ZombiU, one of the biggest, most popular games to launch on the Wii U, won’t be seeing a sequel anytime soon. The Ubisoft-developed project managed to impress the critics and consumers who carved out a dozen hours or so to see what it was all about, but according to the actual sales figures, the game didn’t even come close to turning a profit for the French publisher. That’s not only a bad sign for Ubisoft, but an example that all third-party publishers will pay attention to moving forward.
Ubisoft gambled on the Wii U, supporting the Nintendo platform as best as it could early on. Without the help of games like ZombiU, exclusive content would have almost been absent on the dual-screen device. However, the fact that few people picked the undead game up both stopped any sequel talk and forced Rayman Legends to become a multiplatform game.
"We must find a way to ensure the creativity of those games could have a big enough audience," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told Game Industry International. "We hope it will take off. At the moment, we've said 'let's do through Christmas and see where we are from there.'"
Will the inclusion of the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Vita be enough for Ubisoft to make money on Rayman? With the massive install base most of these platforms enjoy, it’s likely that Legends will at least have a better shot. But nothing about this situation inspires confidence in a Nintendo console that many people have already disregarded.