The Wii U is in a tight spot. Some folks say Nintendo’s first HD console won’t even have graphics on par with the Xbox 360, a seven-year-old console. Other folks say that Wii U is going to be a decent piece of hardware after all. Nintendo meanwhile is keeping tight lipped about what Wii U can actually do.
Who cares about graphics though? The original Wii proved that if you’ve got games people want to play, you don’t need horsepower. Wii Play sold nearly 30 million copies, and that was nothing but a bunch of tech demos packaged with a controller! Games may be a problem for Nintendo though. According to one financial analyst, Activision won’t be releasing Call of Duty on Wii U.
In a note to investors detailed at GamesIndustry International, David Gibson of Macquarie Capital Securities advised avoiding Nintendo stock. Due to “increasingly problematic structural problems for the company,” Gibson believes that Nintendo is going to struggle to reconnect with both the casual audience that made the Wii a global phenomenon and the core gamers the company is looking to bring back to the fold with its new device. He listed three factors that have contributed to the deterioration of Wii U’s “competitive position.”
The first is the Wii U’s contested horsepower, particularly a GPU rumored to be inferior to those in the PS3 and Xbox 360. The second is the Wii’s comparative strengths weighed against Apple’s iPad. The third problem, however, is that core gamers will ignore the system due to lack of supper from publishers like Activision. “We understand that Activision has no plans to support Wii U, which means the biggest selling title of Call of Duty will be missing,” says Gibson.
Activision’s official response is that it hasn’t made any announcements regarding Wii U support of development.
Gibson also said that Konami is planning only “minimal support” for Wii U.
As of now, the only third-party publisher that has enthusiastically supported Wii U in public statements is Ubisoft. Senior vice president of sales and marketing Tony Key told Gamasutra on Tuesday that Ubisoft is aiming “to be the number one third-party on Wii U.” Ubisoft is also the only third-party publisher that’s announced an original title for Nintendo’s device, namely Killer Freaks from Outer Space. Others like Tecmo Koei, Warner Bros. Interactive, and THQ have only announced ports of PS3 and Xbox 360 games like Ninja Gaiden 3, Batman: Arkham City, and Darksiders 2 respectively.
If Activision and others won’t even support Wii U with ports of PS3/360 games, Nintendo will have any even steeper hill to climb in luring in those millions of players looking for those games.
WHO CARESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! Real Gamers hates the same type of game with SAME Graphics, SAME Skins, SAME Gameplay, and SAME Maps.
That’s not true. Activision has already announced wii u games coming this year + call of duty is on every platform. Xbox, ps3, wii, ds, 3ds, psp, iPhone, iPad, pc. And I’m sure I forgot one or two
I’m really getting sick of all this flame bait rumor crap & general hate on Nintendo throughout the net these days. First it was anonymous developers saying how disappointingly the performance was, even though actual ones were doing nothing but praise the new machine, now this complete & utter garbage. Activision will support any system to get money for christ sake. They even supported the original Wii with their COD franchise. Let’s not forget these so-called analysts predicted the doom of the 3DS, and Nintendo in general. All this retarded crap needs to stop right now, and this is coming from a true gaming fan who owns all systems.
What the hell is wrong with you lot? All this media doom is going to really rewrite the wiring of most consumers brains! It’s ill informed and ridiculous. Especially when you saw a very early example from Nintendo which proves the GPU to be capable, even before proper dev kits were in place! As for Gareth here in the comments. If 3DS was a flop, then how come it has smashed the sales records of every handle since the DS – even the original DS itself! Get your facts straight!
This kind of media has managed to single handedly erase ever positive developer comment in regards to the systems horsepower over night! So many haters been telling Nintendo to die for years, yet they’re the only company with the brass to continue to evolve how we play games. This time round you get conventional play with enhanced features and convenience. Gimmick you say? Say that when playing Xbox games where necessary menus eat up the main screen – like waypoint planning and team control in flashpoint (clunky). I look forward to a system that can offer GTA5 where I can view the heat on the main screen as I hotwire a car literally using the controller. Thank you!
What the hell is wrong with you lot? All this media doom is going to really rewrite the wiring of most consumers brains! It’s ill informed and ridiculous. Especially when you saw a very early example from Nintendo which proves the GPU to be capable, even before proper dev kits were in place! As for Gareth here in the comments. If 3DS was a flop, then how come it has smashed the sales records of every handle since the DS – even the original DS itself! Get your facts straight!
Bad news… If nintendo were smart about it and followed how they released every console and had a new SMB game ready at launch that showcased what it was capable of they might have a chance. The only time they didn’t do this was with the 3DS and it’s been a major flop, the SMB game game too late to save it
btw the analylist also said the 3ds would be the death of Nintendo too. Hows the sales of that system going again?
I’m sure all 5 people effected are going to be distraught.
Darn it! I was hoping Nintendork would be a viable console, so now I may be stuck with the other 2. I just may pass on nextgen gaming.