Topic: Watch Dogs Delayed for Wii U

[smallsharkbigbite]

While this is certainly another blow for the WiiU, I think it's also related to the weird, fragile state of the game industry right now and the Trojan horses of new consoles that promise to reinvigorate flagging sales but actually just greatly increase the amount of work a AAA game takes, and also the extra resources needed for two or three differently spec'ed versions.

I'm skeptical that costs are really increasing that much from PS3 to PS4 development.  I think that's just an excuse that developers that have games that miss the market, sell poorly and lose money use.


http://gamasutra.com/view/news/194029/Nextgen_game_development_costs_will_stay_the_samefor_now.php


http://techreport.com/news/24430/ea-ps4-to-raise-game-development-costs-5-10


Computer games have been 1080p and scalable forever and you don't hear about their crippling budgets.  PS4/Xbox ONE architecture should make it easier to port between the two and the steam platform.  Not that costs will increase, just that I think the real transition was to HD. 

[Fatty The Hutt]

Maybe, just maybe, this is a strategy to potentially increase overall sales for the Wii U version and not an outright cancellation (yet).
Maybe Ubisoft is delaying until one or two of the Nintendo "system sellers" are released that might increase the Wii U install base.
I am not saying this is a sound strategy, I'm just trying to maintain a little optimism here.

[Ian Sane]

It's cancelled.  They're delaying just on the off chance that somehow Nintendo pulls a miracle out of their butt and saves the Wii U and then Ubi can finish this off and release it then.  But for all intents and purposes this is cancelled.

Back when the Wii U launched some incredibly optimistic fans were all excited that EA and Ubisoft were supporting it.  At the time I said that neither company's support means dick because they support everything.  Well that's not completely true.  Their support means something in that if they AREN'T supporting you you are fucked.  If you can't get Ubisoft to make games for your system it's over.

The Wii U is toast.  I said last Christmas was its last and I still think that's a realistic possibility.  How many games will be released between now and the end of the year?  Eight?  Will anyone but Nintendo themselves release a game for it?  Nintendo should replace this thing ASAP and NOT with some bullshit health system.  New console for winter 2015 or Nintendo's time as a console maker is over.

What drives me nuts is that this is all Nintendo's own fault!  My favourite company is crashing the plane into the mountainside and I've had to watch it happen in slow motion.

[ResettisCousin]

I don't think there's a better third-party exclusive on WiiU than ZombiU from Ubisoft. Ubisoft delayed Rayman on WiiU, but the WiiU version is still the closest to the original vision by a long shot- though the vision wasn't universally appreciated. And they released very solid ports of Blacklist and ACIV (I beat both the games on WiiU). So, if Watch Dogs is canned on WiiU, I still think Ubisoft was Nintendo's closest partner and hope they'll return for whatever has the difficult role of following the WiiU.

[Adrock]

Delaying with the intention of quietly canceling later in an attempt to soften the blow of an outright cancellation would be insulting. In any case, delaying the Wii U version doesn't make sense since it'll likely sell the fewest copies and now Wii U owners who wanted the game have to wait longer. If they have another console, they might just buy a different version. If Ubisoft is worried about sales and is still committed to releasing the game on Wii U, I think it'd make more sense to release the Wii U version first and let it benefit from front loaded sales. Wii U owners who really want the game won't have the option of buying it on another console initially.

Personally, I wasn't that interested in the game though I admit it will be yet another blow to the console if the game ultimately gets cancelled.

[Ceric]

Looking back through Wikipedia and like Watch Dogs was originally for PS360 and Windows.  They added XBone, PS4, and WiiU.  Now we are up to 6 Platforms.  Out of those the PS3 and WiiU are the most unique.  PS3 has existing engines and technical familiarity.  The WiiU does not.  Add in the strain of adding in 3 new consoles with new licensing requirements and new, all bight similar, tech to figure out and its fairly obvious why the WiiU would get the short end of the stick.  Irony being that this game could have easily had the WiiU as its target platform in another universe.