In praise of the second screen | Opinion

gamesindustry.biz:

Rob Fahey

Contributing Editor

Friday 1st July 2022

For a few years in the 2010s, "second screens" were the biggest concept in gaming.

Nintendo's DS handheld is often held up as the progenitor of this idea, and many of the ideas for what to do with a second screen -- a map display, menu, or inventory, for example -- arose from developers' experimentation with the unusual form factor of the DS.

However, it was really smartphones that kicked off the broader notion of the second screen; designers noticed that much of what was being done on the "first screen" of the living room TV was now being supplemented by people simultaneously using their phone, and wondered what new kinds of interactions or possibilities were opened up by embracing that concept.

In short order, we had a console entirely built around this idea -- the Wii U -- and experimentation in many other quarters with various different implementations, ranging from Sony toying with the potential of the Vita as a second screen for the PS4, through many different companies launching companion apps designed to turn smartphones into an extension of the game experience.

The winning second screens have been the smartphone and the tablet, and they have become an absolutely ubiquitous part of the gaming experience in recent years

Some of these failed more spectacularly than others (though our views of the Wii U may be mellowing over time, given that it provided the ashes from which the Switch arose), but none of them were really all that successful. Nowadays you hardly ever hear the second screen discussed as a concept, even the notion of a companion app for a game seems a bit outdated at this point.

I'd argue, though, that the second screen concept is in rude health. But