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Nine Third Party Wii U Games Listed For North American Release In 2015
Following yesterday’s financial report, Nintendo has provided supplemental information about its upcoming releases. Among the data are lists of upcoming first- and third-party games for its home and handheld consoles.
There are no significant changes to the first-party lineup. Star Fox, The Legend of Zelda, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Mario Maker are on track for sometime in 2015. Devil’s Third is also re-confirmed for an appearance (finally) this year.
Two as yet un-named titles, Project Giant Robot and Project Guard are slated for this year, too. The former of those is planned for the first half of the calendar year.
Unfortunately, there’s no news on Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem. The title is still listed as “TBD.”
The third-party front is less robust (and just got a boost this morning). There are currently seven titles listed, with the only two retail entries added earlier today by Warner Bros. Citizens of Earth and Chariot are already out, Trine Enhanced Edition is a remake of a 2009 release, and the others are indie games with minimal promotion.
Last year at this time, there were also nine titles listed, including two Lego games (which typically perform well on Nintendo systems) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Activision. It’s a safe bet that Skylanders and Disney Infinity will be back on the platform, as both are a strong fit for Nintendo’s family-oriented user base.
For more on Nintendo, check out yesterday’s financial report. You can also read analysis of the company’s current hardware conundrum for more insight.
[Source: Nintendo]
Our Take
This is unlikely to be the full list of third-party releases for the year on Wii U (but probably represents the majority of the major releases), but the pattern is becoming clear. Family-oriented titles from third parties are likely to be all publishers are willing to commit.
Third-parties are important for multiple reasons. They fill in around the first-party, marquee games. Third-party games also provide essential licensing revenue. Nintendo’s early stumbles with the Wii U put it in a hard position, with even it’s most valuable launch partner, Ubisoft, walking away.
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