As they say on the Iron Islands: What is dead may never die. Unfortunately in the realm of reality, though, it seems ZombiU’s chances of survival have flat lined indefinitely. Having launched in tandem with Nintendo’s Wii U, the survival horror game has struggled with a limited install base, and despite rumours of a potential sequel only a couple of months back, it’s been confirmed that Ubisoft have no intention to delve further into post-apocalyptic London.
In an interview with GamesIndustry International, Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot sat down to talk candidly about their standpoint on ZombiU. The company’s CEO spoke of how the game failed to meet internal sales targets, adding that it was “not even close” to matching development costs and “there are no plans – or even desire – for a sequel.”
This news risks setting a bad precedent for potential Wii U developers, given the unique nature of Ubisoft’s first-person zombie adventure. Also, despite the fact that the ZomibU bundle accounted for 30% of Wii U launch sales in the UK, the game still failed to strike a chord with the majority of critics despite carving out its own niche, bloodthirsty fanbase.
Nintendo’s next-gen console has suffered its fair share of setbacks in recent times, and Guillemot even went so far as to lay the blame for Rayman Legend’s multiplatform alteration on ZombiU’s lacklustre release. Here’s what he had to say about the console’s current status.
“We must find a way to ensure the creativity of those games could have a big enough audience. We hope it will take off. At the moment, we’ve said ‘let’s do through Christmas and see where we are from there.'”
Being a launch title, ZombiU placed an emphasis on integrating the Wii U’s multitude of interactive features – including the GamePad’s Gyroscope and the novel scanning feature – which, for the most part, reinforced the gameplay’s survival slant. However, a mixed reviews bag and a series of game-breaking bugs seemed to hinder ZombiU’s already slim chances of success.
Are you disappointed by the news? Do you feel that the fate of ZombiU epitomises the Wii U’s fledging success? Give us your thoughts below.