Nintendo debuted their Wii U at E3 on Monday, and ever since the press has been abuzz about the prospect of adding a second screen to traditional one screen games. Using a TV as the sole display for games has been the only real option for gaming for decades at this point, so it makes sense that the prospect of changing that paradigm has a lot of people intrigued, myself included.

While Nintendo seemed to be the sole company pushing the two screens idea earlier in the week, looking back that is not the case at all. In fact, others have technology in-place to deliver the same experience, possibly in even more interesting ways. Let’s run them down:

Apple

If you were just following E3 this week, you may have missed Apple’s big WWDC keynote on Monday. Steve Jobs and co. took to the stage at Moscone Center to discuss the next iterations of OS X and iOS. iOS has allowed for video output on the iPad 2 since its launch, and some companies such as Firemint have put that capability to good use with Real Racing 2. All of this required that you physically connect your iPad to you TV with an HDMI cable. With iOS 5 coming this fall, that will be a thing of the past with the ability to stream iPad (and presumably future iPhone/iPod Touch) video wirelessly to your TV via Apple TV.

It has been verified that this makes it possible to have different outputs being displayed on the two different screens. This is VERY similar to what Nintendo is doing, except the processing is being done on the device instead of the box in this case. The end results are the same, which means almost anything that the Wii U can do, can theoretically be done with an iPad and Apple TV. Interesting.

PSVita

Sony spent a huge chunk of their E3 2011 media briefing talking about the PSVita, and rightfully so. It is set to be their next big hardware push, and it is doing what Sony does best, pushing tech to max to deliver graphics beyond what has been capable in the past.

Interoperability has been a notion that Sony has toyed with in the past with the PSP and PS3, and it looks like they will be taking another go at it with the PSV. Asynchronous gameplay seems to be the real focus as of now with the ability to play a game on the PS3 and pick it back up on the PSV and vice-versa, but using the PSV as a supplementary input/screen is certainly possible. Streaming a PS3 game to a PSP has been possible in the past, and it only makes sense that with the more powerful PSV that Sony will take that to the next level.

OnLive

We have talked a lot about OnLive on GTD over the past year. They continue to make pushes into the gaming market through marketing and sales, but their showing of new technology at E3 caught the attention of almost everyone in the gaming press. OnLive has had an iPad app for almost 6 months now, but it was purely for spectating. You can view other players’ current gameplay through the app, but not much more — that is about to change.

With the new iteration of the OnLive app coming to a wide range of devices, OnLive is implementing the ability to play games directly on the tablet through touch controls, or via a new “universal controller.” This is great news as it will make PC/console level experiences possible directly on mobile devices. They have also hinted that Wii U-style, two screen experiences are possible when bringing a TV into the equation if the games are built for it.

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It is clear that this second screen idea is not just a Nintendo thing. Whether it is utilized as a supplementary display or as a different way to experience the same content, many are eyeing the technology. Nintendo was the first to show that a second screen and interconnected displays could introduce some exciting experiences, and if it were just them saying it this would be easy to discount as another gimmick, but they are not alone. This is an exciting new trend that at least opens the door to a new ways to experience games.

It really all comes down to implementation, ease of use and price though. Nintendo is on track to deliver what looks to be the most straightforward solution, but it is interesting that others already have technology in place, or in the works, to deliver similar takes on the idea.

E3 is always good for providing a glimpse at the future of games, and this year proved no different. Is the idea of introducing a second screen into your gaming experience something that interests you?