Bethesda currently has no Wii U games in development, according to the company's marketing vice president.

The Skyrim developer, which has not internally worked on any Nintendo platform since the early nineties, is currently building content for current and next generation core systems including PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4 and Xbox One.

But the Wii U is not going to be added to that list in the near-term. In an interview with Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines, industry publication MCV asked what conditions would encourage the company to expand its support to Wii U.

"It's a number of factors. The truth is, it's not something that we are currently developing for. I don't know whether that changes down the road or not," Hines responded.

"It depends on the games that we are making and how we think it aligns with that console, and how the hardware aligns with the other stuff we are making. We will see."

Upcoming projects to be published by Bethesda include Wolfenstein: The New Order (developed by Sweden studio MachineGames), The Evil Within (Tango Gameworks, Tokyo) and The Elder Scrolls Online (Zenimax Online, Maryland).

What's in development at Bethesda's internal Maryland studio is unknown. The studio is credited with the development of Fallout 3 in 2008 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim three years later.

The long-term commercial outlook for Wii U has been a subject of debate in recent months. In May, Electronic Arts revealed that it had no Wii U games in development - a statement which the company has since softened

Ubisoft, meanwhile, has stated it has a long-term commitment to Wii U. Sega is also developing several games for the system.

In the UK, Nintendo's Wii U managed to shift 179,000 games in the first half of 2013 - that's roughly five per cent of PS3 game unit sales (3.2m) and even less when compared to Xbox 360 (4.3m). It is also less than a third of the games sold on Wii (650,000) and trails Vita software sales (198,000).

Nintendo hopes it can revitalise sales with a holiday games line-up headlined by Super Mario 3D World.

Posted: Jul 16, 2013 10:08 am
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/419305/bethesda-has-no-games-in-development-for-wii-u/