tablet controller for ‘several years’. Apparently it took the company by surprise when the whole tablet boom started, as it happened just before Nintendo were getting ready to show the device to the public.
When asked by Gamespot whether Apple’s tablet had influenced the design of the Wii U, Miyamoto responded with a definite “no”.
“Actually it was coincidental, because even at this point last year at E3, we had done a lot of work on this, and it was pretty far along, and we had been working on the concept for several years,” he said.
“We felt it was kind of a funny coincidence that, while we had been working on this, all of a sudden right as we’re getting ready to bring it to the public, there’s this tablet boom.
“On the one hand we felt that if we were to show it off at E3 last year, then people would look at it and say, ‘Oh, it’s like a tablet.’ But on the other hand, it may have actually helped us because it made it easier for people to understand the concept,” he added.
“From a kind of a visual point and an initial kind of conceptual starting point, the two seem similar, [but] because of the unique structure of the console and the new controller and the TV, that when people start playing with it and interacting with it, especially in the living room, they’re going to find that it opens up a great deal more possibilities.”
it’s a Super DS
I’ve heard that the iPad was conceived of years before it’s release, too.
Even if that were true, Nintendo couldn’t have “stolen” the idea from them. Nobody knew about the iPad until around the time it came out, and even then it was only speculation.
@Azurite. It obviously was. Every product is. It’s just that Nintendo was unaware of the iPad and other tablets being in development. Thus even though it is the same idea, they all thought it up themselves as an individual company.
I agree totally. It was a comment on the headline, not a knock against Nintendo. Often headlines are poorly worded and confuse the reader, or worse, purposely worded to imply to the reader that there is some kind of controversy.
Tablets were around long before the ipad came out
yes, but hey weren’t as popular as the ipad would make them
yes but unfortunately they were large, heavy, and could only be written on once.
3. Thou shall not troll.
I’m a lot more willing to buy this considering Nintendo has a history with touchscreens as far back as 2004, taking all of the lumps for introducing “gimmicks” the whole time.
Yeee, sure……
Even during speculation for the Wii, there were rumors flying around at the time that Nintendo was thinking of a touchscreen controller.
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