The concept of a second screen has sort of become pervasive in gaming ever since Nintendo first floated the idea with the Nintendo DS nearly ten years ago. Since then, that platform’s success, along with the success of the 3DS, and Nintendo building their new generation home console, the Wii U, around the same concept, in addition to Sony and Microsoft’s hesitant forays into the idea, have probably caused people to sit up, take notice, and take the idea a little more seriously.
So we have Infinity Ward. The Call of Duty studio informed the Financial Post that they are looking at having second screen companion apps and gaming for future Call of Duty titles, reports Polygon. They are, however, working with the challenges that something like this would entail.
“We actually have a whole department — a whole studio, basically — wrapped around the idea of second-screen,” Rubin said. “… But a lot of it ties into multiplayer and I can’t talk too much about it now.
“Looking away from the screen when the action is intense is obviously a challenge from a game design standpoint,” Rubin said. “So we have to be careful about that. We have some ideas that I think are going to develop further as we go along in this generation. As with anything with a next-gen launch, you’ll start by dipping your toe in the water in a few places, and then move along from there.”
So even if the Wii U fails, at least Nintendo can be assured that they are, ideologically, triumphant. They bet the future on the second screen- it looks like they were right, even if it doesn’t seem to have worked out all that well for them yet.
