Now that the Wii U’s launch games have been announced, we can start to pick apart the more esoteric, or at least anal-retentive aspects of the list. The most important one for me, and one I pointed out a few days ago: the presence of huge-name third-party games. Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Assassin’s Creed III. Darksiders II. All major triple-A games and, crucially, all gamers’ games. The message rings loud and clear: if you’re a core gamer, you’ll probably do alright owning the Wii U.
How perplexing, then, that some gamers are already scoffing at its third-party support. I noticed a few discussions on Twitter regarding the Wii U launch games to the effect that offering widespread third-party support on such an under-supported platform is pointless, like washing your car during a hailstorm. Why, the argument goes, does Nintendo promote playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the Wii U when so many are going to buy it on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? What’s the point of coming out with Darksiders II and Batman: Arkham City so long after their initial release? Who in their right mind is going to make the Wii U their lead platform for Assassin’s Creed III?
This kind of thinking boggles my mind for a number of reasons. I suppose this is just a case of gamers on the internet acting like gamers on the internet, but I suppose it hits me closer to home than other Wii U-related topics. You see, I exclusively owned a GameCube from 2001 to 2006, and perpetually felt the absence of other ambitious third-party games, especially after 2005 when developers started running into trouble fitting games onto the GameCube’s 1.8GB proprietary discs. Granted, most of the big ones made their way to the ‘Cube; all of the Maddens and Splinter Cells and, yes, Call of Dutys all got their due on Nintendo’s li’l lunchbox that could. What it lacked were the fun B-level games, the medium-profile games with more modest expectations—games like Project Snowblind, Darkwatch, and kill.switch, none of which are stone-cold masterpieces but added spice to the rest of the Xbox and PlayStation 2 library.
So when I see gamers decrying EA’s decision to release Mass Effect 3 on its newest piece of hardware, I want to get on a chair and shout, “Are you bloody serious?!” I get the mindset that gamers who haven’t played Mass Effect 3 yet are unlikely to suddenly start the series on the Wii U, or that the sort of gamer who would buy Batman: Arkham City will likely have already done so last year. I don’t agree, though, that it’s not worthwhile to have them available to Wii U gamers in general. A console is only as good as its games, and I think Nintendo getting one of this year’s biggest games, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, is a huge move and a necessary one.
Nintendo is starting to move into the present day with an online platform, widespread third-party support, and a controller that can actually support control schemes found on other consoles (the existence of the Wii U Classic Controller Pro completely eliminates the strain of porting games like on the Wii), and I’m super damn happy about every last acknowledgement towards modern gaming. Come November, I’m going to reward Nintendo’s move towards catching up by buying Darksiders II as one of my launch games. Some of this has to do with THQ’s recent announcement of Darksiders II U’s bonus content, but I want to show both Nintendo and THQ that core gamers will buy their core Wii U games. A small gesture, but one that makes me feel nice, and besides I haven’t played Darksiders II yet.
This period in gaming is one of the least exclusive-driven in recent memory, and if Nintendo wants to catch up, they can’t just rely exclusively on their stable of killer first-party games. Somewhere, someone who owns a Wii U will want a big-time multi-platform game, and it’s up to Nintendo to try to facilitate a Wii U version. I know, because I was once the person longing for a widely-present game for the other two consoles, and it burned me that I couldn’t play them. Nintendo can’t leave the Wii U feeling like a secondary machine, the Other Device occasionally brought out to play Mario and Zelda, and widespread third-party support will bury this notion faster than anything Nintendo could pull out of its trousers. Game consoles need games, and so far Nintendo has done a good job of showing that their new baby will actually get them.
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