I'm beginning to suspect Ubisoft is nothing more than a large company founded with the intention of trolling as many people as they can. This is some sort of long-term social experiment.

And you keep repating all this wrong stuff. that's the problem.

Don't even know why you bother with some of the folks here.  Considering that Ubisoft is currently Nintendo's best 3rd party developer (game sales, for consoles by like a mile) last gen and this one they would know whats best for the customers of the Wii U more than any of the armchair Nintendo fans here :-/. 

I know you don't want to believe it, but it doesn't make it any less true. 

I can say 50 Shades of Grey is marketed/aimed at women without getting my head chewed off, it's fairly obvious Nintendo's design priorties and focus with the Wii and Wii U. 

Look at Nintendo's own first year lineup for the Wii U of new titles:

New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo Land, Mario & Sonic Olympics, Wii Party U, Wii Sports Club, Wii Fit U, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Game & Wario, Mario 3D World, Sing Party, LEGO City. 

Literally half the games are mini-game/casual fare compilations. Look at the launch commercials for the system -- completely aimed at kids/family/casuals. 

Yet we gonna get mad at a third party for making games along the lines of what the platform is aimed for? Sorry not buying it. Wii's brand legacy will be bringing this type of mini-game/casual fare style of gaming to the forefront of consoles (at least Nintendo ones) before all that audience ditched Nintendo for phones.

I have never seen publisher doing this such thing in my life.

Don't do this Ubisoft....

"making games along the lines of what the platform is aimed for?"

Again, "casual" is not a thing but let's say they are. you mention 50% and then you say ^ this is what the platform is aimed for (as in 100%, when Wii U is aimed to receive all kinds of games). And why don't we mention other games like: batman AC, AC3, darksiders 2, mass effect 3, monster hunter, RE revelations, Cod... and what about nintendo's second year offerings? DK tropical freeze, MK 8, hyrule warriors, bayonetta 2, smash bros, captain toad. then the third year: kirby, mario party 10, splatoon, mario maker, yoshi, star fox, zelda, xenoblade, devil's third.

Now let's teach you something. mini game compilations are generally easy and focus on multiplayer, wich makes them pretty similar to something like COD, yet I don't ever see you saying COD is casual, when, according to your own ideals, it is.

The main problem is that you are trying to downplay games by labelling them with this meaningless "casual" word, when they are simply games like any other. you also totally generalise game offerings and is seriously comparing this "know your friends" with the quality of games nintendo and it's fans aim for.

COD isn't a casual game. It's not a game someone with minimal/little game playing experience/ability would be able to last two minutes in. It's not something aimed at a soccer mom. Especially in an online deathmatch? That player would get their ass handed to them in 30 seconds. 

Just because something is popular doesn't make it casual. That just makes it mainstream. There's a difference. And for the record I don't even like the COD games all that much. 

There's a clear difference between Call of Duty and Wii Party U, if you want to hide behind the semantics and keep saying there isn't have at it. I disagree. 

I'm not downplaying anything either, the response in this thread says it all ... most people are dissapointed that it's one of those "lame sounding casual games" (versus a more core type of experience like Zombi U 2 or something), I'm just pointing out that the platform/brand is bound to get these types of games because Nintendo purposely designed a platform that puts that type of experience at the forefront. 

It's not because it's casual. It's because Guillemot made a big deal about holding the game back (as if they'd lose a lot of money releasing it on Wii U) and it turned out as cheap crap.

There would be way less complaints about a good casual game.

How do you know it's not a "good casual game"? By casual game standards it sounds like something that would be an OK distraction to play with adult friends at a house party or dorm, specifically (as the title indicates) with friends. 

Would I buy it? Probably not, but I don't have interest in these types of games even the "good ones" (Wii Party U, Wii Sports, Just Dance aka: how about Just Die Already, etc.). 

This Know Your Friends sounds like a sequel to previous Ubi hit We Dare. If that game bombed on the "casual" Wii (we have no sales data), the WiiU sequel would require at least 50million userbase so 0.1% of those would buy it to break even. Hence why they decided to wait.