14 DAY TRIAL // Ghost Games, the developer of the upcoming Need for Speed: Rivals has confirmed that the game won't launch on the Wii U or PS Vita due to the low sales experienced by the previous NFS: Most Wanted on those platforms.
Need for Speed: Rivals promises to deliver the next evolution of EA's long running racing series, with a newfound emphasis on customization and the fight between cops and racers.
The new game will appear in November for a variety of platforms, ranging from the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Two notable exceptions are the Nintendo Wii U and PlayStation Vita but, according to Game Director Craig Sullivan, the decision was based on the performance of NFS: Most Wanted.
"Honestly, it’s not the kind of stuff that I like talking about in detail, that much," he told TSA. "We did a load of extra work on the Wii U version, and we had a lot of guys working on that stuff, you know? It didn’t really sell that many, in terms of the Wii U market. I would love for it to have, because we put so much effort into that, trust me. I’d love for it to be way bigger than it was, and the same for the Vita."
Lots of different upgrades were made for Most Wanted on the Wii U but, in the end, its sales didn't exactly impress.
This poor performance and the limited size of the Ghost Games staff meant that tough decisions had to be made.
"[Rivals] is going onto new hardware, and you have to work out where you focus your efforts. The 200 people working on this game are only capable of making so much, and doing so many different versions of the game, so we had to go with where we think the biggest audience will be for the game, and that’s where we are."
Electronic Arts as a whole is currently ignoring the Wii U, confirming some time ago that it has no actual game in development for this platform.