Speaking to TSA about NfS: Rivals, following our hands on time with the game, Creative Director Craig Sullivan answered our question as to why Rivals would not be seeing a release on Wii U or PlayStation Vita, when Most Wanted had reached both.

The background to this game’s development is quite complicated, with many factors in play. Ghost Games is a new studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Need for Speed: Rivals is their first title, working in partnership with Ghost UK, a team formed largely of staff from Criterion Games. However, in addition to being a new team and the transitionary period that brings, Rivals is also a game coming to machines on both current and next generations of hardware, and is using the Frostbite 3 engine to do so.

The Frostbite 3 engine has quite notably not been ported to either Wii U or PS Vita at this time, in contrast to the Chameleon engine being ported to both for the releases of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and resulted in what was an improved game on many counts for Wii U players. Battlefield 4, another Frostbite 3 game, is also not going to be making its way to the Wii U.

When asked about this, Craig explained that:

Honestly, it’s not the kind of stuff that I like talking about in detail, that much. We did a load of extra work on the Wii U version, and we had a lot of guys working on that stuff, you know?

It didn’t really sell that many, in terms of the Wii U market. I would love for it to have, because we put so much effort into that, trust me. I’d love for it to be way bigger than it was, and the same for the Vita.

[Rivals] is going onto new hardware, and you have to work out where you focus your efforts. The 200 people working on this game are only capable of making so much, and doing so many different versions of the game, so we had to go with where we think the biggest audience will be for the game, and that’s where we are.

Not for lack of effort put in by the developers previously, it seems that any Wii U and PS Vita versions of Rivals has hung on their install base, on Most Wanted’s sales record, and also the demands of bringing the game to new platforms.

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/10/18/weak-sales-reason-for-need-for-speed-rivals-skipping-wii-u-and-ps-vita/

That's a shame. I had hoped the sales of Most Wanted on Vita were sufficient for it to be consider, because they certainly weren't terrible with digital factored in.

But I understand the decision. They have to prioritize where they'll sell most.

It's a shame. I'd very much have liked to play the next Need for Speed game on Vita, because Most Wanted was a really good game to take on the go with me. Ah well. Maybe next year.

Yes and the Vita is really good for racing games aswell. I'm sure a Vita port would be alot cheaper than a WiiU port so maybe sometime in the future we may see it.

NfS died a long time ago. This game won't bring back the good old times. I don't think, that this game
will sell well, because nobody really want it...

It'll sell, Need for speeds keep selling for ages and they wouldn't be still making them if they didn't sell...This is EA we are talking about, the company that'll kill off anything that disappoints.

Did they really think a port of a year old game would sell well? It's the same with Mass Effect 3 Wii U and Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition.

It doesn't matter how much work was put into it when everyone who wanted to play the game probably played it somewhere else

sucks :(
I really enjoyed nfs on the vita

And man... this is like the 7th best selling vita game on vgc.. :l
Sucks they find these sales dissapointing -_-

Was Vitas version a year late port?

Thing is the Wii U version was not only late but sold for 59.99 at most places

Now here is something most didn't know. The day of its release, the EA store was selling it for 29,99. I actually bought 2 copies because of the mistake and took one into Walmart. Had they done something this fair for every outlet, I am sure the game might have sold more.
It was fun and above the PS360 versions but those small benefits hardly justify the 40,00 higher price tag.
IMO EA knew what they were doing when they sent this out to die. They had their partnership with MS on X1 set and didn't care about the other platforms, they wanted to hurt sales to justify dropping the platform.