Play PC Games on your Wii U gamepad

Play PC Games on your Wii U gamepad

While the Wii U looks like it might have had a pretty good Christmas - certainly when compared to the last 12 months of sales - there might be a new selling point for the struggling Nintendo system, as a team of hackers have managed to make it so that the console's touch screen, tablet controller can stream content and games from the PC.

In the demo which was shown during the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, the team behind the hack demonstrated two apps running on their laptop, but streamed (and controlled) through the gamepad: a simple drawing app and Legend of Zelda: Windwalker. But not the new HD version, the original Gamecube version running through emulation.

It's far from a perfect hack as there were crashes that required a rebooting of the gamepad, but as a proof of concept it's certainly interesting.

Unfortunately it's not easy to enable, so Wii U owners around the world won't suddenly be replacing Nvidia's Shield, but it's an interesting prospect and could offer Nintendo an impressive feature for improving sales if it embraces it. If it cracks down on it though and tries to stamp it out, it could turn away potential customers.

What do you guys reckon? Does this make you any more interested in a Wii U?

Skip to 47 minutes in to see the demos:

[Thanks Engadget]