Pachter believes Wii U will have a tough time gaining third-party support
Everybody’s favorite analyst Michael Pachter has weighed in on third-party support for Wii. Pachter believes that Nintendo will have a tough time wooing such developers/publishers, partially due to the console’s controller. He feels that “they have complicated game design for developers, who can’t figure out if the Wii U will ultimately support only one or multiple controllers.”
Pachter’s full response:
“Nintendo has to simply stop living in the past in 2012. They had a great deal of success since 1985 by making proprietary hardware and supporting it with proprietary software. They attracted third party support based upon the large installed base they generated for their hardware. They appear to me to be confident that ‘if they build it, third parties will support it’, but I don’t think that is the case for Wii U.
“By trying to be ‘different’ with the tablet controller, they have complicated game design for developers, who can’t figure out if the Wii U will ultimately support only one or multiple controllers. Nintendo made the device sufficiently different that they are all but assured of limited third party launch support, which ultimately will lead to modest hardware sales.
“They should stop relying upon the strategy that got them here, as it appears to no longer be working. I think their resolution should be to look outside of Nintendo for leadership in the areas of digital downloads, a user-friendly online interface and multiplayer gaming.”
