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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why are big third party blockbusters skipping the wii u?

oniyide on 13 June 2015
Conina said:
JNK said:

Witcher 3 cost 30 mio to made. ALOT voiceacting, incredibly huge world, 3 systems (pc, xbox ps), alot localizations, good graphics. All that 30 mio. So how much will a port from 360 to wii u cost? More then 5mio ? :D I guess 1 mio is pretty accurate.

A port from the not existing 360 version? I suppose it won't be cheap.

There ain't no Witcher 3 version which has to deal with a system with less than 5 GB available RAM. The Wii U has 1 GB RAM available for games, the rest is used by the OS.


the game would run like crap and then people will use that as an excuse for why it didnt sell well.



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mountaindewslave on 13 June 2015
enlightenedmaster said:
cause big third party games don't sell on nintendo consoles or handheld

Nintendo's image since Wii days is that of family and kids company

mature third party games just don't sell,even if the hardware was as powerful as PS4 and XBONE,it still wouldn't sell because of image problem


Nintendo has been that way since N64, nothing new! I agree with that to some degree but I think with the tablet controller and some funky decisions with the Wii and now the Wii U it certainly makes it hard to translate an adult game over to the Wii U. again as some have mentioned, far easier to port to PC or one of the other systems as the infrastructure/design is similar. Wii U is not remotely similar



MajorMalfunction on 14 June 2015
JNK said:
DaveTheMinion13 said:
Games have a lot of problems as it is on this Gens consoles, can't imagine how bad it would be on the Wii U. Wii U isnt built to run such games I'm rather games that look more animated and cartoony. Loom at Watch Dogs, it was disaster on the Wii U from what I heard.....the Wii U just doesn't have the specs to run most AAA games imo and people complain about broken games as it is. Don't need to make it worst.
BTW I like my WII U, but I do think it's time to at least boost the specs Nintendo so it compete. Imagine a console with the power of the other two and having their first party which is great.

yeah like the gamecube,

The Gamecube's problem wasn't the hardware, it was everything else. Here's an excript from Emily Rogers' article on the Gamecube. Nintendo let Sony run rampant between 2000 and 2002, when devkits would become available for the majority of 3rd party developers that Nintendo didn't prioritize.

Emily Rogers said:

Technical director Jim Merrick said, “We are now and will be in a shortage condition for development kits for a long time to come. But going to low-cost disc-based media is breaking down some of the economic barriers that publishers felt toward the cartridge-based business. So we have a lot of interest. And we’re not going to be able to satisfy the demand for development kits. In fact, probably six months after the Gamecube launches we’ll still be in a shortage of development kits. We just can’t produce them fast enough.”

In 2001, many developers still hadn’t received their development kits, and this caused rumors to spread around the industry that GameCube might not launch that year.  Nintendo’s George Harrison put those rumors to rest.

[George Harrison quote removed for brevity]

The first twelve months of GameCube’s third party support was hurt by high licensing fees, shortages/delays of development kits, and Nintendo being very selective on who they worked with. After the Nintendo 64, this was not a good way to start the first year of third party support for Nintendo’s new console.

Here's a link to the full article https://dromble.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/dolphin-tale-story-of-gamecube/



Currently (Re-)Playing: Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void Multiplayer, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Currently Watching: The Shield, Stein's;Gate, Narcos

Guitarguy on 14 June 2015
enlightenedmaster said:
cause big third party games don't sell on nintendo consoles or handheld

Nintendo's image since Wii days is that of family and kids company

mature third party games just don't sell,even if the hardware was as powerful as PS4 and XBONE,it still wouldn't sell because of image problem


This was also true in the N64 and GCN era but they had developers like Rare who managed to push the boundaries quite a bit compared to Nintendo's standards. Even in the SNES era, the Genesis was seen as the more mature orientated console with an uncensored version of Mortal Kombat, Madden etc. The PS1 was the console that really blew the roof off for mature content, partially because of Sony's gritty marketing and also because they allowed for more to be done.



marioboy2004 on 14 June 2015

like Reggie said when the installed base is there then 3rd parties will come...the installed base is not there yet and, because of this, they have to persuade and buy third party support cause they don't have enough in house developers



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Angelv577 on 14 June 2015

Perhaps because big third parties arent willing to settle for little profit.



oniyide on 14 June 2015
MajorMalfunction said:
JNK said:
DaveTheMinion13 said:
Games have a lot of problems as it is on this Gens consoles, can't imagine how bad it would be on the Wii U. Wii U isnt built to run such games I'm rather games that look more animated and cartoony. Loom at Watch Dogs, it was disaster on the Wii U from what I heard.....the Wii U just doesn't have the specs to run most AAA games imo and people complain about broken games as it is. Don't need to make it worst.
BTW I like my WII U, but I do think it's time to at least boost the specs Nintendo so it compete. Imagine a console with the power of the other two and having their first party which is great.

yeah like the gamecube,

The Gamecube's problem wasn't the hardware, it was everything else. Here's an excript from Emily Rogers' article on the Gamecube. Nintendo let Sony run rampant between 2000 and 2002, when devkits would become available for the majority of 3rd party developers that Nintendo didn't prioritize.

Emily Rogers said:

Technical director Jim Merrick said, “We are now and will be in a shortage condition for development kits for a long time to come. But going to low-cost disc-based media is breaking down some of the economic barriers that publishers felt toward the cartridge-based business. So we have a lot of interest. And we’re not going to be able to satisfy the demand for development kits. In fact, probably six months after the Gamecube launches we’ll still be in a shortage of development kits. We just can’t produce them fast enough.”

In 2001, many developers still hadn’t received their development kits, and this caused rumors to spread around the industry that GameCube might not launch that year.  Nintendo’s George Harrison put those rumors to rest.

[George Harrison quote removed for brevity]

The first twelve months of GameCube’s third party support was hurt by high licensing fees, shortages/delays of development kits, and Nintendo being very selective on who they worked with. After the Nintendo 64, this was not a good way to start the first year of third party support for Nintendo’s new console.

Here's a link to the full article https://dromble.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/dolphin-tale-story-of-gamecube/

didnt know that about the GC, that actually explains a LOT and just shows Ninty being Ninty which is kinda sad.



Retrogamer7 on 14 June 2015

Hey man, it seems apparent that some people didn't read enough of what you wrote in your argument for porting games to Wii U. Sorry for those that just read your title and were too lazy to read more.

I get what you are saying. However, I have often wondered why many companies bother making low selling PC ports. My thoughts on why they make PC ports that would sell about the same as a Wii U port is that perhaps the Wii U is harder to port to, and also they would have to invest into making Wii U gamepad functionality.



MDX on 14 June 2015

Its quite simple.
Nintendo is a major publisher and so is EA, Activision, etc.
EA, Activision, Ubisoft are all competiting against each and Nintendo 
to becoming the dominant publisher.   But since Nintendo has its own platform, the other publishers are at a
disadvantage on a Nintendo platform.   Why support your competitor?  Sony and MS are also publishers, but their 
platforms are mainly designed to be supported by third parties.  Major third parties on Sony and MS consoles
are like first or second parties who get funded by Sony and MS with exclusivity deals.   



oniyide on 14 June 2015
Retrogamer7 said:
Hey man, it seems apparent that some people didn't read enough of what you wrote in your argument for porting games to Wii U. Sorry for those that just read your title and were too lazy to read more.

I get what you are saying. However, I have often wondered why many companies bother making low selling PC ports. My thoughts on why they make PC ports that would sell about the same as a Wii U port is that perhaps the Wii U is harder to port to, and also they would have to invest into making Wii U gamepad functionality.

it was read and many people took the argument apart, which would be known if other posts were read.

A PC port wouldnt make as much as Wii U because it would do MORE way more. Pretty sure COD Ghosts on PC did much more than the Wii U version