What Developers Think of Wii U

David Jaffe, Twisted Metal director, Eat Sleep Play:

I've given up fortune-telling in this industry because this is a wonderful industry of constant disruption. Because of the internet and how you can direct-market to people who love exactly what you're doing, the whole industry has changed, whether you're talking about a free-to-play iPhone game or a $80 million PS3 exclusive. I just don't know what's going to hit me more. I don't think that you can do anything except look at something like the Vita or Wii U and appreciate the creativity and the passion.

In terms of 'is it going to be the next big thing', I don't know. I've been right a lot of times, I've been wrong a lot of times. I thought PSP was going to kick the crap out of the DS. The PSP did well but it didn't do anywhere near as well as the DS. When I first saw Ridge Racer on the PSP, I was like, 'Whoa, game over. If I was Nintendo I'd just go home.' And they proved me wrong a million times with that thing.

I never get excited about stuff like that. I get excited eventually over mechanics, but I get excited about the voice of the product first – the spirit, the essence of what it is - and then I kind of go, 'What out there exists that I can best communicate that with?' So I don't look at that and go, 'Oh my god, I have an idea for an adventure game.' I don't work that way as a designer. I start with more of a surface concept or emotion and then I drill down to where I can best present that emotion.

Yeah, I could probably do some really cool stuff with it. The same with Move, the same with Kinect. But I don't really care so much at the beginning. I care a lot about those things once you're going, 'That's the game we're making, this is the hardware that's going to make the game the best.' I don't start there so it's hard for me to think that way.

Greg Zeschuk, co-founder, BioWare:

Any time you have a new interface option that's really interesting to us. We obviously make games with a lot of depth. If there are ways we can improve upon how we deliver that and how we help players to experience it, that's interesting.

It's definitely something we'll look at. I would suspect we'll take a similar track as we took with Kinect, for example with Mass Effect 3. We'll look at it and see what Nintendo does with it. They'll always have the craziest, most innovative way to approach it. Then, we'll think about how we might possibly be able to use it and see if it makes sense.

Andrew Wilson, senior vice president of worldwide development, EA Sports:

We're always excited by about new platforms. It always presents a new challenge and a new way to deliver experiences to gamers. We don’t have a lot more information than everybody else does right now.

But we've made a commitment because what I see by having the new remote here and the screen is the opportunity for us to do things here that we would have done on a screen before. So this concept of cleaning up everything you see on the big screen and putting all that here [on the controller screen], is an interesting proposition.

We don't have that problem solved, but the opportunity to change the way you interact with a game based on moving everything from the HUD to here, is interesting.

The radar can go there. You could trigger wing play. You could play an offside trap here. There are a whole bunch of things you could do here that before, you had to remember a two-button combination or a d-pad combination, or you had to see it represented up on a screen, which meant if anyone else was watching they saw it.

We look at it and say, 'Wow, this is interesting.' We don't have a lot of information. We know it's high-def. We know it's got a great, new innovative controller. As game makers we say, 'OK, what can we do with that?' That's the thing that has jumped to our mind. Between now and when that launches, we'll be working diligently to make sure it adds value, that it's not a gimmick, but it truly adds value. As a FIFA gamer, if I could have touch-screen controls that said wing play, offside trap, push forward, pull back – all these things that no longer were assigned to a d-pad – I would feel pretty good about it.

I'm sure we're going to do more than that, but as the lowest common denominator, that would be pretty cool. That would change the way I play.

Ted Price, president and CEO, Insomniac Games:

The challenge for consumers, as always, is going to be, where do I spend my money? There are more and more choices now. That's all going to be driven by the killer applications. If you get that great game that's available for the Vita or the Wii U, then it should mean really good things for each platform.

It's exciting and intimidating at the same time. It's exciting because most of us at Insomniac are gadget geeks. We love shiny new toys. That's one of the reasons we were a launch title on the PS3 with Resistance, because it's an amazing platform and we really wanted to get on it.

Now, looking at all the other options, it's like being in a candy store. All these cool things you can do not only with your technology but with your design it's great.

On the other hand it's intimidating because there's only so much time in the day and so many resources we have to devote to developing for all the platforms. It's all about planning well, making sure the games we're designing are taking advantage of the platforms you choose in terms of their input devices and their capabilities.

But, overall, this demonstrates to me content creators today are in a really good position. If you can maximise the reach of your content through multiple platforms then you're reaching a broader audience and you have more opportunity to demonstrate the different twists on each of your franchises depending on the platform you're using.

John Carmack, co-founder, id Software:

It's a perfectly valid target for our id Tech 5 development platform. It's going to be very interesting to see what the marketing uptake of the Wii U is. If they're able to convert a lot of their existing Wii customers that are not hardcore gamers, that don't have the other consoles, then yeah, I'd certainly be interested in moving our technology over there.

Motion control can't be tacked on to a lot of different types of games. You need a game designed for motion control. While local touch-screen is something practically any game could derive some value out of.