Ubisoft Scaling Back Wii U Support

[Rummy]

But would that bring the same amount of Third Party (Ubisoft in this case) support that PS and XB get?

 

I just don't see that happening EVER. If shipping more units was the way to go, than why didn't the Wii get all the big hitters?

 

I can guess there's one real reason: the typical Nintendo home console buyer buys the console for Nintendo games.

 

Nintendo would like Third Party support, they don't need it. The typical Nintendo gamer will buy the Wii U in the next two years. Just wait and see.

 

It won't sell as much as the Wii maybe, but more than enough to make it a decent success for Nintendo and typical Nintendo gamers.

 

(this is what I think will happen ofcourse, not trying to dismiss your opinions guys )

 

The Wii got some good/big games - but mostly I'd say it missed out due to tech limitations. There's a secondary that that market it sold too weren't the buyers of the bigger, 'game-ier' games, whereas I feel the Wii U won't capture that market much this time. It's certainly complicated, but even at root - to even consider having decent 3rd party support they need to seriously up the install base imo.

[Mr-Paul]

Also Wii U still isn't exactly the place to be for online.

 

What's actually wrong with the Wii U's online? I know it doesn't have cross-game chat, but is it really missing anything else? Not from my knowledge.

 

And to top it off, it's free.

[Retro_Link]

What's actually wrong with the Wii U's online? I know it doesn't have cross-game chat, but is it really missing anything else? Not from my knowledge.

 

And to top it off, it's free.

I think just Nintendo's mentality to not really push it and use it! If games built around online such as The Crew or The Division actually came to the Wii U (I'm still not convinced it's doable), how many people would actually be there to make the online experiences a good one?

[-Dem0-]

Putting the Rayman Legends blunder aside, Ubisoft have been the best and most consistent supporter of the Wii U publicly, behind the scenes and visibly with the software so seeing as they're now preparing to cut back a bit isn't a good to see.

 

At the very least Nintendo has shown some of their major titles, we know the release schedule for the rest of this calender year, all that's left is for the big N to heavily market their games like they're doing with the 3DS and watch as the turnaround comes into play.

[dazzybee]

People keep saying the N64 and gamecube era all over again, but in my memory the gamecube wasn't as unsupported as this. And was the N64?! This seems to be a new era of awful support. Weird as Nintendo say they are trying harder than ever to entice 3rd parties, well it seems to be having the opposite effect. Not having parity on the hardware seems to be fucking it all up for them, wonder if they realise their mistakes... Going by E3 I would say no.

[Mr-Paul]

I think just Nintendo's mentality to not really push it and use it! If games built around online such as The Crew or The Division actually came to the Wii U (I'm still not convinced it's doable), how many people would actually be there to make the online experiences a good one?

 

But just because Nintendo don't make many online games themselves, the system is capable. It really doesn't stop other devs making a good online experience for it. And if the games are there, people will come.

 

I know you could say Nintendo should lead by example with online, but still, I don't think they've set the Wii U up as a "less online" console than the Xbox One or PS4.

[Phube]

Maybe it's the videos or just my eyes but The Crew doesn't look much (if at all) better than NFS Most Wanted U? Which the Wii U handles with aplomb!

[Retro_Link]

It's not online itself which is why I'm not sure we'll see those games on Wii U, it's what those games are doing and the power they take up. Seamlessly being able to drop your vehicle anywhere into an online game map the size of the USA (albeit reduced and tightened up) with no load times and join squads of other players etc...

 

Maybe it's the videos or just my eyes but The Crew doesn't look much (if at all) better than NFS Most Wanted U? Which the Wii U handles with aplomb!

It explains what the game is...

 

[Phube]

It's not online itself which is why I'm not sure we'll see those games on Wii U, it's what those games are doing and the power they take up. Seamlessly being able to drop your vehicle anywhere into an online game map the size of the USA (albeit reduced and tightened up) with no load times and join squads of other players etc...

 

It explains what the game is...

 

 

So wait... does this mean the 'whole' of America is on the disc(s)... That'd be ridiculous... or is this a 'cloud' computing thing?

[liger05]

People keep saying the N64 and gamecube era all over again, but in my memory the gamecube wasn't as unsupported as this. And was the N64?! This seems to be a new era of awful support. Weird as Nintendo say they are trying harder than ever to entice 3rd parties, well it seems to be having the opposite effect. Not having parity on the hardware seems to be fucking it all up for them, wonder if they realise their mistakes... Going by E3 I would say no.

 

The GC in the first two years had good 3rd party support.

[david.dakota]

I don't see any reason why third parties should now support Wii U. Nintendo have run out of excuses; they showed some nice stuff yesterday but nothing that's really going to turn the tide for Wii U. They'll sell a couple of million units of hardware off the back of Smash and Mario Kart, and maybe a similar figure from Mario Not-Quite 3D World. Of what was shown nothing else is a system seller.

 

I think we all placed faith in Nintendo being able to turn things round at E3 - I guess EA and other publishers knew differently.

[Sheikah]

I don't know if your last "obviously" is based on facts but neither can I say it isn't true (I just don't have sales figures and expected sales numbers from Ubi on Wii U)

 

What I tried to say is: you can't blame Nintendo nor can you blame the Third Party developers. So why does this argument keeps on returning?

 

Third party backup was never big on Nintendo home consoles since Playstation 1 joined the fight.

 

If you like the games on PS/XB more than Nintendo games; buy one of those

If you like Nintendo games more than the games on PS/XB; but the Wii U

If you like both equall; buy both/all three

 

If you like to argue because you just like long neverending discussions: please continue Nothing's gonna change, the installbase is just different (Blue Ocean)

 

The problem with this is that Nintendo games rely on...Nintendo. And they're just recycling old content these days, for the most part. They're too conserved.

[Wii]

Ubisoft - Wii U will find its audience, will continue to support it

 

“We did not take a big risk with all those launch titles on Wii U. [Wii U game] development isn’t expensive -- some Wii U games are versions of games for other platforms, like Assassin’s Creed. And we continue to invest in that system. We have just as many titles coming on Wii U this year as we did after launch, because the system isn’t as resource-intensive to make games for it. We continue to believe that the Wii U will find its audience. We saw some good games [during Nintendo Direct this week]. We’re confident that the Wii U is a good place for us to do business, and we can make money there.” - Tony Key, senior VP of sales and marketing at Ubisoft

 

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=204960&sid=e50636506f75d0fc2d0ba80dd4b0a0a6

[Phube]

Zombi U 2 please!

[Wii]

Zombi U 2 please!

 

Ubisoft says more Wii Us need to sell, used the system as a learning experience, tease ZombiU future

 

The following comes from a Kotaku interview with Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot.

 

"We need more sold. They are coming with five of their biggest brands ever. And the Yen went down. So maybe they will take steps that will increase the number of consoles sold. Our job is to be agile. We have to adapt the company to the potential of the market. So, what we did last year, was we knew we could learn second-screen with Nintendo, so we went full-speed to use this capacity the console was bringing. And we were able to develop Rayman, which will come at the end of this year and which is fantastic, using this second screen. What we saw is that, in learning that, we can also use it with the other consoles with [Xbox] Smart Glass, for example, and it’s a good option that is coming to us. If you look at us this year on Wii U we will have a lot of products."

 

Guillemot also teased a bit of hope for a future with the ZombiU brand.

 

"We are still following the gameplay that was created [for that game,] so you will see something emerge one day."

 

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=204893

 

There's hope. This game sold reasonably well if not spectacular so there's always a chance.

[Dante]

Ubisoft has confirmed during its recent investor meeting that it will be scaling back support for Nintendo's Wii U console.

 

Ubisoft didnt say that

 

Some publishers are scaling back support for Nintendo’s Wii U due to its anemic sales. But for Ubisoft, a strong early supporter of Nintendo’s platforms, continuing to do business on the console just makes sense.

 

“We did not take a big risk with all those launch titles on Wii U,” Tony Key, senior VP of sales and marketing at Ubisoft, told us this week. His company has released Wii U games such as Just Dance 4, ZombiU and Rabbids Land.

 

“[Wii U game] development isn’t expensive -- some Wii U games are versions of games for other platforms, like Assassin’s Creed. And we continue to invest in that system.

 

“We have just as many titles coming on Wii U this year as we did after launch, because the system isn’t as resource-intensive to make games for it. We continue to believe that the Wii U will find its audience. We saw some good games [during Nintendo Direct this week]. We’re confident that the Wii U is a good place for us to do business, and we can make money there.”

[madeinbeats]

Ubisoft didnt say that

 

Oh shit.

[Hero-of-Time]

What's actually wrong with the Wii U's online? I know it doesn't have cross-game chat, but is it really missing anything else? Not from my knowledge.

 

And to top it off, it's free.

 

It's a mess. There are a bunch of us on here you play online with the Wii U most all the time and it has so many issues.

 

You cannot invite someone to a game you are playing if they are playing something else or single player. There have been so many times that one of us were playing single player on Monster Hunter and were signed yet we had no way of contacting them to jump online.

 

There is a serious lack of messaging system at the OS level. Sure you could send a message but you wouldn't see it unless you were looking at the pad.

 

Which brings me to my next point-Notifications. A friend comes online and indeed sends you a message, you have no idea about it as you are watching the big screen. There is no pop up saying Hero-of-Time has come online or anything like that. You have to keep checking to see if your friends have arrived or not.

 

What makes this even more annoying is that, when playing online with the likes of CoD and Monster Hunter, there are times where the Home button doesn't even work, so you can't even check if a mate has come online, even if the little blue button lights up.

 

Basically if you want to set up a game with your friends you have to contact them of a message board of text/phone them.

 

These are just the issues off the top of my head and i'm hoping the Summer update sorts them out.

 

Ubisoft didnt say that

 

Apparently they did.

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/06/ubisoft_scaling_back_support_for_wii_u_expects_price_cut_to_bolster_sales

 

Also, why you quoting me as if I was the one who was saying it?

 

The latter comments are probably backtracking/damage control/clarification on what they actually meant by scaling back. The proof is already being seen as well, with the likes of The Division and The Crew being announced for the PS4 and One but not a mention of the Wii U.

[Serebii]

Ah the classic journalists misinterpreting things/sensationalising for headlines.

 

Even if Ubisoft "scale back" support, we'll still get logical multiformat games. They've said in the past that it's very cheap to port to the Wii U (comparatively speaking) and they only need to sell less than 100k of the game to break even on the port.

 

It's a mess. There are a bunch of us on here you play online with the Wii U most all the time and it has so many issues.

 

You cannot invite someone to a game you are playing if they are playing something else or single player. There have been so many times that one of us were playing single player on Monster Hunter and were signed yet we had no way of contacting them to jump online.

 

There is a serious lack of messaging system at the OS level. Sure you could send a message but you wouldn't see it unless you were looking at the pad.

 

Which brings me to my next point-Notifications. A friend comes online and indeed sends you a message, you have no idea about it as you are watching the big screen. There is no pop up saying Hero-of-Time has come online or anything like that. You have to keep checking to see if your friends have arrived or not.

 

What makes this even more annoying is that, when playing online with the likes of CoD and Monster Hunter, there are times where the Home button doesn't even work, so you can't even check if a mate has come online, even if the little blue button lights up.

 

Basically if you want to set up a game with your friends you have to contact them of a message board of text/phone them.

 

These are just the issues off the top of my head and i'm hoping the Summer update sorts them out.

 

 

The online really isn't a mess. Yes, it could do with a party system, and maybe a popup for notifications (though I'd personally turn them off, it's intrusive).

 

However, those are just minor OS based issues and aren't actually a point on the Wii U's online architecture which is actually very sound, and best of all, free

Edited June 13, 2013 by Serebii
Automerged Doublepost

[Hero-of-Time]

The online really isn't a mess. Yes, it could do with a party system, and maybe a popup for notifications (though I'd personally turn them off, it's intrusive).

 

However, those are just minor OS based issues and aren't actually a point on the Wii U's online architecture which is actually very sound, and best of all, free

 

Do you play online with the Wii U? If you do then i've never seen you play on an online game. Just ask any of us on here you have put a decent amount of time on the likes on CoD or Monster Hunter ( @Mokong X\-C @kav82 ) and they will all tell you these arent minor issues. They are flat out annoying and cause hooking up with friends to be a nightmare.

[RedShell]

The online really isn't a mess. Yes, it could do with a party system, and maybe a popup for notifications (though I'd personally turn them off, it's intrusive).

Have you played Monster Hunter? That game definitely shows how dysfunctional the online setup is on Wii U.

 

@Hero\-of\-Time, don't forget GamePad mic buzz... That's another horrible aspect of the online.

[Hero-of-Time]

Have you played Monster Hunter? That game definitely shows how dysfunctional the online setup is on Wii U.

 

@Hero\-of\-Time, don't forget GamePad mic buzz... That's another horrible aspect of the online.

 

Next Gen..Next Gen.

[Serebii]

Do you play online with the Wii U? If you do then i've never seen you play on an online game. Just ask any of us on here you have put a decent amount of time on the likes on CoD or Monster Hunter ( @Mokong X\-C @kav82 ) and they will all tell you these arent minor issues. They are flat out annoying and cause hooking up with friends to be a nightmare.

I have, not MH or CoD though. NFS I have, though, and getting online with friends on that is so easy.

 

Sometimes, the problem could be with the game, not the console...

[Hero-of-Time]

I have, not MH or CoD though. NFS I have, though, and getting online with friends on that is so easy.

 

Sometimes, the problem could be with the game, not the console...

 

Or the fact that such features, such as messaging and being able to jump in to a friends game no matter what i'm playing, should be on a OS level.

[Serebii]

Or the fact that such features, such as messaging and being able to jump in to a friends game no matter what i'm playing, should be on a OS level.

Perhaps, and I do agree that a party system should be implemented, but the online architecture, which people seem to be complaining about, is actually sound. The OS just needs sorting