Bethesda: Nintendo too Late on Grabbing Publisher Support for Wii U

The Wii U is just approaching its first birthday, and while there’s a lineup of first-party software from Nintendo on the way that early adopters will likely appreciate, Bethesda's Pete Hines isn’t convinced there will be third-party content to support it. Speaking on Game Trailers' Bonus Round, the vice president of PR and marketing admitted that we’ve crossed the ripe time for game creators to support the struggling Wii U.

"The time for convincing publishers and developers to support Wii U has long past. The box is out," Hines said.

Instead of focusing energy on a partner that had little contact with publishers leading up to launch, Hines pointed to Microsoft and Sony’s strong communication skills as a major reason why next-generation consoles make more sense to develop for.

"It's not that every time we met with them we got all the answers we wanted, but they involved us very early on, and talking to folks like Bethesda and Gearbox, they say 'here's what we're doing, here's what we're planning, here's how we think it's going to work' to hear what we thought – from our tech guys and from an experience standpoint.

"You have to spend an unbelievable amount of time upfront doing that,” he continued. “If you're just going, 'we're going to make a box and this is how it works and you should make games for it.' Well, no. No is my answer. I'm going to focus on other ones that better support what it is we're trying to do."

A price cut for the Wii U at least alleviates a few publisher concerns, but it seems Nintendo also has a messaging problem among publishers and developers that needs to be resolved before too long.