There’s no denying that Nintendo is taking third party developers and publishers much more seriously with the Wii U than they did with the Wii. The company all but dominated the Wii software sales charts, and third party support for the console was lackluster, to say the least. Many of the top franchises never saw release on the Wii console, and Nintendo has learned from its mistakes. Nintendo is courting third parties to publish more games on the Wii U.
Speaking with investors about the issue, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the main goal for the Wii U situation is to “establish a trusting relationship with third-party developers”, so they can create and release more games on the Wii U than on previous Nintendo platforms. Iwata added that the company built a good relationship with third parties for the Nintendo 3DS, and that they’re looking to “further improve the situation with the Wii U”.
The Wii U has seen unprecedented third party support, especially from major publishers like Ubisoft and EA. Ubisoft is working on no less than 8 Wii U games, while EA will be bringing 3 titles at launch plus two unannounced project that will be revealed later this month. The world’s largest publisher, Activision, will release the highly anticipated Call of Duty Black Ops 2 on the Wii U later this year, and has said they are excited over the new console’s potential.
