Opinion: Rayman Legends Seals The WiiU's Coffin

Why Legends' conversion to a multi-platform release puts Nintendo's latest console in extreme jeopardy...
Last Summer, the Nintendo WiiU looked to be in an extremely strong position. E3 2012 brought with it a host of big announcements from the publisher of a series of games exclusive to their new console, including ZombiU, Wii Fit U, New Super Mario Bros U and most notably Rayman Legends. At that specific point in time, it seemed as if owning this new next-generation console was one of the hottest prospects of the foreseeable future.

Yet how times change. Six months on, and the sales of the WiiU have barely matched Nintendo's worst predictions, coming nowhere close to allowing the publisher to break even on their expensive hardware. Worse still, it was confirmed earlier this week that Rayman Legends will no longer be just a much-anticipated WiiU exclusive, but instead a multi-platform release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 too. Why has this change occurred  According to developer Ubisoft, officially it's due to fan anger at the third-party exclusivity, yet the more logical reason is that just 4% of Ubisoft's Q4 2012 (November-January) sales came as a result of their WiiU software. That means that Your Shape 2013, ZombiU, Just Dance 4, Assassin's Creed III and Marvel Avengers: Battle For Earth didn't come anywhere close to achieving what the developer had hoped on the WiiU.

The decision was a logical one on Ubisoft's part, then, but one that indeed bodes ill for the status of Nintendo's console. With Sony's announcement of the PlayStation 4 looking set for February 20th and Microsoft's Xbox 720 reveal sure to come soon after, the Nintendo WiiU was always going to start to face stiff competition, so it's saying something that in the process it's losing one of its most enticing exclusives of 2013. I'm sure I won't be alone in thinking that beyond new Mario games and Smash Bros, what will the WiiU really have now to convince me not to go for a 720 instead? Console exclusives are getting rarer by the day, so publishers need to hold onto them regardless of the cost, and by losing Rayman Legends, Nintendo have ensured that they're already at a profound disadvantage in the next-gen race. Boy, will this once-groundbreaking company be longing for the glory days of the Wii again now...