Topic: Ubisoft Will Be Scaling Back Wii U Support, Nintendo Still Confident in the System

[bluelander]

I guess that means no more motion controlled Rabbid games?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/34601

Ubisoft stated during their investor meeting that it has "reduced plans" for the Wii U following the weak launch, according to tweets from David Gibson covering the meeting at E3. Ubisoft also stated that they expect Nintendo to introduce price cuts for the console given how sales are panning out and how weak the yen is.

At a separate analyst briefing, Nintendo outlined their strategy to increase the Wii U sales that Ubisoft referenced. They stated that they intended to use first party Wii U games to boost  hardware sales, and they hoped that afterwards third party games would follow suit. They also assured the audience that recent software delays for key Wii U titles were driven by a focus on quality and getting used to the new Wii U hardware. Nintendo also talked about their plans to keep cash on hand, allowing them the flexibility to take more risks.

[nickmitch]

I hope "keeping more cash on hand" and "taking risks" means buying up development studios. No real reason they can't find and hire enough talent to have a dedicated Star Fox team.

[Mop it up]

If even Ubisoft is reducing support, that can't be a good sign...

[Ian Sane]

This ain't good.  Ubisoft supports EVERYONE.

Perhaps "cash on hand" means that Nintendo knows the Wii U is screwed and that they'll have to bankroll it with the 3DS's success.

[the asylum]

O woe! O forlorn hope! Now how will we play such amazing and quality titles like Sing Party and Just Dance?

[Mop it up]

O woe! O forlorn hope! Now how will we play such amazing and quality titles like Sing Party and Just Dance?

Sing Party is Nintendo's game.

[Do_What]

I wonder if cash on hand means a three year life for the Wii U

[Khushrenada]

Ha ha ha. To be snarky, guess Ubisoft also wasn't impressed by Nintendo's E3 showing.

[DanielM]

It could also mean that Ubisoft is just going to delay games until the system starts getting popular.

[pokepal148]

I suspect they are taking a wait and see approach on the system. See how well Rayman Legends does.

[broodwars]

I suspect they are taking a wait and see approach on the system. See how well Rayman Legends does.

Something tells me the Vita version will out-sell the Wii U version, especially since Vita had the best version of Rayman Origins.

I'm not surprised to see Ubisoft backing away from the Wii U. They'll support anyone at first, but they know a sinking ship when they see it. I'll be surprised if this isn't the last Vita game they produce as well.

[pokepal148]

I suspect they are taking a wait and see approach on the system. See how well Rayman Legends does.

Something tells me the Vita version will out-sell the Wii U version, especially since Vita had the best version of Rayman Origins.

I'm not surprised to see Ubisoft backing away from the Wii U. They'll support anyone at first, but they know a sinking ship when they see it. I'll be surprised if this isn't the last Vita game they produce as well.

considering how popular the rayman challenges app on wii u is i disagree

and the Wii U will probably have the best version overall by nature of "this is the only version that was ever originally supposed to exist'

[the asylum]

O woe! O forlorn hope! Now how will we play such amazing and quality titles like Sing Party and Just Dance?

Sing Party is Nintendo's game.

So it is. The usual flood of ubi shovelware just looks all the same to me.

[broodwars]

I suspect they are taking a wait and see approach on the system. See how well Rayman Legends does.

Something tells me the Vita version will out-sell the Wii U version, especially since Vita had the best version of Rayman Origins.

I'm not surprised to see Ubisoft backing away from the Wii U. They'll support anyone at first, but they know a sinking ship when they see it. I'll be surprised if this isn't the last Vita game they produce as well.

considering how popular the rayman challenges app on wii u is i disagree

It's pretty easy for something to be "popular" when it's free and your install base has nothing else to play because Nintendo's so badly ****ed up their handling of the Wii U. Let's see those folks put their money where their mouths are, & we'll see how things shake out.

I agree that it will probably sell best on Wii U, though, because gamers on the other consoles actually have more than 1 game in 3 months to buy (plus, as much as I'm not interested in it, GTA 5 releases near Rayman and that'll definitely impact Rayman's sales on the other consoles).

and the Wii U will probably have the best version overall by nature of "this is the only version that was ever originally supposed to exist'

I think the different versions of the game will be pretty indistinguishable. Ubisoft wants this game to sell the best it can across all platforms. Hell, they delayed the Wii U version of the game just so they could release them all together.  I'm giving the Vita version the slight nod just because its analog stick & Dpad were so responsive with Rayman Origins, more so than my PS3's analog stick, actually. We'll see how things shake out.

[Khushrenada]

One thing about Rayman though is that, just like Sonic, if I wait about 3 months after the game is released, the price usually goes down. It happened with Rayman Origins. 3 - 4 months after it was out, I was shocked to see it brand new for $19.00. I didn't expect it to drop so fast. Same thing happened to Rayman 3D although that was a port of Rayman 2 so not as surprising. All Rabbids games launched at a full retail price then after a few months dropped off to the bargain bin.

That's another issue for publishers. If you have a history of slashing your prices all the time, people aren't going to buy the games right away and those that do will feel cheated and possibly skip or else wait next time also. At the same time, I'm not saying that every game should hold fast to an initial high retail price but I do think that publishers need to start being more savvy with the price they release a game at. Maybe instead of launching at 49.99 or 59.99, it should launch at 39.99 or to be riskier 29.99.

[lolmonade]

I wonder if cash on hand means a three year life for the Wii U

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not, but in case you are, I assume Nintendo mean they're going to push towards having a more liquid asset such as cash-on-hand so they're more capable of investing into projects quickly, instead of having their assets tied up in long-term investments that they'd need to convert into cash before they'd be able to get cash to spend it.

If anything, that would be the one glimmer of hope in this article so far that they're taking seriously the notion that they're not supporting the Wii U adequately, and one could imply that them stating this means they want to make some investments not only in the near-term, but also want to continue investing heavily into their current console offering.