There are two Assassin’s Creed games coming out this year. Assassin’s Creed: Unity is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, while Assassin’s Creed: Rogue will be hitting last generation consoles, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. So where’s the Wii U version? There isn’t one. According to Ubisoft’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, Nintendo customers don’t buy Assassin’s Creed games, so there’s no reason to bring either title to the Wii U.
Game Informer caught up with Guillemot at Gamescom this past week to discuss why neither game is coming to the Wii U and why there are two Assassin’s Creed games being released this year. According to Guillemot, consumers are upgrading to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 faster than Ubisoft expected. The release for PS3 and Xbox 360 will be fine for this year, but next year the company will stop supporting those platforms.
After 2015, it will be hard for us to create games for those systems.
So what about Nintendo? Nintendo is somewhat caught in the middle here, since the Wii U is more powerful than the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, but it is not on par with the new consoles. According to Guillemot, Nintendo fans don’t buy Assassin’s Creed games, so fans looking to finish the story started by characters like Haytham Kenway will have to do so on another console.
It’s very simple. What we see is that Nintendo customers don’t buy Assassin’s Creed. Last year, we sold in very small numbers.
Guillemot isn’t lying here, Ubisoft’s sales by platform for the last quarter showed that the Wii U only contributed 3% to the total revenue, while the almost decade old Wii still brings in 11%. It’s not hard to see why Ubisoft has dropped Nintendo from its portfolio, but that doesn’t make the sting any less, considering what is now a trilogy story in Assassin’s Creed Rogue cannot be experienced by Wii U gamers.
So all of this doubt about the Assassin’s Creed series has likely sparked the question, if Assassin’s Creed doesn’t sell on the Wii U, what about Watch Dogs? Is that game still coming? According to Guillemot, yes. It was promised to Wii U owners and it’s still on the way.
Thanks, Derek!