Back in 2012 Nintendo announced that dual GamePad experiences could arrive in 2013.  Well as we now see 2013 has come and gone with little additional information on dual GamePad support on the Wii U.

The last mention of dual wielding the Wii U’s touchscreen controller was in early 2013 when Miyamoto was unsure if Nintendo was quite ready to provide Wii U owners with dual GamePad experiences.

“With regards to the two GamePads functionality, from a gaming system standpoint we are developing games that will have that capability,” Miyamoto said. “In the future, perhaps when we get closer to something that, an environment where everybody or a large majority of people would have two GamePads, that might be a time where we look at how we can leverage a system of that nature.”

Now in an interview with IGN, Miyamoto comment more on this blatantly absent Wii U feature.

“Certainly as we’ve been working on Wii U, I think we’re at a point where we don’t feel it’s realistic to expect people to purchase two GamePads yet,” Miyamoto said. “We’re still trying to get as many people as possible to buy the system itself, and that’s where our focus is right now. For the time being, two GamePad gameplay is not within our objectives in the short-term.”

“From a technical standpoint, I think if we decided to pursue that, technically we would be able to and we can perform system updates that would allow for that,” Miyamoto explained. “It’s also very interesting from a gameplay perspective idea because there are a lot of possibilities with two GamePads. But, at the same time, taking that kind of approach would again be a drain on resources and require us to continue to utilize our development resources for that. So then it would become a question of where do we want to devote our resources: Is it to creating regular GamePad games, or creating games centered around two GamePads?”

These comments come off the heels of E3 where Nintendo finally revealed their first foray in the Wii U’s NFC feature, which they are calling ‘amiibo‘.  The NFC feature for Wii U was another aspect of the console that many were beginning to think that Nintendo was neglecting.  Now that amiibos have been announced, focus is shifting to dual GamePad support.

It does make sense for Nintendo to wait until support for the Wii U grows and it is a more viable option for them to market a second GamePad.  It is also logical for them to focus on the current state of the Wii U and providing quality games for the console as is rather than spreading themselves thin.  But while current releases, such as Mario Kart 8, and the future release of Super Smash Bros. or Splatoon could possibly benefit from dual GamePad support, Wii U owners will have to wait until Nintendo has more to announce regarding this feature.  From these comments from Miyamoto, it doesn’t sound like they are cutting out dual GamePad support but only waiting for the right time to move forward with the feature.