| EXTREME OPINION PIECE | ~ Wii U´s Third Party Debacle - Nintendo´s Fault or The Devs?

It´s no secret - Nintendo has never been very good friends with most third-party companies. It seems like there´s always been some excuse as to why third-parties don´t want to bring their games on the Big N´s systems. From since the days of the SNES - that´s been the protocol. So what´s the point of this article, anyway? Well - Nintendo announced at E3 2011 - when they unveiled the Wii U - that this time, things would be different...And for the most part - it has.

Looking back at the 7th-gen, which consisted of the Wii, XBOX 360 and PS3 - Nintendo´s little white box wasn´t loved by many third-parties. Many big titles skipped the system. Why? Well unlike Sony and Microsoft´s systems - the Wii wasn´t capable of outputting HD visuals. The thing was only a few notches more powerful than it´s predecessor - the Gamecube. But despite it´s relatively weak hardware - the Wii did fairly well in third-party sales.

But how could this be? Well, even though the Wii wasn´t getting franchises like Battlefield, Batman, GTA, Saints Row, Crysis, Portal, etc. - it was getting a truckload of minigame compilations and dance games. Franchises like Mario & Sonic, Skylanders, Just Dance, Zumba and others were selling like hotcakes on Nintendo´s system. Was there anything special about these games? No, except for the fact that they reached out to the ´casual´crowd - the Wii´s main audience. So then, what about the hardcore´´ audience? Well - some ´hardcore´games did hit Wii. Rayman Legends, Madworld, Sonic Colors, Mario Galaxy, LoZ: Twilight Princess - Skyward Sword, DK: Country Returns, NEW Super Mario Bros., Xeneoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and  Pandora´s Tower are a few examples of hardcore games that graced the system. Even though some of those that were mentioned are from Nintendo - there´s a good chunk there that stemmed from third-parties.

The problem with the Wii´s hardware, as to why it missed so many of the more complex titles, was because it´s hardware was simply too basic. With the X360 and PS3 leaps and bounds more powerful than the Wii, most developers either watered down their games to the bare bones, or simply ignored it all together.

That - can´t be done with Wii U.

What do I mean by that? Because unlike the Wii, the Wii U´s hardware is much more capable. Yes, you´re probably laughing now. If you had a drink, it´s probably all over your keyboard. If you were eating, then maybe you´re choking now. Regardless, the Wii U does have some serious power to boot. Just think about it. Look at games that many have praised for their visuals on the XBOX 360 and PS3. Games like: Battlefield 3, Crysis 3, The Last of Us and GTA:V come to mind. Now - the Wii U is more powerful than both the PS3 and 360. If developers could squeeze out enough juice from the PS3 & 360 in order to run those games at each of those consoles´ breaking points, after almost a decade of working with them - imagine what devs would now be able to do running a more powerful system. A system, that unlike the two veterans, can actually run titles in FULL 1080p and already has titles that look like this.

With that kind of power under the Wii U´s sails - what excuse do third-parties have, other than "Well it´s not PS4"? Let´s just imagine that Nintendo´s efforts this holiday season pay off and they finally get the Wii U off the ground and selling units. Let´s say sales get really hot and the system finally has a stable and vibrant ´install base´. Then what are third-party devs going to do?

Yes - Nintendo did goof up. They did release the Wii U too early and are now trying to clean it up. But what about the third-parties? Even though the Wii U has just about had the best third-party support of any Nintendo system before it, the launch titles for the system were sub-par. A lot of high-profile titles were there, most of which never even touched a Nintendo system to begin with. And those that did, lacked features or were poorly optimized. Yet so many third-parties decided to turn up their nose afterward. It´s interesting...release a half-baked game, it doesn´t sell and yet you complain? What sense does that make? Is it truly Nintendo`s fault that the Wii U´s third-party output has underperformed - or is it the devs?

Looking on the horizon - things are starting to turn up. Still, the Wii U will be getting some pretty nifty third-party releases this year, in the form of titles like Watch Dogs, Splintercell: Blacklist, CoD: Ghotsts, Assassin`s Creed 4: Black Flag, Rayman Legends and Batman: Arkham Origins. That´s something to cheer about. But - will devs goof up again, or will they actually use the system`s hardware properly?