Despite Rayman Legends heading to multiple platforms, Ubisoft is confident the game will remain a Wii U system seller. It's been a little over a month since the publisher "betrayed" Nintendo fans by announcing the game's release on Xbox 360 and PS3; prior to that it had been a Wii U exclusive launch title. However, for reasons not admitted — although it's painfully obvious it was a business decision that had everything to do with a larger target market on PlayStation and Xbox — the game not only abandoned its Nintendo-only roots, but was then delayed. Regardless, Ubisoft France Studios head Xavier Poix is confident the game remains a Wii U system seller.
"We don't have any disappointments compared to the installed base. We are just hoping that Nintendo's results for Wii U will be a bit bigger,” he told GamesIndustry (via MCV).
"Selling a new way of playing can take some time, and we know the power of the brands from Nintendo and we know from the fans that the majority of what will be the system sellers are not yet available. And on our side, Rayman will be one of them for sure," he added. "We really expect Rayman to be a huge system seller on the console."
It's no secret the Wii U has failed to ignite much of a spark among consumers. Earlier this month, the NPD Group's report indicated another month of dismal Wii U sales for February. Although, much of the system's early struggles can be attributed to lackluster game releases, especially during the early months of 2013. Rayman Legends would've hopefully helped with this, but with a new release in September, it hasn't offered much reason to own a Wii U. And now that it's coming to the Xbox and PlayStation, is there any real reason to go out and buy a new console? This is the problem Nintendo now has to face.
Still, Poix remains confident the Wii U can rebound. "One thing for sure we knew is that this new controller would be something harder to convey than the Wii, which was about the movements in your game, so we knew we needed to educate people around this GamePad idea,” he said. “We strongly believe that people have not yet realized the importance of the gameplay that this can provide, but for sure they need the good games to support the system. And they need the installed base to gain more support, which is not the case yet.”
Rayman Legends new release date is September 2013. To make it up to Wii U owners, Ubisoft has offered a full online challenge mode, exclusive to the Wii U. Which system do you plan on getting the highly anticipated platformer for?
