So Nintendo TVii, while cool, has basically muddied one of the original Wii U selling points: that dad can watch TV while kid continues to game on the 'pad.

Basically, that only works if dad is watching cable TV (or free to air or sattelite or whatever) outside of any involvement of the Wii U. The moment you attempt to involve TVii, you can only interact with the TVii application, you can not game too.

I'm sure you could continue gaming while dad watches Netflix on the PS3 (or the original Wii!) but that kind of defeats the allure of the original message about not disturbing the TV viewing because you can use the gamepad as the gaming screen.

That's too bad about no pre-downloaded "games". I think something like Panorama View would have been perfect as a pre-loaded app. Does this also mean no News or Weather channel-like content?

No, that's not necessarily true. Maybe your TV is different, but my video games play in a different video channel than my satellite TV does. You could easily move New Super Mario Bros. U onto the GamePad and then change the video channel so your dad could watch TV.

I hope Wii U will be able to eventually multi-task.


I want to be able to stream netflix with the gameplay and somebody play New Mario U on the TV. I don't see why thats too taxing for the system.

You could watch one channel on the TV and another on the GamePad, so the promise still stands.

I'm also getting confused regarding multi-tasking.  I had the impression that if I was playing a game, I could pause it and go do other things, such as ask friends how to beat the zombie boss, then go back to the game.  Now I'm wondering if it's more 3DS style, where I can pause the game to get to the home menu, but if I want to launch the internet browser, does that turn the game off?

"Technical performance has absolutely nothing to do with longevity and support."

Wait! What?

I thought I was clear about this in the second and third paragraphs of my post.
You can read, right?

Hopefully no multitasking means "simultaneous" multitasking.  You'd want the Remote Control (and maybe the listings part of TVii) to work the way the Browser does on 3DS.  Pause game, go to that interface, return to game.

Game Boy, NeoGeo, NES... just because a piece of technology is old doesn't mean it still can't do great things.

It has everything to do with support when third partys are able to release games on 360, PS3 and PC but not on Wii.

Only in terms of porting down which is monot possible in most cases. However, that's not what Reggie's quote is about. He means what Shaymin said.

Well according to Josh's article Reggie was responding to a question about the tapering off of Wii third party support. All I'm saying is that among third party's there is a natural impetus to sell as many copies as possible and often that means creating games which can be released on the most amount of platforms. The Wii's technical limitations prevented third party's from supporting the Wii in the same way as they did with other platforms. In my opinion the tapering off of third party support can be partially, but also directly, attributed to the Wii's technical ability.

To say that technical performance has no bearing on whether or not a piece of technology is supported with software seems daft to me. The examples given by Shaymin are proof that technical performance is not all that matters, but it is absolutely a factor.

Only a sith deals in absolutes.

I remember when we used to refer to NoA PR and Marketing people as having Jedi powers, enabling them to deftly evade and sidestep questions from media and fans. Is Reggie perhaps part of the tradition, but wielding darkside powers?

I love the idioocy of this line. The internal logic is borked because the statement itself is an absolute ("Only a Sith..."). I guess Obi-Wan just outed himself as a Sith by stating that absolute.
Sorry for the tangent.
/Star Wars nerd.

A prophecy that says One day someone will bring Balance to the force and there are 2 sith and a million Jedi and the Jedi's didn't think that meant there destruction...  Common Sense is not a Jedi ability.

Americans! Remember one thing, you get Nintendo TVii integrated with loads of amazing on-demand services readily available in your country.

*Europe may get something, but much later and not as much choice as the US I'd guess.
*Japan may NEVER get TVii, as there are simply no services that compare. The best we can expect here is a TV guide. (seriously)

You will get TVii.  The Wii already had a Japan exclusive app that was for TV Guide type functionality.  At the very least you should be getting the Live TV Features.