The video game industry is first and foremost a business, and in business terms the Wii U is a tough sell. Though Mario Kart 8 and the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Wii U undoubtedly help the system's profile, Nintendo continues to struggle with third-party support for the console as Microsoft and Sony continue to pull further ahead.
Count Ubisoft among those third-party publishers wary about the Wii U's performance. The studio behind games like Assassin's Creed and the more recent Watch Dogs says that the Wii U audience simply isn't interested in their titles for mature players. As a result, Ubisoft will not be releasing additional mature rated titles on the console after it finishes the Wii U version of Watch Dogs as promised.
The news comes from an interview with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot via Game Informer.
"It's very simple," Guillemot says in the interview. "What we see is that Nintendo customers don't buy Assassin's Creed. Last year, we sold in very small numbers."
Total sales for Ubisoft titles on the Wii U during the 2013-2014 fiscal year only make up three percent of Ubisoft game sales overall, down one percent from the previous fiscal year. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which both launched a year later than the Wii U, make up six and nine percent of total Ubisoft game sales, respectively.
This is largely because of player base size. As of May this year, Wii U sales sat at 6.17 million 17 months after the console released. In a mere nine months after release Sony has sold more than 10 million PlayStation 4's.
Guillemot says the adoption rate for new consoles is happening so fast that, beginning next year, it will be difficult for Ubisoft to continue developing for last-generation hardware.
"What we see is that this year is still fine for the PS3 and 360, but next year because they are selling very quickly, we'll move to the new hardware," Guillemot says.
While players won't be finding this year's last-gen Assassin's Creed Rogue on Nintendo platforms, that doesn't mean Ubisoft is completely abandonding the Wii U.
"What we see is that they are very interested in Just Dance, very interested by other kinds of games," Guillemot says. "So what we are trying to do is to focus more on the types of games they are interested in."
Perhaps if Wii U Watch Dogs sales perform much better than expected Ubisoft will reconsider, but for now don't hold your breath waiting for more mature rated Ubisoft games to come to Nintendo's console.
