Wii U Version Of Beyond Good & Evil 2 Looking Unlikely

Great, now another argument on whether the Wii U is "next-gen" will be started

Before they said it was possible or at least I think they did...

Given how Ubisoft kept holding the game hostage based on Rayman game sales, I wouldn't be surprised if they look at the sales of Rayman Legends to see what consoles will see development for the game.

It's so obvious that Nintendo is doomed! They should just quit making video games all together and get back into the "love house" business.

Sigh.
This interview with Ancel in no way, shape or form even references the WiiU. In no way does anything he says in it "all but confirmed that the system won't be getting the game".
Sigh.
@Damo, I am disappointed at the flame-bait once again.
Not surprised.
But disappointed.
Sigh.

@scottsensei I hope they look at sales vs install base, and not just sales, in that case...

I think they've left it too late anyway. Unless they wow newer gamers that never played it back in 2003 or whenever it was somehow, then it'll probably not sell well like the original did. I know they rereleased the original on XBLA and PSN, but still....

I'm done getting mad at people saying that.The next time I see an article like this,I'm just going to ignore it and mumble to myself angrily.Also,the first game had it's beginning's on GameCube,so I don't see why it can't be on Wii U.

Remember that one time when Iwata said that the difference in power between the Wii U and the other systems would be small enough that it could get multiplats? And remember when they said the system would be more powerful than a PS3? Yeah, I remember those days. It was nice to think those things.

@Damo
Come now. You know as well as I that his comment was made with the idea of 360 vs. XB1 and PS3 vs. PS4.
Reading a strained implication into what he said to apply this to a "WiiU is not next gen" argument is reaching, at best, and at worst, is presenting something in a certain fashion for the pure sake of article-hits.

Groan... More stories of games unlikely to come to Wii U. Starting to TICK me off a lot now.

They (third parties) dont even know about how much ps4 and xbone will sell at their debut but they already work on big AAA games, unlike wii U sadly no company trust Nintendo and make a real exclusive game besides zombiu and you guys can defend your argument that this is not substantial to wii U´s success but seriously all this lack of support from third parties just sucks.

This is a matter of people being lazy.Reminds me of when CN canceled Sym-Bionic Titan to make The Problem Solverz and ignore the fans because all they wanted was money,and not their fans to be happy.

I'm just glad the notion of BG&E 2 still lives.

(facepalms) guys, he said there would be no CURRENT gen version. The wii u even if it wasnt capabile graphiclly (it is btw) is next gen!

The U is only next-gen for PR purposes. From a tech perspective, it's nowhere near the PS4 or XBone, so that makes it current gen or its own gen. Nintendo really messed up by sticking with this idiotic Gamepad idea and not focusing on just releasing a higher tech console. Now, they're stuck with supporting this console that no one cares about right now.

I haven't expected more from Ubisoft -.-"

Wii U isn't next gen.. It is current gen with a touch screen, or rather a DS with current gen console hardware.

Just 140 million PS3 and 360s sold combined and then you add Wii U. how would it be painful to release Beyond Good and Evil 2 on Current Gen.

nlife, write an article properly for the love of god.

Yaya, Wii u isn't next gen, this game isn't coming to Wii u either, what else is new I rather focus on the great games that are coming to the Wii U. If they don't want to release the game on Wii U, than they obviously don't want our business.

On a note that will make people flame me, I'm one of those rare people that didn't care a lot for the first game

I wish Nintendo would make the Wii U's specs closed to Xbone/PS4. Don't give me wrong, I know graphics aren't everything but still...

I don't know what to think of that statement. It's pretty vague and open to interpretation... But seeing how Ancel has always been a big supporter of Wii U, I find it hard to read the statement the way the article presents it.

Good job on the flame bait article. Did he even mention Wii U? No he didnt. The wording has been simply spun to attract hits and fuel the Wii U hate train

@CapnPancakes lol

Okay so, Beyond Good and Evil was in development for how long? I think 10 years. At this day and age, with a game this long back in development, I don't think it needs that much power to run on a "next gen" (what he's saying and probably everyone else not me) console. (unless there's video proof showing me otherwise)

I agree with @shpydar. Never said wii u. The Ninty doom and gloom has grown beyond stale. NL must be bored. Stop reaching lol. Sheesh. Smh.

Ah, bummer!!

Garbage argument from someone within a garbage company.

But just because Wii U is a bit underpowered doesn't mean sales will diminish.Remember how much more powerful the PS3 was last gen?It didn't sell as much as Wii.So I don't see why Ubisoft is concerned about sales.Or anyone at this point.

I can't believe people STILL can't figure out the Wii U tech. It's MUCH more powerful than Xbox 360 and PS3.
Does anyone recall GBA to DS/PSP? The DS had better graphics than the GBA, that factually means it was next generation in both graphics AND controls/features.
The DS was sort of weak in comparison to PSP, but it was definitely better than any handheld before it.
The only reason PSP got any credit, was because it had better graphics. In other words, jumping a half gen ahead is far more dangerous than being a half gen "behind".
The Wii U is exactly where is should be graphically to appeal to the masses.

Not only that, the Wii U uses a flexible version of OpenGL in comparison to Direct X.

These sort of statements only back that these companies are neither trying to get games on Wii U, nor do they know how.

@DerpSandwich
Regardless of how powerful Wii U was going to be, it was NEVER going to get full 3rd party support. Why? Power has nothing to do with it. It's the fact that 3rd party games don't sell well to the Nintendo fanbase, and that's the truth. The whole "games didn't come to Wii because it wasn't as powerful" is bologna. If a game will sell, they'll bring it, simple as that. As for it being more powerful than a PS3, it actually is. Not by leaps and bounds, but it is. You can't compare ports of games optimized to use a CPU powered architecture running on a system that uses a GPU powered architecture. Why? Because the Wii U CPU is clocked at half the speed as PS3. Its true power comes in that beast of a GPGPU, that handles most things the PS3's CPU did. And it's not just Wii U that decided to go with a meager CPU, the PS4 is also clocked at half the speed of PS3. It's just how technology has advanced. CPU's are no longer the workhorse they used to be. Technology has found a more efficient horse to use. Look at Bayonetta 2 or X. Just not possible on 7th gen tech.

His past comments should be taken into account when considering the vagueness here.

http://www.giantbomb.com/wii-u/3045-139/forums/gamepad-use-teased-for-beyond-good-evil-2-564620/

@midnight3ds

Checkmate! Good show sir!!

Third party games don't come to the Wii U. This is not a news story.

Called this months ago. He had already said the game was delayed partially because they needed more powerful hardware to flesh out their vision...so how could it possibly have come to Wii U?

Too confused to voice my opinion. Is the Wii U included in the current gen area as PS360 (especially when stated in interviews) or could it be lumped in the next gen area.

@Midnight3DS now that got me thinking even more.

Shocking news! Wii U supposedly misses out on another 3rd party game! More at 11:00!

@JaxonH While for the most part you're completely right--the Wii U isn't getting most of these games because it just doesn't have the numbers--porting games to the Wii would have been more profitable if it didn't take so much effort to downscale the games. It did get plenty when the publishers figured the money was right, but the money would have been more right if it had been more powerful. If the Wii U was a little more powerful it might only be a matter of scaling down some polys and textures to get next gen games to run on it. But as it is it can't even run most of the engines the other systems do, making a port a large undertaking. They've got to rework the whole game and in some cases nearly remake large parts of it.

I know most of it has to do with sales and the target audiences, but the power issue certainly doesn't help.

And even if the Wii U is technically more powerful than the PS3, I've yet to see an example showcasing this fact. Bayonetta to me does not seem impossible with the other 7th gen systems. Nothing on Wii U looks as good as most of the stuff on PS3 in my opinion.

What's "beyond good and evil"?

@Williaint: Don't be so quick to dismiss it. The original was one of the best games of the early 2000s, one of my all-time favourites, and widely considered a classic.

@SCAR392: It's not that companies can't figure out the Wii U tech, it's that because the architecture is different to the other platforms (XBox One, PS4, PC) it's much more work to develop a Wii U version than it is to support the other three platforms. It's not simply a matter of changing a compiler flag to cross-compile and leave it at that - a lot of low-level work needs to be done.

It's smart business - if you see a platform that appears to be failing, and it will take a lot of resources to develop a port for that platform, why would you do it? It's too risky, and the game development world is (unfortunately) very volatile: no point in making and publishing a port that nobody will buy.

Hell, a large number of the comments on NLife about third-party software are people saying that they don't care about third party games, and only buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo's games. That's definitely not an environment conducive to third-party development, particularly when you can cover 3/4 of the major platforms with what's effectively a single version with minor (relatively speaking) tweaks.

I read nothing in that paragraph that indicates it won't come to Wii U. This is bait for argument and nothing more.

At this point I could care less about third party anything.... Third Parties have become soulless tools. Nintendo is why I still play games. Third Parties use to be relevant and they actually made good software. Nowadays the majority of third party material is nothing more than some cookie cutter trash- minus a select few. I've survived the Gamecube and Wii generations with majority Nintendo software and had fun and I'm positive that on WiiU(even without third party support) I'll continue to have fun. Third Parties really just want Nintendo out of the game that's what I honestly think.

It'd be great if the comments in the article quoted by @Midnight3DS led to a Wii U version, but I lean towards the interpretation of Nintendo Life, here.

"Now that we have the consoles around the corner we're working on them. We're trying to see how we can get the power out of those consoles because there are still things we need to understand on those consoles".

Wii U is not "around the corner". It isn't completely cut and dry though. He could have been lumping the Wii U in there which they are also still trying to understand... maybe.

Make no mistake though. Developing for the new guys and the Wii U is very different (OpenGL vs. Direct X, RAM, processor speed, etc). They are in different classes no matter what generation they are from.

@Drobotic It irks me when someone says developers are "lazy" for not bringing a game to a platform. People who make games spend long hard hours concentrating on difficult problems and do painstaking work. Porting to another platform is expensive in man hours and/or actual cash for contract work and if it's not done perfectly there is backlash from a particular console's community. If the return on investment is unclear to doubtful, avoiding a port is called "prudent", not "lazy".

@Nintex

cant the same be said about nintendo games as of late? cookie cutter trash - minus a select few.

We all know 3rd party support isn't there because there isn't enough 3rd party support to create a base large enough for 3rd party support to support the Wii U. Do we really need all these stories and negativity about it?

Argue and insult each other all you what, I just need to know if we'll still be able to purchase K-bups.

@ajcismo A box of K-bups completely restores your energy.

@aaronsullivan
I'm not calling them lazy for not bringing the game on here.I'm calling them lazy for not trying hard to make a game work on the console.I just want more games to play.

ugh, here we go again with the "next-gen" fiasco. @Damo, please be more clear when you're writing these articles. i see no indication of him saying WiiU is Current-Gen.

@Drobotic: Wow, do you have any idea how petulant you sound? As I mentioned above (and many others have before), these companies need to make a profit. Laziness doesn't come into it - if they thought that the time spent porting the game would bring in a profit, they would do it. The developers aren't there to throw money into a sinking ship just to give you more games out of the goodness of their heart.

@DerpSandwich your point about sub par power playing a factor in receiving ports is well taken, and I agree it is a factor. And Bayonetta 2 most def could run on PS3, but framerates would take a serious blow, whereas it's running at a full 60 on Wii U. Not to mention textures are where Wii U really jumps ahead of the current gen pack. We saw it in Need For Speed, and we're seeing it in Bayonetta 2. Textures would also need to be scaled down. Now, I'm not saying Wii U is as strong as PS4/Xbox1, in fact, it's MUCH closer to current gen than it is to next gen. And for all intensive purposes, the noticeable improvements over current gen are far and few between, and not all that substantial either. Nonetheless, the improvements are there and can be noticed, even if it's not apparent at first glance.

@JaxonH Once Nintendo really sits down and unlocks the machine and starts bringing out the big IP's I don't doubt we'll see some really crazy stuff though. I mean, sometimes Super Mario Galaxy looked like a 360 game! At least we've got that to look forward to.

@Wheels2050
I'm not saying they should throw money away.All I want is for some developers,and I'm not saying Ubisoft isn't,to give the Wii U more of a chance.That's all I ask.I just don't want the Wii U to be on the same boat the Wii was on.Either getting dumb watered-down ports(Sniper Elite V2)or not getting certain games at all(Call of Duty:Ghosts).So far,the road the Wii U has been on has been quite a bit bumpy.

If I want to play this game I would buy it from steam and play it on my PC.
I buy Nintendo to play Nintendo games. That's all.

@Dr_42o yawn

@URAmk2 I can't think of any

If the PS5 and the Xbox One.2 turn out to be toasters, everyone will just be making sandwiches, because making video games on the "nintendo - game console" would just be too painfull, although it would be possible, toast it is, go with the times, you hippies with your stone age tech...pah, video games

@DerpSandwich
Right. We were all amazed at Mario Galaxy and Xenoblade running on Wii hardware, even Metroid Prime 3 looked great, especially for a year 1 game. But really, I don't think it matters how powerful it is compared to the competition. I mean, it's good enough for the games Nintendo wants to make. I can't imagine how much better you can get a NSMB game to look, or a Smash Bros, or a Mario Kart, even Windwaker. The advantage of 8gb RAM and the latest GPU tech really wouldn't bee seen in these titles. Yeah, the ports will look like PS3 counterparts, but I can live with that. Already pre ordered PS4, though any multiplat making it to Wii U I will be supporting over the PS4 version.

I bought the gamecube version recently to get ready for whenever the new one gets made. Guess I don't care anymore since the sequel won't make it to WiiU. Oh well, I guess they don't want my money since I'm not going to buy either of the other systems. Good thing there's always games that I can only get on Nintendo systems.

Well, if you don't wanna release games for the Wii U, that's alright, 3rd parties: I'm not going to get Sony PS4/Microsoft Xbox1, so I won't be giving you any of my money, then.

Random IGN guy: -You're an...!!! When 3rd parties don't support Nintendo, you're OBLIGED to buy a non-Nintendo console so you can support 3rd parties. By sticking with Nintendo, you're an inhuman monster!

Me: -I couldn't care less about these 3rd party games. Give me Nintendo or give me death.

gah, idiot game devs. Why make something super high tech and HD and all the crap that doesn't make a good game, when you can make it just a BIT more toned down and release it on everything with butter-smooth framerate.
morons

@Royalblues Another generic comment that doesn't understand how gaming, Nintendo, or business works.

And no it isn't because Nintendo can do no wrong, it's because you are have no idea how to correct this problem. Stop pretending you do. All of you.

No comment. I'm wondering whether or not I should even buy Rayman Legends now.

I just think people are underestimating the Wii U. Even just looking at what's inside the console hardware wise, it can handle alot more than Xbox 360 and PS3 right off the bat if anyone knew how to.

This is strictly not knowing how to use the Wii U hardware. I think it'd be easy to just port the PS4 version. Obviously, it wouldn't run in 4K, but we'd still have the game with the GamePad.

Honestly, I think Nintendo is dealing with similar shenanigans the PS3 had with long ago similar to the cell. No one knew how, but the difference is that people are doubting such possibilities this time around.

This doesn't surprise me, i can safely say thay'll be a lot more article just like this one.

The first game was "painful" too. Completely overhyped game.

Basically, they can't be bothered optimising it and will be using the next gen power to cut corners.

Bad article.

i hope the wiiU sales will boost at the end of the year

Well he's actually NOT ruling out the Wii U.

He's talking about current gen systems and next gen system, and he's been consistently saying that he considers the Wii U a true next gen system.

I know, I know, he's talking sheer horse power and shaders here. But let's see once the whole thing gets rolling, and they have a highly optimized Wii U engine sitting around anyway.

you know, ubisoft, just bring us the games that we can have, and then worry about the games that have to be scaled down a bit, after the wiiU sells more systems.
but dont stop the support for wiiU.

Shouldn't we all focus on whether or not BG&E2 will actually be a thing before the game is not ported to console X? It just seems like the logical step to me.

And with this he's not even confirming the game exists! Oh, i saw a Demo in 2008 and then was vaporware...

It belongs on the Wii U, just like the first one did on the Gamecube!

I'm not too sure why Michael Ancel thinks his creative vision is beyond what can be created on an Xbox 360 and PS3, these are incredibly powerful machines, compared to the machines the original game was released on.
What is true is that the original game wasn't a huge commercial success so i think it's more likely Ubisoft backed off of the idea of a sequel.
But if you accept his comments, about needing more powerful machines, in good faith i don't see how that automatically exculdes Wii U.
It would seem reasonable to wait for PS4 and Xbox One to be established to give the game it's best chance of becoming a commercial hit, rather than just a critical hit, otherwise it could be history repeating itself.
The main thing i'd take from his comments is the game is still a long way off, whatever system it gets on to.

Are they really pushing the graphics and scope that much on this sequel?

I have a PS3 but I'm not sold on the 'next gen' yet, I suppose I want to see some games that do more than increase the resolution and frame rate, or fill the screen with window dressing type visual effects.

I played through original Beyond Good and Evil and it was a very enjoyable game, but I've never been that excited for a sequel myself. I think with Wii U, I'm waiting to see games like Metroid, F-Zero, Star Fox and a proper Zelda game before I think of getting the console.

Aren't you guys calling Wii U last gen right now?

@Pod I hope you're right, but I'm afraid it's Ubisoft shareholders VS Ancel. And we've seen what douches the first can be...

Is it me or does everything regarding video game related get taken way out of context nowadays?

Wait, no where in that interview he said a Wii U version isn't coming... don't tell me Nintendolife thinks the Wii U is current gen?

Laughable, Nintendo already proved the system is far more advanced than the ps3 or 360.... Can you really name any visually impressive games on the ps360 that ran at 60fps? I can't think of any... the only games that were running in 60fps looked pretty janky.

As long as they make a PC version, that's enough for me. If they don't make a PC version, that's when I'll know for certain that Ubisoft has completely sold itself out to MicroSony.

On that note, if they do make a PC version, then that means they will have a minimum recommended specs requirement, which if it is attainable in relative computations by Wii U, considering having no overhead, then we will know if it is feasible to make a Wii U version that is not half baked.

@GreenDream Well, it's not apples to oranges. There is more than just hardware involved. My understanding is that programming for the Wii U is similar to the Wii and very few third party games looked anything close to as good as Nintendo's own games. The shaders and the way graphics are done is apparently significantly different. Sadly.

@element187 Yes I can name a lot of them.

Forza Motorsport 4
Rage
Mortal Kombat
Gran Turismo 5
Super Street Fighter IV
God of War III
Fight Night Round 4
Flower
WipEout HD
Soulcalibur IV
Ninja Gaiden II
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
Devil May Cry 4
Burnout Paradise
Super Stardust HD

Just to name some...and not only 60FPS...but also 1080p.

just great here we go again another debate

Does "current" include the Wii U? By all rights its part of the "next" generation. I don't know if firm data had ever been given, but last I heard it does functionally surpass the "current" generation (PS3/360/Wii).

@Rei7 Woah, none of those were 1080p, and most werent 60fps. You got some bad information my friend. The 360 really isnt' strong enough..

Burnout Paradise, Rage, Forza Motorsport 4, looked janky as hell... look at the ground textures.

Mortal Kombat while 60fps, was rendered at 720p natively and upscaled to 1080p. Its not the same thing.

Super Street Fighter IV is not exactly a very demanding game.

GT5 was 60fps, but like burnout paradise, alot of the models were cardboard cut outs instead of full 3D polygons, with some really bad texture work: http://www.videogameszone.de/Gran-Turismo-5-PS3-133781/News/Gran-Turismo-5-Die-haesslichsten-Grafik-Fails-der-Rennsimulation-802252/

I can sit here and shoot a spear through each one of those, but I think you get my point on this. The games running in 60fps on the ps360 weren't very demanding games. Neither the PS360 would be able to handle MK8 without dropping frames into the low 20's. My original point stands that the ps360 couldn't handle any graphically intensive games above 30fps...... PS3's best looking games U3 and TLOU didn't even hit 30fps and much of the time fell all the way to mid 20's.

The systems weren't designed to do much more than that.... and looks like Sony is going to continue the subpar performance with the PS4, not a single exclusive was above 30fps at E3.

Sorry I was mistaken, MK is not 720p in fact it is 576p upscaled to 720p on the x360, and 720p on ps3.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xbox-360-vs-ps3-face-off-round-17-article?page=3

@element187 Well I just googled it. As much as I wanna agree with you the limitation of the amount of ram of the xbox and ps3 is the problem. I am a multi-platformer so it doesn't really matter to me which one is good or not. Some Nintendo games is 60fps but how realistic is the graphics compared to the new console on PS4. As much as I want the Wii U to succeed it isn't really that clear with most of the developers skipping the Wii U. The best graphic I saw on Wii U is Monalith Project X and that can't even beat the graphic that Killzone Shadowfall has which is using only 3GB of ram out of the 8GB that the PS4 has.

In the end, what really matters is the gameplay each console have. Graphics, fps rate should be secondary as long as the game has an awesome gameplay.