We're at the end of this chapter of Nintendo and Ubisoft's relationship and the state of major third parties on Wii U is troubling.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/39121/the-downfall-of-ubisoft-on-wii-u
At E3 2011, Nintendo’s Wii U was first revealed to the world alongside a variety of demos that Nintendo termed “experiences” because they weren’t representative of full games. The system was a mystery and filled with potential.
Midway through that E3, Nintendo hosted a developer discussion, as they usually do at the event. This one was different though. It was, according to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, “a first during (his) presidency at Nintendo.” The third-party publisher Ubisoft was given the chance to present their Wii U lineup at a Nintendo event. While Nintendo has occasionally brought in third-party publishers and developers into their events, they rarely handed off the reins to an entire other company.
The reasoning for the curious event seemed evident when Iwata introduced Ubisoft. The third-party company was set to be a “most important partner” for Nintendo, showing “stronger support than ever before.” This was supposed to be the start of a bold, new direction for Nintendo, one that encouraged third parties instead of chasing them away.
Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot certainly was passionate for Wii U at the time. "When we saw this console and the controller, we thought it was, for us, a good time to create all new product for that console,” he said. "We think it will take a lot of new gamers to the industry."
Guillemot’s reasons for optimism actually lined up with the direction that, in retrospect, Ubisoft went. He was excited for the concept of combining touch screen gameplay with traditional controls, as it allowed for potentially more social gameplay than ever before. With Ubisoft’s recent releases, most of which weren’t scheduled for Wii U, they all used smartphones and tablets to let players use a companion app that adds bonuses to the game. In 2011, Guillemot was hopeful that Nintendo’s system would have been the catalyst for all of that.
At that E3 2011 event, Ubisoft discussed their five in-progress Wii U games. The flagship title was Killer Freaks From Outer Space, which later became the launch title ZombiU. The other major title was Ghost Recon Online, which was actually the only third-party playable demo at that E3, and so far, Ghost Recon Online has not come out on Wii U. It was released on PC earlier this year and as of 2012, the Wii U version has been on hold. We reached out to Ubisoft but heard no update about the game. It’s assumed it’s still on hold, likely never to come out. The other three games were a new entry in the Assassin’s Creed series (which became Assassin’s Creed III), a new entry in the Rabbids series (which became Rabbids Land), and Sports Connection (which became a largely forgettable launch title).
One quote from that event has a little bit of a bite given what has happened to Ubisoft’s Wii U support. Hugues Ricour, one of the producers working on Ghost Recon Online, said adamantly that they were excited to work on Wii U because "Nintendo has proved with history that they can really redefine entertainment."
There wasn’t much official information on Wii U between E3 2011 and E3 2012, but when the floodgates opened up Ubisoft was still just as boldly supporting Wii U. At E3 2012 Ubisoft actually got to first show off the console publicly at their press conference. ZombiU, Rayman Legends, and Just Dance 4 were huge focuses of Ubisoft’s show, with all three hugely leveraging the GamePad.
During that same E3, even EA pledged their support to Nintendo. EA’s then-CEO John Riccitello proclaimed that EA and Nintendo were undergoing a "breakthrough in (their) relationship based on a stunning breakthrough in game technology."
Riccitello spoke of new gameplay opportunities, unique control methods, and a persistent online community. "What Nintendo's new console delivers speaks directly to the players of EA Sports and EA games," he said, declaring that the Wii U would kick off “an unprecedented partnership between Nintendo and Electronic Arts.”
Then, the Wii U came out and support from Ubisoft and EA fell apart.
At launch, Ubisoft had several games ready, including the flagship mature title ZombiU. By every conceivable metric we know of, ZombiU bombed. It bombed so hard that its aftershock was felt three months after launch when Ubisoft delayed Rayman Legends six months so they could launch it on other platforms in addition to Wii U. Rayman Legends wound up being the only major Ubisoft title that sold respectably on Wii U, as even the second holiday season filled with Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Assassin’s Creed IV barely moved the needle. Wii U games in general made up less than 5% of Ubisoft’s total software sales.
EA’s about-face was even quicker. They had Madden, FIFA, and Mass Effect 3 ready for the console’s release. Need for Speed: Most Wanted U, launched in March 2013, was the last game EA ever released on Wii U. Like the Ubisoft games, sales are hard to track, but by every metric, every single EA game bombed and bombed hard.
Likewise, Activision’s Call of Duty games sold poorly, though the publisher has found a sizable Wii U success with Skylanders. For example, Skylanders: Trap Team on Wii U has outsold every other version of the game aside from the Xbox 360 and Wii versions. Activision seemingly played Switzerland in this entire storm, quietly supporting Nintendo with the properties that made sense and slowly fading out the possibility of any other kind of support without making a big stink about it.
We’re at a point where looking forward to the Wii U lineup in 2015 is filled with even more uncertainty than ever. We know of a wide swath of Nintendo-made games, made up of new entries in classic series as well as games such as Splatoon and Devil’s Third. Those games all look very good, but aside from that, the Wii U library is a bunch of self-published eShop games and little else. The eShop isn’t a rosy proposition either. Numerous Nintendo-loyal developers, while active on 3DS, won’t touch the Wii U with a 10-foot pole. There are countless horror stories of companies putting effort in to a Wii U eShop release, only to see it sell a pittance. On the flip side, the Wii U eShop does have success stories, but it seems like that’s the exception, not the rule.
We might not know it, but the last major third-party release on Wii U may have stealthily released last week in Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs. Unfortunately, the Wii U version of Watch Dogs is doomed to be nothing more than the answer to a trivia question or a footnote in gaming history. There’s not a large group of people craving to play a six-months-late version of a game that they can get for $20 cheaper on almost any other home console. The inevitable sales implosion of Watch Dogs is a fitting end to the Wii U’s flirtation with being a home to major third-party releases. Third-party sales on Wii U seem like they’re going to end where they started: sad and alone.
There's really no one to blame but the Wii U players who don't buy third-party games.How about blaming third-party pubs for not making games that cater to the Wii U audience?
Ubisoft sealed their fate when they delayed Rayman Legends. A company that pulls the eject button less than 3 months after launch is not a company that was looking to support Nintendo in anyway. It was only hoping the Wii magic would strike again.
EA: Within weeks of releasing Mass Effect 3 on Wii U, Mass Effect Trilogy was released for PS3/360 at the same price. Which would a consumer choose? Need for Speed Most Wanted U came out 5 months later than PS3/360 at full price, while on other systems it was routinely marked down to $20-30. Which would a consumer choose?
Numerous Nintendo-loyal developers, while active on 3DS, won’t touch the Wii U with a 10-foot pole. There are countless horror stories of companies putting effort in to a Wii U eShop release, only to see it sell a pittance.
QuoteNumerous Nintendo-loyal developers, while active on 3DS, won’t touch the Wii U with a 10-foot pole. There are countless horror stories of companies putting effort in to a Wii U eShop release, only to see it sell a pittance.
could someone elaborate on the these two points?
Yes, damn you Nintendo fans for not buying the same stuff we shovel out everywhere else and demanding higher quality games.
Nintendo fans (as a community) bitch when they get versions exactly the same as the other versions ("why aren't you taking advantage of our system's unique features?! We're Special!"), and they bitch when they get versions that are too different from the other versions ("Ugh! This isn't the version that everyone ELSE got! BOYCOTT!"). The only things consistent in the whole situation are that Nintendo fans bitch, and that Nintendo fans don't buy the games in the end.
Nintendo fans (as a community) bitch when they get versions exactly the same as the other versions ("why aren't you taking advantage of our system's unique features?! We're Special!"), and they bitch when they get versions that are too different from the other versions ("Ugh! This isn't the version that everyone ELSE got! BOYCOTT!"). The only things consistent in the whole situation are that Nintendo fans bitch, and that Nintendo fans don't buy the games in the end.
Everything you just said there can be applied to consumers of the other consoles out in the market.
Sony & Microsoft fans buy 3rd party games.
Congratulations: You found "a" 3rd party game that sold well on Nintendo consoles, and one that played to Nintendo's core fanbase of 5 year old toy collectors (*eyes Amiibo*). There are plenty more that didn't. There was nothing wrong with the Wii U versions of Assassin's Creed 3 or CoD: Black Ops 2 at the Wii U launch, and Ubisoft & Activision have come out and said those didn't sell well, nor did CoD: Ghosts or AC4: Black Flag a year later.
And incidentally, it's 2014 and a completely different console. I think people can stop bitching about Dead Space Extraction at this point.
There was nothing wrong with the Wii U versions of Assassin's Creed 3 or CoD: Black Ops 2 at the Wii U launch, and Ubisoft & Activision have come out and said those didn't sell well, nor did CoD: Ghosts or AC4: Black Flag a year later.You mean, aside from missing features/support that the other systems had?
And incidentally, it's 2014 and a completely different console. I think people can stop bitching about Dead Space Extraction at this point.
[T]hey bitch when they get versions that are too different from the other versions ("Ugh! This isn't the version that everyone ELSE got! BOYCOTT!").
The only way this turns around is if Nintendo actually works with 3rd parties going forward, involving them in the planning and development of the console and the marketing of the games. But what would require Nintendo actually caring how any other company performs on their consoles, especially outside Japan.
The problem is Nintendo's consoles. That's it. If you look at the 3DS, DS, and GB, you'll see that they do phenomenally well with third parties. So what's the difference?
If Nintendo had released a console that wasn't a flop then the third party sales would have been better and the whole mess would probably have been avoided.
I'm currently playing through the Mass Effect Trilogy on the PS3 and, man, the ME3 release on the Wii U really is a borderline useless product. Playing just the third game with no way to import in your save would just take so much from the experience. I don't know if EA would intentionally sabotage a product but at the very least that was clearly nothing more than a token effort. Whoever green lit it probably knows nothing about the game aside from its sales figures ("that's a popular recent game of ours. Let's port that.")
I agree that the decision to not make a wildly more powerful console was a mistake but it's really just a bullet point on the long list of bad choices they made and not the main cause.Basically. If Nintendo went with more powerful hardware, it would be stuck with a pricier product that no one wanted to buy and no third party wanted to make games for. That's it. Wii U was littered with issues and throwing more hardware power at it wasn't going to fix those things. Right now, Nintendo is just making the best of a really crummy situation.
Moving forward, I really don't think there's anything Nintendo can do to get consistent third party support even beyond Wii U.
So basically Nintendo should be going to third parties proclaiming how much they're just like the other guys, which they've said multiple times through multiple people that they have no interest in being, and which seems to be working out pretty well for them, despite the semi-annual OMG NINTENDO IS THE NEXT SEGA!!!!11!!oneeleven freakouts.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Wii U pretty much on par with the sales of the XBox One at this point?
Xbox One and Wii U hardware sales are close, but take a look at how the third party games sell. I don't have Xbox One specifics, but I'm sure its killing the failure of the early third party Wii U games.
I didn't realize it was an achievement to be selling (with a year's sales head start) roughly the same number of Wii Us as the worst-selling and worst-marketed next-generation console.So... being roughly comparable with half the competition is a horrible thing?
So... being roughly comparable with half the competition is a horrible thing?
And the Wii U having a couple better-than-mediocre-selling titles doesn't "show that the customer base is where and is buying games." It shows that a group of people bought a few games. Like everything else about the Wii U, it hasn't been consistent, even across Nintendo 1st party titles. There has to be a proven history on the console to justify supporting it, hence why the Wii got so much 3rd party support despite the filthy casuals only ever buying a handful of titles. There was enough consistency across the library as a whole that it made economic sense to support it.
There's PS4, Wii U, XBone, 3DS, PSP.
I can only buy one system. What system should I buy Broodwars and why?
Sure Vita. That shows how well Sony has distinguished their handhelds to me. I thought like the 3DS continues the DS line and name, the Vita continued the PSP line and name.
Now a couple questions. You mention "Of the 3 major platforms (plus Wii U)". What are the 3 major platforms?
Also, you went with Wii U and PS4 as the choices. (Despite only asking for one recommendation although your answer seems to indicate they are different from each other to require you to make two recommendations.) Is this because you do not regard handhelds as being able to equal the satisfaction of playing console games or because neither have the short term or long term satisfaction that the Wii U or PS4 could provide?
PC, PS4, and the Xbone are the 3 major platforms right now. I may not care for PC gaming, but it's still a big deal. As for the 3DS, I've never been altogether impressed by its software, which is a pale shadow compared to its predecessor and doesn't suit my tastes like the Vita's games do. As for why I made 2 recommendations, that was partially because everyone's tastes are different and partially because in my mind the Wii U is a good secondary console to complement a PS4 primary console. Nintendo bothers to release a worthwhile game on average about once every 3-6 months, and inbetween those releases you have the PS4's constant deluge of titles.
What is this? The PS4 has a steady stream of games and the Wii U doesn't?
I mean, unless you're counting third party releases, which is kind of foolish because I sure as hell don't buy a console for third party releases. I play PC for that.
That's the issue Nintendo faces. How does releasing a very similar console to the competition convince gamers to jump ship to them along with third parties releasing their big titles on the system and staying with them for the long haul?
That is essentially Nintendo. And from this standpoint, I don't think it's hard to see why Nintendo made the Wii and the Wii U. The Wii U especially is like a love song to the Nintendo fan. It is powerful enough to produce beautiful graphics, it allows you to play a game even when your family or roommates are using the TV, it has a plethora of controller options for any game imaginable, and it has a network of millions of Nintendo fans playing and talking about games. In a vacuum, this system would be amazing.
Sorry for the long khush-like post,
So what went wrong? My personal opinion is that Nintendo truly thought it would disrupt the living room and that the gamepad would be as exciting to play with as the Wiimote. I'm sure for some people off-TV play is godsend, but for most it's solving a problem they don't have. TV's are super cheap these days, but I don't think Nintendo realized just how cheap (similar to their dismissal of HD). And as for gameplay, Nintendo really has yet to prove its advantage. God knows that if anyone could, it would be them. But they completely botched it. They went the safe route of tech demos turned mini-game compilation, just like the Wii. But unlike the Wii, it wasn't immediately understandable why these games were exciting.Wii U wasn't even a good Nintendo console for its first year and a half. It was slow, buggy, and it didn't even have many Nintendo games. The meager sales it managed were from fans who knew Nintendo would release decent games eventually. That's never going to be a successful plan.
I like the concept of the GamePad, but Nintendo bunted the execution.
To me the Wii U comes across as a love song to the Wii userbase, only with misconceptions of why the Wii was successful and how loyal the Wii audience is.
I genuinely laughed out loud, Khush. Cheers for that one!
This is a loser coming back to his estranged wife because his mistress dumped his ass and he ain't even smart enough to have brought flowers.
Wii U wasn't even a good Nintendo console for its first year and a half. It was slow, buggy, and it didn't even have many Nintendo games.
I personally would be more inclined to buy some on Wii U if almost all of them weren't garbage ports that are gimped compared to their counterparts.That's essentially how I view all games from every company, ports or exclusives. They can have my money. I'd be happy to spend it, but they have to earn it. I'm very rarely disappointed in Nintendo's releases. Unfortunately, many third parties don't see it that way, particularly on Nintendo consoles. I get the feeling that their attitude is that lowly Wii U owners should count their lucky stars to get even table scraps.
I feel if they had waited another year to release it, it would have done better.The problem with that is Wii U was already at least a year late, meaning Nintendo was at best two years behind. Nintendo didn't build off the momentum of Wii. It let the momentum die then tried to re-enter the race with a broken car. It's too late to do anything about that now, but I certainly hope Nintendo learned a valuable lesson from this and comes out swinging next time.
No lie, the Xbox One has a better library right now than the PS4. And I'm no XBone fan, but it's the truth!
Wii U is currently better than both
No lie, the Xbox One has a better library right now than the PS4. And I'm no XBone fan, but it's the truth!
LittleBigPlanet 3 isn't exclusive. It's on the PS3, meaning that's another reason I don't need a PS4. Most of the best-sellers on the PS4 are for cross-gen or remasters of games I've already played or have the ability to play on my PS3.And that right there is shooting this Gen in the foot. The availability of everything worth owning on the previous Gen.
LittleBigPlanet 3 isn't exclusive. It's on the PS3, meaning that's another reason I don't need a PS4. Most of the best-sellers on the PS4 are for cross-gen or remasters of games I've already played or have the ability to play on my PS3.And that right there is shooting this Gen in the foot. The availability of everything worth owning on the previous Gen.
Actually let me rephrase that, Ian.
What would a Nintendo love song sound like to you?
Ideally Nintendo would reveal their new console at E3 (revealing it at the industry standard show would be gesture in itself) and everyone would just be blown away - not just Nintendo fanboys but gamers that had long ago written off Nintendo.Let's not kid ourselves. No, they wouldn't.
LittleBigPlanet 3 isn't exclusive. It's on the PS3, meaning that's another reason I don't need a PS4. Most of the best-sellers on the PS4 are for cross-gen or remasters of games I've already played or have the ability to play on my PS3.
LittleBigPlanet 3 isn't exclusive. It's on the PS3, meaning that's another reason I don't need a PS4. Most of the best-sellers on the PS4 are for cross-gen or remasters of games I've already played or have the ability to play on my PS3.
If you're going to throw out LPB 3 because it has a PS3 version, then you also have to throw out Titanfall because it has a better-selling 360 version. :P: