Im not claiming to be an expert on such matters, but the situation is rather poor. Blame could lay with either Nintendo, its customers or the third party developers. But its clear that third party devs tend to avoid Nintendos home systems.
If the blame is on Nintendo:
They should fund more games for their systems and advertise more.
If the blame is on the customers:
We could buy more games, but this links with the developers.
If the blame is on the developers:
Last generation, the Wii was flooded with "Shovelware". This generation, the developers haven't been seen to make much of an effort to appeal to Nintendo customers. Between this and last generation, we, the customers have been burned a lot. Last gens shovelware and this generations inferior versions of games when compared to the other systems. I will list a few examples, im sure there are many more:
Ubisoft. Rayman Legends was delayed around a year to port it to the other systems. They then went on to delay Watch Dogs, the Wii U version alone, to complete the versions for other systems.
EA. The laughable "Unprecedented Partnership". What a joke that turned out to be. Fifa 13, which was a reskinned Fifa 12, which less features than was given to other systems. Mass Effect 3, released at full price at the same time as other systems were given Mass Effect Trilogy at the same cost. Then, Madden 13, which didnt have the new physics engine that was in versions for other systems. EA went on to say that Frostbite 3 wouldnt work on the system (A claim later retracted after Microsofts XBox One announcement disaster).
Activision. They have put out various Call of Duty games, all with less support than the other systems received, such as a hyped up Youtube support, and a lack of DLC.
Wii U has also received multiple ports that were months or even a year late. Need for Speed and Watch Dogs were around six months late, and then Batman Arkham City was a full year later than on other systems.
I dont expect things to change. I expect inferior products with continue to be released, with developers expecting massive sales and blaming the potential customers when they refuse to buy the games.
All i can say is: If you dont care about the product, why should we?
Square Enix will announce a new title in the Life is Strange series on January 20 at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:0 p.m. ET, the company teased.
Where Winds Meet on PS5 is a wuxia MMO with strong action combat, open-ended exploration, and plenty to do if you like setting your own pace.
Travis Bruno of Capsule Computers writes:
"It is hard to believe that there would be a time that not only would the Western releases of The Legend of Heroes franchise manage to catch up to the Japanese releases of this incredibly lengthy franchise, but that the game’s that helped kick it off would be getting remade at the very same time. A few months ago we reviewed the fresh remake of Nihon Falcom’s Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter and now here we are, visiting the most recent release in a story featuring characters and plot elements spanning all the way from that very first game twenty-two years ago. It’s not often that a video game sequel requires full knowledge of its predecessors, and in many ways The Legend of Heroes tried to do that with Daybreak, but now that everything has gathered together in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon, players best be ready for the most character packed, lore heavy, game of the franchise since Reverie."
The cheaper it is to port games to a console from the most popular console will determine the amount of third party games it will receive. Not only is not simple to port games from PS4 to Wii U, it's also not easy to port games from the X360 to Wii U. Which is why the support dropped. The only consoles that will receive ports while being difficult to port to is the most popular ones for example the PS2 during its generation.
It's sad because if they would have competitively priced it around 200 instead of 300 people would've gave the Wii U a chance. Also, casual gamers thought the WiiU was a big controller with a screen for the original Wii. Nintendo didn't really advertise or educate the casual audience. They should have given the console a different name to separate it from the original Wii.
Personally, I'd rather have Nintendo be a 3rd party publisher/developer. Super Mario 64 HD on Ps4/x1 would break all the Mario software records for sales. Even Super Mario 3 would.
I agree with you to some extent, but the way I see it, it’s more of a chicken and egg situation:
- Devs don’t want the additional costs of porting to a console with a small fan base for games such as these you brought up as examples, since most people with a Wii U got them for the first party titles and have little to no interest in said games, or as previously mentioned, thought it was an attachment for the Wii.
- When devs want nothing to do with a platform, they automatically reduce the amount of people interested in it as a potential multi-plat console.
Bottom line, it’s a mass market industry, so you go where there’s reasonable risk alongside a healthy profit margin. The Wii U doesn’t seem to represent that for third party devs, and these companies have access to some halfway decent info, so despite feeling like it’s a huge shame, I can see where they’re coming from.