UbiSoft's CEO Yves Guillemot was recently questioned about the upcoming Nintendo WiiU. With the demise of UbiSoft's 3DS development a lot of people have been wondering if UbiSoft still has faith in Nintendo. Well it would appear that UbiSoft is fully committed and in fact very optamistic about the WiiU and its ability to be very profitable for them.
"We are big believers in the Wii U, on two subjects," Guillemot told Gamasutra in a recent large interview "One is for high-end games, where we'll be able to do a game for the Wii U, but also for other [high-definition] machines, but also with specific use of [Wii U's] tablet. Two, is we like the Wii U for all the [potential of] casual games."
Unfortunetly for all of us hoping to see the latest Ghost Recon or the next Red Steel it would appear that UbiSoft is going to target the casual gamers like they did later in Wii's life span.Though they do mention high end and porting from the HD machines so you never know what we will see. Re-affirming UbiSoft's intent to focus largely on the casual gamers found on Nintendo's systems Guillemont said "Today, the Wii still is 45 percent of our business," adding "Just Dance, all those casual games, are selling extremely well. So we are supporting the machine because we believe Nintendo is going to push it to another level. We think [Wii U] will be successful."
He sums up the factor that UbiSoft still isn't completely sure of the direction Nintendo is taking with WiiU saying "Now to [what audience] will it be addressed? We don't exactly know yet," he conceded. "But the potential of the machine, and the tablet [controller], I think is a good way to improve the potential gameplay. What we see is the ease of play is a part of the revolution we are seeing today. The fact that it's easier to access games is what can make more people play. Maybe they can do a good job there."
We can expect multiple games to come from UbiSoft near the launch window of WiiU including the much anticipated Killer Freaks from outer space!
What do you think is UbiSoft's support a good thing? Do you think it will be of higher quality then the support they gave 3DS? I bought Red Steel at launch did you? Are you likely going to pick up a Ubi launch title? Does this mean UbiSoft wants to retain its position as Nintendo's largest third party supporter?
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
