Ubisoft said the Wii U version is being delayed as they are pulling people off that version to work on the other ones.

That still doesn't change that they delayed it back in fall, for the same reason I just said. This is also in turn, that Rayman Legends only got delayed on Wii U, because of Microsoft. Since Nintendo doesn't require multiplatform simultaneous releases, they're trying to get what they can out the door.

Eh? Ubidoft delayed it from the fall as it wasn't ready yet and to put it into the next financial year, it had nothing to do with the Wii U version.

There's no way Watch_Dogs has been delayed "to make it better" for WiiU. Ubisoft is probably going to see how it does on other platforms first and then release it on WiiU if they sense there's enough demand. Who knows, if the game flops, we're probably not going to see it on WiiU at all. And if the WiiU version turns out better, it will be because the GamePad fits the game's concept naturally, not because Ubisoft is going to put extra care into it.

If the machine doesn't get a good push with Mario Kart 8, both in terms of sales and relevance in the media, I think it's very unlikely we'll see something substantial coming from big 3rd parties. I believe the last quarter of 2014 will be the moment of truth: by that time, the four big titles (X, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Bayo2) will be already out or bound to be released - if they don't make WiiU desiderable, then I don't see any 3rd party investing on the system.

I didn't genuinely expect any surprises from this Nintendo direct but I did expect a little more Wii U love in forms of teasers for other announced games. Iwata made it clear that they were going to focus on using 3DS to drive profits so we're not going to get a deluge of top quality Wii U games any time soon. I reckon there will be 4 retail releases after the summer from Nintendo.

People should calm down. It was the first ND of the year and there will be more NDs to hype that massive list of 3DS titles so we should expect some Wii U stuff to come out of those. Mario Kart will get a Direct too. Then there's e3 which should have Zelda.

Well, if you consider that the Wii U version is based off of the Xbox 360 OR Xbox One version of the game(1 of 2 options), the game being delayed on any platform would automatically delay the game on Wii U, too.

So the game being delayed on any console, would naturally delay the game on Wii U.

Same thing went for Xbox 360 and PS3, except they had figured out how to port games to PS3 alot sooner than they have for Wii U. PS3 was basically an Xbox 360 with Sony's name on it. Now Nintendo's fate also relies on Microsoft and how 3rd parties are supporting their consoles.

EDIT: Take Bioshock, for example. That game came out on Xbox 360 as an exclusive, but then they ported it to PS3 later. That's just as much of a delay as this, if not worse.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/82542-bioshock-not-coming-to-ps3
This sort of occurrence has happened before, so I'm not exactky surprised.

?
I think this is more about Ubisoft wanting to polish the other 5 versions and releasing those in a timely manner, and taking the Wii U devs to make sure it happens, since that looks like the version that would do the worst based off of their experiences with Assassin's Creed IV (which aims at the same audience on the same platforms).

I agree with you that Wii U will probably still see it later. Unless if it doesn't sell enough copies to justify some polish (which I really doubt at this point), it'll come out. I mean, it'd have to do like, 10,000 or less to do that, and at the very least Assassin's Creed IV did way better than that even on the Wii U (although it wasn't pulling the usual 2-3 million like the other games in the series per platform).

@moomoo
The Wii U still derives from 1 of 2 versions. The Xbox 360 shares the game with PS3. and the Xbox One shares the game wuth PS4.
There are only 2 versions, not 5, because they derive from Microsoft, then the Wii U version derives from 1 of those 2, whether it's the 7th gen OR 8th gen version.

No, and hopefully it'll be dead for good by the end of this year.

"At this point, PokeTune's obsession with hating this console bordered on creepy, and reflected poorly on his overall personality."

Mario Kart 8 is gonna sell like crazy when it releases. I'm not even trying to hype it up. Mario Kart 8 will push alotta Wii U consoles.
Super Smash Bros. U will sell great but not as good as Mario Kart 8 will.

A-A....MARIO KART DIRECT?!?! YES PLEASE!!!

Agree with all of this. I've had a nagging feeling for a while that Watch Dogs is going to get a very lukewarm response overall and Ubisoft probably senses it too. They might release the Wii U version anyway just to try to get some extra sales or it'll get canned to cut their losses.

Smash and MK8 are this system's last chances to get 3rd parties back on board. If Holiday 2014 isn't the turning point, then one is not going to happen. The best thing to hope for is no matter what, we still get a strong library of Nintendo exclusives and indie titles out of it. Which is fine by me, but not necessarily for everyone else.