When the Wii U first came out, the biggest publishers, who's games continually shift millions of copies and hit the top play and sale charts of countries and platforms alike, EA, Ubisoft, and Activision were among the biggest supporters for the brand new, un-proven console, happy to take a risk and bringing over a lot of titles to the Wii U, with Ubisoft bringing the exclusive ZombiU to the platform and announcing Rayman: Legends, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Rayman: Origins, to be exclusive to the Wii U, which was a major win for Nintendo.
However, support eventually tailored off, and though some big titles continue to make their way to the platform, such as Ubisoft's very hyped Watch Dogs, both Ubisoft and Activion have been substantially less enthusiastic, with Rayman: Legends being delayed for it to hit all the consoles, and EA perhaps being the most out-spoken of the big 3 and saying they have no games in development for the Wii U, with their next-gen engine currently not even supporting the platform.
Yves Guillemot, Chairman and CEO of Ubisoft, has cited ZombiU's terrible performance as the reason Rayman: Legends was made multi-platform, with him describing the game as not even being close to profitable, despite being quite popular amongst early adopters. Losing Rayman as an exclusive was a big knock for Ninty. He spoke of the Wii U,
Added to this, Ubisoft currently has absolutely no plans for a sequel to ZombiU for the Wii U console.
Activision, like Ubisoft, were a big partner for Nintendo at release, and regardless of opinions to their practices and their games they shift a lot of titles. Eric Hirshberg, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, like Ubi, commented on the weak sales of the game they brought over as to being why they will not be supporting the Wii U as much as they did, with Call of Duty: Ghosts still not having been announced to be coming to Wii U or not and has been pegged as, like it's predecessors, break numerous sales records.
EA was probably the most direct publisher about the Wii U's situation, announcing absolutely no titles in development for the Wii U at one point and being a lot less tactful than others when discussing the problems. EA's Peter Moore comments, echoing the same reasons as his predecessors, but also that the lack of online functionality being the reason why Madden will not be appearing on the Wii U.
GI.biz, via NeoGAF
These comments come pretty soon after Iwata discussed 2 ways in which the Wii U can re-new third-party support, and you can read the news about that over at this ZD thread: Click!
So, does Nintendo really have a problem here? Iwata's plans of increasing momentum with their own launches won't hit in time for the holiday season, and could cost them, but if the selling power of the Wii U increases, will we see more games hitting Wii U shores? Regardless of opinions for or against publishers like EA, Ubi, and Activision, their games bring in a lot of money for Microsoft and Sony on both the Xbox and Playstation consoles, and fans want them, and I'm sure Nintendo would be very happy to share in some of that money.
Drop a comment and let us know wat you think!
However, support eventually tailored off, and though some big titles continue to make their way to the platform, such as Ubisoft's very hyped Watch Dogs, both Ubisoft and Activion have been substantially less enthusiastic, with Rayman: Legends being delayed for it to hit all the consoles, and EA perhaps being the most out-spoken of the big 3 and saying they have no games in development for the Wii U, with their next-gen engine currently not even supporting the platform.
Yves Guillemot, Chairman and CEO of Ubisoft, has cited ZombiU's terrible performance as the reason Rayman: Legends was made multi-platform, with him describing the game as not even being close to profitable, despite being quite popular amongst early adopters. Losing Rayman as an exclusive was a big knock for Ninty. He spoke of the Wii U,
Yves Guillemot said:We must find a way to ensure the creativity of those games could have a big enough audience. We hope it will take off. At the moment, we've said 'let's do through Christmas and see where we are from there.
Added to this, Ubisoft currently has absolutely no plans for a sequel to ZombiU for the Wii U console.
Activision, like Ubisoft, were a big partner for Nintendo at release, and regardless of opinions to their practices and their games they shift a lot of titles. Eric Hirshberg, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, like Ubi, commented on the weak sales of the game they brought over as to being why they will not be supporting the Wii U as much as they did, with Call of Duty: Ghosts still not having been announced to be coming to Wii U or not and has been pegged as, like it's predecessors, break numerous sales records.
Eric Hirshberg said:We came to the table with a robust slate, but we have no announcements now.
EA was probably the most direct publisher about the Wii U's situation, announcing absolutely no titles in development for the Wii U at one point and being a lot less tactful than others when discussing the problems. EA's Peter Moore comments, echoing the same reasons as his predecessors, but also that the lack of online functionality being the reason why Madden will not be appearing on the Wii U.
Peter Moore said:We were there with four games for them [at launch]. It's been a disappointment when you look at sell-through and, as a company, we have to be very judicious where we deploy our resources.
The lack of online engagement that we see on Wii U [is troubling]. It's so integral to what we do. They're so small it's hardly worth running the servers. It seems like a box that's out of sync with the future of EA - which is one that gives a real social feel to our games. The Wii U feels like an offline experience right now."
GI.biz, via NeoGAF
These comments come pretty soon after Iwata discussed 2 ways in which the Wii U can re-new third-party support, and you can read the news about that over at this ZD thread: Click!
So, does Nintendo really have a problem here? Iwata's plans of increasing momentum with their own launches won't hit in time for the holiday season, and could cost them, but if the selling power of the Wii U increases, will we see more games hitting Wii U shores? Regardless of opinions for or against publishers like EA, Ubi, and Activision, their games bring in a lot of money for Microsoft and Sony on both the Xbox and Playstation consoles, and fans want them, and I'm sure Nintendo would be very happy to share in some of that money.
Drop a comment and let us know wat you think!