The Wii U was Nintendo’s worst and lowest selling console ever, but it had some of Nintendo’s best games ever, too. For players and developers, it is probably desirable to give those games a second shot at the success they deserve, by rescuing them from the Wii U’s dismal install base, and putting them on the active and surging Switch instead.
Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime admits that this is an active consideration at the moment for Nintendo, too. “The internal conversations we have is that on one hand, the development teams would love to showcase their content to a wider base, and certainly in short order the install base on Nintendo Switch will be larger than the install base we ended with Wii U,” Fils-Aime told IGN. “So there is that opportunity. What also drives the discussion, though is ‘what more will there be?’ Meaning, let’s take Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as an example- it needed to be the definitive version of that software for the consumer to be as excited as they are. Pokken Tournament DX with the additional fighters, the additional Pokemon, that was important for it to be an element of the game. What we are internally resisting is just a pure port, versus thinking about how not only do we showcase a game to a wider audience, but how do we make sure that there’s something more? So it’s an active discussion.”
This is good news, and I am all for Nintendo bringing over more Wii U games to the Switch- not only does that give more people a chance to play and enjoy those games, but if those ports are anywhere near as fantastic as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was, I don’t think anyone will complain. Here’s hoping for Smash 4 Deluxe some time soon.