Need for Speed: Rivals won’t be coming to PlayStation Vita or Wii U because of poor sales on both of those platforms, Ghost Games creative director Craig Sullivan confirms in a chat with The Sixth Axis. “It didn’t really sell that many, in terms of the Wii U market,” he said. “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.”
Sullivan goes on to point out that there’s only so much effort that can be put into development, even with a 200-strong team. Rivals is bound for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in addition to PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, so much of the focus for Ghost Games is on ensuring a strong release across those platforms. It makes sense. Third-party offerings continue to flounder on the Wii U when it comes to cross-platform releases. Meanwhile, the Vita’s audience continues to grow, but low Most Wanted sales suggest there’s not much interest in a content-complete port that sacrifices visual splendor for portability.
Instead, we get a pair of next-gen ports that bring some much-needed safe plays to Microsoft and Sony’s launch lineups. Need for Speed: Rivals shows a lot of promise too, as we learned from a recent hands-on demo with the game.
