Speedy sales

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has passed judgement on the Wii U's future in an interview with CVG, stating that the Japanese firm needs to get more machines into homes if it wants to remain a key player in the market.

Guillemot — whose company has supported the Wii U perhaps better than any other third party publisher — claims that a price drop is the most effective way of achieving this aim:

With Mario Kart, Wii U made one step and we expect with Smash Bros. it will also do more. If Nintendo put the right price on the machine then they will probably have a chance to do further.

Ubisoft has key franchises coming to the Wii U this year, as well as an unannounced game which it is holding back until the Wii U's market share is larger.

During the interview, Guillemot outlined his company's plans for the rest of 2014, spelling out very clearly that Nintendo needs to ensure its console continues to sell at a high volume in order to attract support not only from Ubisoft, but other publishers:

We are coming with Watch Dogs and Just Dance this year. We also have another game on the shelves that we expect to come at some point when there will be more machines. That game is waiting for more machines to be available. We are also waiting for them to achieve more sales so that we can invest more. Because the problem we have with next-gen now here, is that we are seeing less games that are on next-gen and last-gen consoles. Nintendo has to perform this year, otherwise they will have less games. Justifying investing in the machine needs a larger install base.

Mario Kart 8 has provided a significant boost to the console, selling 1.2 million copies sold in its opening weekend and increasing hardware sales by over 90 percent.

[source computerandvideogames.com]