Iwata discusses third-parties and Wii U
A few third-parties are taking a big gamble on Wii U. Ubisoft, for instance, is readying a full slate of titles. Warner Bros. is also preparing a variety of different games.
These publishers are probably hoping that they’ll find a larger success on their core titles compared to the Wii, which was a platform notorious for seeing poor third-party sales and eventually experienced a lack of support.
Thus far, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is encouraged by third-party support on Wii U. When asked about third-parties during the company’s most recent investor briefing Q&A, Iwata explained:
Let me first explain how software publishers in the video game industry are seeing the Wii U system. Naturally there are publishers that simply fell in love with the possibilities of Wii U, and as exemplified in “ZombiU” by Ubisoft, some are developing Wii U-exclusive titles. In addition to this, there are multi-platform titles that nevertheless take advantage of the Wii U GamePad or the Wii U system itself, and at the same time, there are purely multi-platform titles, so it is true that our publishers have varying degrees of commitment. However, the fact that we were able to announce such a rich launch lineup of games, particularly from overseas software publishers, does give us confidence. While the future of dedicated gaming platforms is now widely discussed, as the graphs for the U.S. market justify, I believe that this lineup proves that Nintendo’s vision is shared by many, and there is active support for that too. My aim is to set a successful example towards and after the end of the year that rewards the investment our third-party publishers put into their titles and will then create a chain of other successful titles. Establishing this kind of example at an early stage is crucial since it gives others the incentive to follow suit, while failing to do so casts a dark shadow over their future prospects of the platform. We should therefore not be content with having a good game lineup. It is important to produce examples of success from these titles.
