Wii U disappointed Nintendo fans and journalists alike, to the extent that Nintendo's share took a plunge on the day of its official reveal. However, this wasn't enough to scare Ubisoft of the yet-unreleased console.
"We are big believers in the Wii U, on two subjects," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said. "One is for high-end games, where we'll be able to do a game for the Wii U, but also for other [high-definition] machines, but also with specific use of [Wii U's] tablet. Two, is we like the Wii U for all the [potential of] casual games."
In the last few years Ubisoft picked a habit of embracing new hardware early and well before most big publishers move in and ramp up the competition. This strategy has worked well for them with Wii (which turned out to be the leading console of its generation) and with Kinect and 3DS (which weren't as successful as expected initially, but still made Ubisfot good money during the initial hype and later due to the lenient competition).
But Ubisoft is actually building their Wii U hopes on their current - and ongoing - success with Wii. "Today, the Wii still is 45 percent of our business," Guillemot said. "Just Dance, all those casual games, are selling extremely well. So we are supporting the machine because we believe Nintendo is going to push it to another level. We think [Wii U] will be successful."
"Now to [what audience] will it be addressed? We don't exactly know yet," he admitted. "But the potential of the machine, and the tablet [controller], I think is a good way to improve the potential gameplay. What we see is the ease of play is a part of the revolution we are seeing today. The fact that it's easier to access games is what can make more people play. Maybe they can do a good job there."