Xavier Poix, Ubisoft France Studios managing director, clarifies his company's position on Nintendo's struggling console saying he has high hopes for the "Rayman" franchise and the future stability of the console. Ubisoft released multiple titles for the Wii U over the course of its long release window, however the company delayed the previously exclusive "Rayman Legends" from its original February release in order to make the game multiplatform for the holiday season.
While many gamers were up in arms, especially considering the news of the delay came within a month of "Rayman Legends'" expected release, Poix re-iterated Ubisoft's satisfaction with sales on the console and declared the title a "system seller" when it eventually comes out.
Speaking with Games Industry International, Poix maintained Ubisoft's consistently excited tone.
"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 says. Nintendo's Wii U sold 57,000 units in the US in January and 66,000 units in February after a strong, 3 million unit launch by the end of December 2012.
Poix repeated what a lot of supporting publishers and Nintendo are saying about the Wii U
"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. We really expect 'Rayman' to be a huge system seller on the console" he says.
The "Rayman Legends" delay shot a huge gap in the Wii U's release schedule, with many gamers having to wait until mid-to-late march for high profile releases such as "Lego City Undercover," "Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate" and various eShop games. Sales numbers on those games have yet to be revealed by their respective publishers.
"We love to build games on new consoles, so we are preparing ourselves for any potential new systems that are coming. It's really a matter of finding a good brand and does it make sense to put it on this system or this system? Either it's an existing brand or it's not, then we have to figure out what kind of brand needs to be created on the system as an opportunity," Poix says.
Following the company's trend of releasing title on every piece of hardware ever, Ubisoft is looking forward to the PS4 and Microsoft's next console with as much anticipation as they did the Wii U. High-profile games like "Watch Dogs" and "Assassin's creed IV: Black Flag" are set for release on both next-gen and current-gen consoles.
"There is always an appetite for more beautiful, better animated games," he says.
