Bethesda not planning for Wii U Titles
Bethesda reportedly has no plans for Wii U titles. The publisher of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series only released one game–Star Trek: Conquest–for Nintendo’s original Wii. Bethesda’s marketing executive Pete Hines has said that the company plans on releasing games for platforms that support them. According to Hines, “So far the Wii hasn’t fitted into that. Whether Wii U does down the road is [to be determined].”
Hines sees a significant amount of life left in the current generation, claiming that developers still have a ways to go in terms of improving visuals, technical capabilities, and storytelling. Hines also put an emphasis on the large install base of the current generation. A large audience is already at the publisher’s fingertips with the Xbox 360 and PS3, but with the next generation of consoles, that audience will have to built again from the ground up.
In Hines’ eyes, this development of a new install base causes issues with splintering audiences:
“Your install base always starts at zero,” he said. “Then it comes out and suddenly a certain number of people buy it but it won’t be the same number as the current gen. So you have divided your audience.”
He also cites the technical issues that come with releasing a title on a next-gen system:
“For me the problems with new consoles are two-fold,” Hines said. “The developers are trying to hit a moving technical target, because the platforms are being built. A new console doesn’t just show up a year before launch and is exactly what it will be when it comes out. It moves and iterates along the way. And introducing something like that to games that are in development is always a bit tricky. And that is obviously an element of risk.”
Bethesda views the arrival of the next generation as an exciting step forward, but one that must be handled with caution.
