Touchscreen functionality is optional for developers

After teasing a Metroid game for the Wii U and the general direction Nintendo is taking with the console, Katsuya Eguchi has dropped another interesting quote which tells us that it’s up to developers to decide what they want to do with the Wii U controller’s touchscreen – if they even want to do anything with it at all. He says that he only wants developers to use it “if it makes sense for the game to make use of the touchscreen.”

I don’t think it’s necessary for any and all developers working on software for the Wii U to make use of all of its features, including the touchscreen.

Regardless of whether it’s a Nintendo developer or a third-party developer, if it makes sense for the game to make use of the touchscreen, I hope they take advantage of that. If it doesn’t, I hope they don’t.

But it is one of the unique offerings among all of the consoles available out there, so if it does give a distinct flavour to the Nintendo version of a game, then I hope they utilise that to its fullest.

This echoes a previous statement about the 3DS in which we were told that using 3D, while encouraged, was far from mandatory.

I like the sound of this, personally, as it’s extra assurance that we’re not gonna see developers cramming touchscreen controls into games they simply don’t belong in. But it’s a double-edged sword, because it also opens the door for them to get lazy and not do anything with the touchscreen not because it doesn’t make sense, but because they just want to get the game out to start making money off of it. Sadly, I can realistically see this happening with major franchises like Call of Duty which sell millions on their name alone.