Aielyn said:
GTA Chinatown Wars was in the style of the original two GTA games, which never really sold very well. And it didn't "sell very poorly" - it sold 1.35 million copies (based on VGChartz numbers - which shouldn't be TOO inaccurate). It did better on DS than on PSP. Assassin's Creed 3 was on Wii U... to quote GamesRadar: "Despite being bigger and, in many ways, better, ACIII is a flawed experience, held up by its incredible gameplay, and weighed down by a new infestation of bugs and poor design choices--and the Wii U version is the messiest of the bunch." And "The Wii U version in particular includes some problems all its own, like muddy visuals and weird looking textures. Sometimes it looks identical to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version, and other times it looks like Connor’s textures haven’t fully popped in. Multiplayer is included, and it's a good time if you can get in a game, but that's a pretty big "if." The servers were almost entirely empty when we searched for people to play with, and unless something changes you'll likely experience the same frustration." Meanwhile, let's look at its TV ads, like this one. Notice something? Which systems are listed at the end as getting the game? Here's another one. The official trailer. And here's another ad. And this one, and a launch trailer. The only time the Wii U got mentioned was in a single dedicated Wii U trailer, three months before release. Didn't even get a launch trailer. Splinter Cell: Blacklist is no better. Here's a quote from NintendoWorldReport (because the only non-Nintendo-specific site that reviewed the Wii U version was Eurogamer Portugal, and it's not in English) - "During missions cutscenes would often crop up with only half their audio playing. The subtitles meant that, usually, I was still able to see what someone was saying, but the audio continued its one-side conversations on and off throughout my time with the game. While these glitches only really interfered with the gameplay at one point, during which I was forced to repeat a five-minute section due to being stuck in an elevator, it makes the entire experience feel like it was slapped together at the last minute." I will say that at least they had commercials for Blacklist that included the Wii U logo... These issues wouldn't be a problem with franchises established on a system, but neither Splinter Cell nor Assassin's Creed had established markets that would buy them immediately. Nintendo gamers have learned not to rush into purchases of third party titles, because they tend to be poorly ported, glitchy affairs. COD:BO2 is a special case, because the CoD franchise (since Modern Warfare, at least) is built on multiplayer, and people won't buy a version for a system that their friends aren't getting. Add to this the fact that they didn't have post-release support... to such an extent that the Nuketown 2025 map, which others got at launch, took two YEARS to show up on the Wii U, and there was literally NO DLC packs released for Wii U - compared with four major packs for the other systems. And it's not like they hid the fact that it was going to play out that way. For a series like CoD, that's a great way to completely annihilate any chance of further sales, on a new system. As I pointed out, ZombiU did better on Wii U than Zombi did on either PS4 or XBO. Rayman Legends did quite well despite Ubisoft handicapping the Wii U version's chances. Neither of these got any sort of follow up, though. As I said, third parties aren't willing to put in the effort without pre-existing evidence of a market, and aren't willing to compete against Nintendo in anything except the "casual" market - hence why they've made no effort in the Fighting genre, the non-realistic Racing genre, Platformers, RPGs, etc. They release a lesser version of a game, and then expect it to sell as well as Nintendo's top-line titles despite never having attempted to build the market first. |
Do you only game on Nintendo hardware? If so, you, and others like you, are in the extreme minority (if I had to guess <1%) and your opinion isn't really worth that much to 3rd parties.
When ACIII was released, the Wii U was brand new, Ubisoft Montreal had 6+ years of development on the PS3 and Xbox 360 (and both versions still had their problems, along with the Wii U version), trying to get a port 100% correct on brand new hardware (when you have other hardware you are used to working with) is expensive and again the logical choice was to put a better effort on consoles where you have more experience one, and have the userbase that will buy it two.
Why would an company advertise a game to a userbase that is nonexistent?
Splinter Cell: Blacklist, same issue as ACIII, first year development for Ubisoft. When you have development shared between other, more establish consoles, the weakest one (by hardware and marketshare) will get the least amount of attention. What they make work for Rayman, they failed on those two games...which makes sense since Raymay was Wii U exclusive for all of its development, they had 100% dedication to it. They delayed a completed game to allow other versions to release at the same time.
These issues wouldn't be a problem with franchises established on a system, but neither Splinter Cell nor Assassin's Creed had established markets that would buy them immediately. Nintendo gamers have learned not to rush into purchases of third party titles, because they tend to be poorly ported, glitchy affairs.
Whats with this Nintendo gamers have learned nonsense? These gamers didnt buy the Wii U version because there were better and cheaper options available to them which goes back to my first point of being a Nintendo only gamer.
