Nintendo's Wii U: Why You'll Want One, Why You'll Never Play It

Going into E3, the Wii U was the thing I was most excited about. After being announced last year, Nintendo's newest console has gotten a ton of hype and I was anxious to spend some time with the console, as well as learn what games would be headed its way.

If you've been out of the gaming loop, Nintendo's newest console puts a tablet of sorts in your hand in the form of a new controller called the GamePad. The GamePad can be used as a second screen, or can let you do things like play against other people in the same game, showing you a different screen than other players see on the television. You can also stream games from the console to the controlled and play them while your TV is being used for something else like watching a movie.

[More from Mashable: NintendoLand: Wii U's Virtual Theme Park]

The console has gotten a ton of hyper, and after it all I have to say: I'm pretty disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, the Wii U is cool. The game console offers the ability to do a number of things that weren't possible on the console -- or any other for that matter -- before. For instance, in a demo of Luigi's Ghost Mansion, a part of NintendoLand, the player with the GamePad played the role of a ghost that was out to get the other four players using traditional Wii controllers on the screen.

[More from Mashable: Nintendo Announces The Next Generation of Mario, Super Mario Brothers U]

SEE ALSO: NintendoLand: Wii U's Virtual Theme Park

The game is made possible by the GamePad, simply because the player playing the ghost can be shown an entirely different screen than what the other players are seeing on the television, and consequently play against them. The functionality comes into play again with the Super Mario Brothers U, where the GamePad player is given the ability to assist others player the game by creating things like platforms to help them get to their destination.

Wii Fit has also been updated to work with the Wii U, and other games will use the GamePad as less of a controller and more of a second scree, giving you access to things like maps or your weapons.

It's a great idea when you hear about it on paper, and a no so great idea when you actually see it executed.

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This controller is big

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The Wii U GamePad is about the size of an iPad, but considerably thicker to include rear buttons and controls. While it's certainly not gigantic or heavy by any means, it's also a little bigger and heavier than you'll likely be comfortable playing with for any extended period of time. I did quite a few demos with the controller over the course of the week. After a 10 minute mini-game was done, I was often ready to hand over the controller for someone else to play. Playing for any extended period of time will definitely take some getting used to.

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Playing is awkward

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Trying to play a game with two screens is a lot more awkward than it sounds. In several of the demos, in fact, I was encouraged to just play the game on the GamePad and ignore the television all together. While that's well and good, if I had wanted to play a game on a small screen rather than my television then I would have been better served to load up the title on a Nintendo DS, or a tablet rather than my giant high-definition set.

Playing a game physically on the GamePad defeats the purpose.

When playing games such as Scribblenauts Unlimited, I actually started to feel like playing on the GamePad was even hindering my gameplay in a way. In the game you tap on characters to interact with them and then input in things you'd like to do on a virtual keyboard. The bit of the game I got to play had to be played almost exclusively on the GamePad, and could have very easily have been played on something smaller and lighter, while removing my TV entirely from the equation.

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Why you'll still want one

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While at the end of the day using the GamePad seems like more of a gimmick than an actual improvement to the console, like most gimmicks it's a pretty attractive one. You're going to have ton of fun playing NintendoLand the first 3 days you have the console, and at parties a new months later when friends come over and say "Oh! Is that a Wii U?!?" It's going to be a great thing to have at parties. Long-term, however, I don't see very many people using the console to play games outside of the occasional party atmosphere, forcing the console into the dark dusty corner of your entertainment center where you've probably already stashed your original Wii.

What do you think about the Wii U? Let us know your thoughts about Nintendo's next-generation console in the comments.

This story originally published on Mashable here.



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Facebook's App Center comes online

Facebook on Friday launched yet another app store that consumers will be able to choose from, only this one provides them with apps that are centered around Facebook itself. Taking a quick cruise around the App Center, currently only available for American users, shows that Facebook already has most of the usual suspects available, including Pinterest, Draw Something, FarmVille, Instagram, Angry Birds, and so on. So why does Facebook feel that it needs to add another app store to its market? In an interview with PC Magazine, Facebook director of developer products Douglas Purdy said that the App Center would provide Facebook with even more information on its users that could then be used to sell ever-more targeted ads.

"We are largely an advertising company, and we continue to make our money that way," Purdy said. "Now the more applications that people use, that are social, that they share, of course that benefits us. It means that we can sponsor those stories, it means that we're better in our ads and marketing. And that's really what that's about for us."

In other words, anyone who plays "Sorority Life" through Facebook's App Center can expect to be bombarded with J-Crew and Abercrombie ads.

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Rovio's latest Angry Birds game continues to beat expectations and smash records. The company previously revealed that its Angry Birds Space game had been downloaded more than 50 million times in 35 days, making it the fastest growing mobile game of all time. The Finnish game developer on Wednesday announced that the game recently surpassed the 100 million download milestone in a mere 76 days. The Angry Birds franchise has been immensely popular and a financial success for Rovio, having been downloaded over 1 billion times across the major platforms, generating $106 million for the company in 2011 with a total of 200 million active monthly users.

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Reckoning arrives for Schilling's video game firm

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - 38 Studios, the video game company owned by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, filed bankruptcy papers on Thursday, less than two years after it won a $75 million loan guarantee from Rhode Island, and now faces a federal and state investigation.

The Chapter 7 filing indicates that the Providence-based company plans to liquidate.

Last month, 38 Studios decided to lay off most of its roughly 400 employees. It recently had its funding cut off by Rhode Island, which had been its major financial benefactor but declined to provide additional support.

Governor Lincoln Chafee said at a hastily-arranged press conference in Providence that the filing was not a surprise, but that he had not received advance notice of the move.

Rhode Island is trying to help make the best of 'very, very bad situation,' said Chafee, who inherited the 38 Studios deal from his predecessor.

The company said it had $21.7 million in assets, mostly personal property, and $150.7 million in liabilities, including $115.9 million owed to Rhode Island.

Schilling, an avid video gamer who said last year he had invested $35 million of his own money into the company, owns an 82.9 percent stake in 38 Studios, a court filing shows. The company's name derives from Schilling's baseball uniform number.

'This action comes after several weeks when the company has reviewed, considered and received the recommendations and advice with respect to potential avenues for relief that are currently available,' the company said in a statement.

'After ongoing negotiations with the State of Rhode Island and potential investors and other interested parties, the company has been unable to find a solution to the current stalemate.'

Jim Martin, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Providence, said his agency had 'been in touch with the FBI and the Rhode Island State Police regarding 38 Studios' but declined to comment further.

Those agencies, as well as the Rhode Island Attorney General's office, are 'coordinating an effort to look into what the monies were used for' as well as 'banking issues,' said Steve O'Donnell, spokesman for the state police.

'The FBI will want to know where the money went and how the company folded so quickly,' said Anthony Figliola, a vice president at Empire Government Strategies, a company that helps businesses apply for government loans and grants.

Officials from 38 Studios did not respond to calls and emails for comment.

Schilling's company received a $75 million taxpayer-backed loan guarantee from Rhode Island in 2010, as an incentive to move its headquarters, and hundreds of well paying jobs, to Providence from Maynard, Massachusetts.

It had received almost $50 million of those funds through late May, the state has said.

In May, 38 Studios was more than two weeks late on a $1.4 million loan repayment to the state and failed to make payroll.

The liquidation could leave Rhode Island holding the collateral pledged against 38 Studios' loan.

This includes current and future rights to 'Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,' a video game launched in February, and to an elaborate, multi-player game code-named 'Project Copernicus,' which has had a tentative 2013 release date.

Rosemary Booth Gallogly, Rhode Island's director of revenue, said her office had been in contact with ratings agencies Moody's and Standard & Poors about the 38 Studios filing.

'The state fully understands the moral obligations of this,' Gallogly said at the press conference.

In an interview with Reuters this week, Chafee called the 38 Studios fiasco 'a black eye' for the state.

'I hope we never make any kind of mistake like that again,' Chafee said of the loan guarantee. 'It just defied all common sense. ... You look back, how could it have happened?'

On Thursday Chafee said that 38 Studios never really had a chance to be a going concern. 'The amount of money to be successful in this industry is not tens of millions of dollars, it's hundreds of millions of dollars,' he said.

Figliola said authorities might also scrutinize the speed at which the loan to 38 Studios was approved in 2010 by the Rhode Island Economic Development Authority. Several members of the agency have resigned in the past month.

'This project went through so fast it begs the question, 'was it fully vetted first?' Figliola said. 'Deals this big don't go through this fast unless they haven't been properly vetted.'

Schilling, a vocal backer of conservative politicians, has avoided talking to media in recent weeks, though he has at times taken to Facebook to praise the 'resilience' of his company. He was not available for comment on Thursday.

The 45-year-old was a six-time All-Star and won three World Series championships with the Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks.

In 2004, he became known for pitching a game with blood stains on his sock after a procedure on his injured ankle, as he helped the Red Sox bring a World Series championship back to Boston for the first time in 86 years.

Schilling last pitched in the major leagues in 2007, and ended his career with a 216-146 record, a 3.46 earned run average and 3,116 strikeouts.

The case is In re: 38 Studios LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 12-11743.

(Additional reporting by Hilary Russ and Toni Clarke; Editing by David Gregorio and Maureen Bavdek)



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Nintendo's new Wii fires up two-screen game debate

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nintendo's new holiday-ready 'Wii U' gaming console marks the biggest bet so far on a concept that two screens are better than one.

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo touted features at the industry's biggest annual gathering this week that let gamers employ a separate display in tandem with their TVs. Publishers like Ubisoft are designing games that will make use of this second screen - like a companion display you can glance at while the main action proceeds on your TV.

The videogame industry is looking for ways to hold fickle gamers' interest as its base is increasingly drawn toward more casual games on the Internet or on mobile devices such as Apple Inc's iPad.

The jury is still out on whether the adoption of a second screen is enough to jumpstart a $78.5 billion videogame industry that saw U.S. hardware sales fall more than 30 percent in April, the latest reported month, according to NPD Research.

Nintendo, whose Wii U was the big unveil of the E3 expo, hopes the new 'GamePad' controller with its own 6.2-inch touchscreen will be the differentiator against the Xbox and PlayStation. The Wii U represents the only significant new console until at least 2013 when Microsoft or Sony are expected to unveil new hardware.

It's the Japanese console maker - which sent waves through the industry with the then-groundbreaking, motion-controlled Wii in 2006 - that may have the most at stake, as it tries to claw its way back up to the pinnacle while stemming heavy losses.

The supplementary screen concept had not been talk of E3 until this year. Using two screens to play a game is nothing new as PC gamers have been using an extra screen or two to chat and strategize for at least a decade.

Many remain skeptical. Strauss Zelnick, Chief Executive of Take Two Interactive, the publishers of the blockbuster 'Grand Theft Auto' titles, said a second screen will not be a game changer because people like to be immersed, not distracted.

'It's hard for you to imagine pulling your eyes away from the core screen to another screen and not missing something along the way,' Zelnick said in an interview.

But all agree: ultimately the gamers will decide.

'You don't really get game consoles until you actually touch it,' Nintendo's global president Satoru Iwata said. 'People are really going to 'get' the (Wii U) when they actually use it.'

BETTING ON TWO

Nintendo argues that a second screen offers so-called asymmetrical game play, meaning several players can play the same game in different ways in the same room. The company envisions a scenario where an avid gamer in a household uses the more advanced tablet controller to play a game with family members who might be novices and holding Wii remotes.

'It enables players of different abilities to play the same game and still have a enjoyable experience,' said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Secondary screens can display anything from weapons or items collected into a game to maps that help players navigate a complicated in-game universe. Console makers appear to be taking a cue from the mobile industry, where gaming has grown faster on tablets and smart phones than in the dedicated gaming market.

Taking a page from Nintendo, Microsoft unveiled an app called 'SmartGlass' on Monday that lets gamers turn their tablets or phones into screens that can be used in Xbox games. Microsoft showed an example of a gamer drawing a football play on a screen in Electronic Arts' 'Madden NFL' game without an opponent seeing it.

And Sony announced new content for its 'Little Big Planet' adventure kids' game where its handheld Vita can be used as an additional screen in conjunction with the PlayStation 3. Jack Tretton, the executive who runs PlayStation in the United States, says Sony will offer consumers the option of having some games on a second screen, but won't force consumers to adopt it.

'We're not going to go into exclusive second-screen gaming. It's going to be an adjunct to what we do. It's a similar approach we had to motion gaming,' Tretton said in an interview.

In the Warner Bros Wii U Batman game, showed off this week, the screen was used to scan a crime scene for evidence, for example. The screen can work independently, so one family member can watch TV while another plays a game with the controller.

Some game makers are throwing their support behind dual-screen action, with at least 23 games so far in development for the Wii U, according to Nintendo. Ubisoft is making eight games for the Wii U incorporating the screen: like Zombie U, where players can send out zombie hoards using Nintendo's GamePad.

But the industry's biggest players remain cautious, meaning franchises such as 'Grand Theft Auto' and 'Call of Duty' will watch from the sidelines for now.

And without the right games employing the screens, the technology may be a tough sell, according to Roy Bahat, the president of the video game website IGN.

'Ultimately what will make the two screens work or not is if somebody creates an incredible game. Without that, it is meaningless,' Bahat said.

Eric Hirshberg, the chief executive of Activision Publishing, the unit of Activision Blizzard that oversees the most successful shooter franchise globally, 'Call of Duty,' also has doubts.

'I am interested in a second screen as a way to further the immersive experience of the game on the main screen, not a way to distract me from it or give me irrelevant additional information,' Hirshberg said.

It's a 'game enhancer and not a game changer.'

(Editing by Edwin Chan and Tim Dobbyn)



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Schilling video game company declares bankruptcy

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - 38 Studios, the video game company run by former Red Sox baseball great Curt Schilling, declared bankruptcy on Thursday, weeks after laying off most of its staff and having its funding cut by the state of Rhode Island, which had been its major financial benefactor.

The filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection was made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

In the filing, on behalf of 38 Studios LLC and three associated entities, the company listed $21.7 million in assets, mostly personal property, and $150.7 million in liabilities.

'This action comes after several weeks when the company has reviewed, considered and received the recommendations and advice with respect to potential avenues for relief that are currently available,' the company said in a statement.

Separately, the Providence Journal reported that the Rhode Island State Police and other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have launched an investigation into 38 Studios.

A spokeswoman for Steven O'Donnell, superintendent of the state police, had no official comment.

Officials from 38 Studios did not respond to calls and emails for additional comments.

Schilling's company received a $75 million taxpayer-backed loan guarantee from Rhode Island in 2010, as an incentive to move its headquarters to Providence from Maynard, Massachusetts.

It had received almost $50 million of those funds through late May, the state has said.

In May, 38 Studios was more than two weeks late on a $1.4 million loan repayment to the state and failed to make payroll.

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, who opposed the 38 Studios deal when he ran for office in 2010, will hold a press conference in Providence at 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday to discuss the developments.

Schilling, a New England sports hero who helped bring a World Series championship back to Boston in 2004 and has been a prominent backer of conservative politicians, has avoided talking to the media in recent weeks.

He has at times taken to Facebook to praise the 'resilience' of his company, but was silent on Thursday.

The company's liquidation could leave Rhode Island holding the collateral pledged against 38 Studios' loan, including the current and future rights to 'Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,' a video game launched in February, and those to an elaborate, multi-player game code-named 'Project Copernicus,' which recently had a tentative release date of 2013.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny in Boston and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Maureen Bavdek)



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News Summary: Zynga has new 'With Friends' game

THE OFFERING: In Zynga's latest mobile game, 'Matching With Friends,' players get groups of colorful blocks and must match them with blocks of the same color.

AVAILABILITY: The game is being released Wednesday for the iPhone and the iPad. It will initially be available only in Australia and Canada. It will come to the U.S. and other countries in the coming weeks, though Zynga Inc. isn't giving dates yet.

PRICING: 'Matching With Friends' will have a free, ad-supported version. A paid version will cost $2.99, though initially it'll be available on sale for $1.99.



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