Nintendo’s Wii U has been having a rough time since its launch, although the tides are turning, what with the release of the excellent Mario Kart 8, the accompanying sales boost, and Nintendo’s great E3 performance that has had even the mainstream talking. Third parties had largely abandoned the Wii U during its off days, but Ubisoft, which was one of the first and most vocal third party supporters of Nintendo’s newest console, still professes to have faith in the system and believes it can excel at the right price.
“With Mario Kart, Wii U made one step and we expect with Smash Bros. it will also do more. If Nintendo put the right price on the machine then they will probably have a chance to do further,” Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot said, speaking to CVG.
“We are coming with Watch Dogs and Just Dance this year. We also have another game on the shelves that we expect to come at some point when there will be more machines,” revealed Guillemot.
“That game is waiting for more machines to be available,” he added, in reference to the ‘availability’ of Wii U owners and, thus, potential customers.
“We are also waiting for them to achieve more sales so that we can invest more. Because the problem we have with next-gen now here, is that we are seeing less games that are on next-gen and last-gen consoles.
“Nintendo has to perform this year, otherwise they will have less games. Justifying investing in the machine needs a larger install base,” said Guillemot.
Nintendo’s performance this year has already seen a boost, and the momentum seems set to continue, thanks to an excellent E3 and the impending launch of Super Smash Bros. Whether Nintendo is smart enough to capitalize on all this positivity, or whether it chooses to squander on all of this again, remains to be seen.
