Ubisoft: Wii U hasn't sold enough to make more exclusives

Ubisoft was behind one of the Wii U's most notable exclusives, ZombiU, but CEO Yves Guillemot has said the company won't make more exclusives until more people own the console. However, making games for Wii U has been a valuable learning experience for the fancy second-screen features Ubi unveiled for loads of games at E3.

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Ubisoft was behind one of the Wii U's most notable exclusives, ZombiU, but CEO Yves Guillemot has said the company won't make more exclusives until more people own the console.

However, making games for Wii U has been a valuable learning experience for the fancy second-screen features Ubi unveiled for loads of games at E3.

"We need more sold," Guillemot told Kotaku straight. "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."

Ubi spewed second-screen functionality all over the place at E3, announcing companion apps which will hook into several games to let players join in without picking up a controller, or even necessarily being in the same room. Tom Clancy's The Division, Assassin's Creed 4 and The Crew all feature such fanciness, and developing for the Wii U GamePad helped experiment with ways to use a second screen.

"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," he explained.

"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 Smart Glass, for example, and it's a good option that is coming to us."

Rayman Legends was notably announced as a Wii U exclusive but is now coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Vita too. Ubisoft even delayed it by nine months to launch alongside the others.

Guillemot also hinted that we may see more of something ZombiU-ish some day, though from his chat it'd be surprising if such a game were exclusive to Wii U again.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 12, 2013 5:15 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Ubisoft: Wii U hasn't sold enough to make more exclusives.

    Ubisoft was behind one of the Wii U's most notable exclusives, ZombiU, but CEO Yves Guillemot has said the company won't make more exclusives until more people own the console. However, making games for Wii U has been a valuable learning experience for the fancy second-screen features Ubi unveiled for loads of games at E3.

    • reply
      June 12, 2013 6:33 PM

      Wii U will not sell enough without exclusives.

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        June 12, 2013 6:39 PM

        I think there's some other little company that still makes Wii U exclusives

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        June 12, 2013 6:47 PM

        Coming out of E3 the WiiU has the most exlcusives.

        It's hard on the eyes but this pic shows the WiiU with 13, the Xbone with 8 and the PS4 with 5.

        http://i.imgur.com/ZWK5YzZ.png

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          June 12, 2013 6:49 PM

          I'm sad they didn't show more Yoshi Yarn at E3.

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            June 12, 2013 6:57 PM

            I know, it looks great so far. There's Yoshi's New Island though!

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          June 12, 2013 6:50 PM

          how many of those aren't from Nintendo though? Looks like 3-4 if you include Bayonetta even though it only exists due to Nintendo acting as a publisher right? 3 3rd party exclusives a year into release is low even for Nintendo's normally sparse 3rd party line up.

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            June 12, 2013 6:59 PM

            I don't see why that's a factor. People cry (not you) that the WiiU has no exclusives, but when they prove they have the most, it's only "because Nintendo is making them".

            Damned if they do and damned if they don't haha

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              June 12, 2013 7:06 PM

              I think it's more like people would rather not have $300-400 Nintendo consoles basically have an implicit requirement that you purchase a second $400 machine in order to play most non-Nintendo games. They know they'll get Nintendo games but Nintendo keeps claiming they've got innovative hardware experiences but then if no one else builds on them that's a little underwhelming.

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          June 12, 2013 7:37 PM

          [deleted]

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          June 12, 2013 7:38 PM

          Actually, the chart is slightly incorrect: some games for Nintendo should be marked as exclusive, but because they show up as 3ds and Wii U it doesn't register as an exclusive. Nintendo's number actually goes up 3 to 16 exclusives.

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          June 12, 2013 9:22 PM

          my point is their logic is a fallacy

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          June 12, 2013 11:42 PM

          This list is so laughably incomplete.

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      June 12, 2013 6:45 PM

      Yeah, this sums it up: http://i.imgur.com/6A0EPwM.gif

      • reply
        June 12, 2013 11:48 PM

        Yeah, it'll keep selling just fine no matter how few third party AAA games get published on there

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      June 12, 2013 7:15 PM

      Moral of the story. Publishers are not to be trusted. They lie to the public all the time.

      • reply
        June 12, 2013 9:21 PM

        and their partners (poor Nintendo getting lied to allot :( )

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        June 12, 2013 9:31 PM

        Moral of the story is Nintendo should have invested in and expanded their first party studios when they were making crazy Wii money but having problems with getting third party games. I think it would have helped the Wii U a lot more to have a number of interesting launch titles. Nintendo really dropped the ball on that front.

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        June 13, 2013 2:53 AM

        Moral of the story? Make a better console, understand the gaming scene here in the 21st century. :)

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          June 13, 2013 3:48 AM

          They understood motion controls, Dual screens, 3d, and now beat everyone adding a tablet. I think they are more interested in what will push gaming than what will make publishers happy.

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            June 13, 2013 3:07 PM

            They get points for making some nifty innovations, I'll give them that. In every other way, however, they've badly missed the boat it would seem (sadly). :(

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        June 13, 2013 3:23 AM

        They helped hype the console. They got as much interest as they could. I wouldn't have blamed them to write of Nintendo to begin with. They designed a system to be abandoned by 3rd parties within a couple of years.

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      June 12, 2013 10:33 PM

      and yet im sure they are lined up to make deals for exclusives for the 2 consoles they havent even been released yet

      • reply
        June 12, 2013 11:39 PM

        Sorta like how they pledged to make Zombi U exclusive before the console was released?

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