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Will Lego City Undercover remain WiiU exclusive?

V

Visualante2

Member
Boring preface:
For those who don't know Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment own Traveller's Tales Games. Who are the developer of Lego Games since 2005. Including the Nintendo published game Lego City Undercover slated for release on WiiU next month.

I want to find out a little more about the relationship between WBIE, their previous partners and Nintendo. It appears to be fairly unknown how this publishing deal came to fruition and a lot of people remain confident that Lego City Undercover is a WiiU exclusive, rather than timed exclusive. Are there any previous examples? I'm reminded of the Fatal Frame game on Wii.

Even after WBIE's acquisition of TT Games in 2007 LucasArts published Lego Star Wars games so it's not exactly new territory for WBIE to step aside, an explanation for this could simply be that there was an existing deal with LucasArts and TT Games which would be honoured after the acquisition. But Lego City Undercover is a new game.

The first question that springs to mind is, why would WBIE not publish the title themselves? They have had huge success with other Lego Games, and publishing big titles like Batman Arkham City. The Lego Game franchise overall has sold over 50 million worldwide as of 2010. When Lego City Undercover releases in March we're probably going to only have 3-4 million WiiUs in the wild, a lot of money is potentially being left on the table. There has to be some sort of money hat involved? Not to rub salt in people's wounds after Rayman but it is a pretty big question mark. Ultimately TT Games are a finite resource, they could be used to be working on any number of licensed Warner properties. It's more than a little strange.

Even if Lego City Undercover game has limited appeal by virtue of not being tied to a Disney or Star Wars property (thus reducing the cost) this still appears to be a fairly expensive game, and Nintendo will still have to pay licensing fees to the Lego Company.

To my understanding the Lego Games sold very well on Wii (better than anywhere else?) so perhaps WBIE wants to test the water on Wii just like Disney did with Epic Mickey, and Nintendo simply stepped in. Thoughts/discrediting attacks?

stealth port begging thread?
 
D

deviljho

Member
iqUNtBZfFRofS.gif
 
T

Tucah

you speak so well
It could but it really wouldn't be a surprise if it was ported somewhere down the road.
 
P

Penguin

Member
Of course not!
There's the 3DS version the following month! :p

As for other consoles, everything seems to be pointing towards Nintendo pushing this as a 1st/2nd party title including helping with the funding of development. I think there's a very low chance of this happening
 
Z

zroid

Banned
I don't really know the extent of Nintendo's involvement in developing/publishing the game(s), so I can't say. I actually was unaware TT Games was owned by WBIE so till now I've been under the impression the game(s) were fully commissioned by Nintendo.
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
I think the only way you can guarantee a third-party exclusive these days is for it to be published by the console maker. The temptation to jump ship is just too high to ignore after a point. You need to lock that game down as soon as possible, and ensure it cannot exist elsewhere.
 
T

Trevelyon

Member
is anyone really clamoring for it on other platforms?

Wii-U can keep it, GTAV will likely be dominating my open-world hours.
 
M

miksar

Member
It is possible, but less likely than Rayman Legends. Nintendo seems to be heavily involved in the project, highlighting it during most conferences and Nintendo Directs.
 
D

DeuceGamer

Member
Who knows??? It may end up on another system at some point but I would expect it to be down the road when it's not nearly as relevant.
 
T

teiresias

Member
Depends on how big a piece of the pie of that massive 34k software sales number the developer thinks they can grab.
 
F

friskykillface

Banned
No.

It'll be a timed exclusive I bet since all the other Lego games have been multiplat in the past.

Just don't delay it guys, I want to play it, I'm hyped for the Wii u version
 
S

Samurai-Don

Banned
It largely depends on whether Nintendo is funding the game development or just publishing the game. If they are funding the game then it will be the same deal with Bayonetta 2 and the game will remain a Wii U and 3DS exclusive no matter what, if however Nintendo is just publishing it then it's likely that it will get ported over once the exclusive period expires.

However do keep in mind that the Lego City Undercover is going to have Nintendo references in the game, so if it get ports they will have to be changed or removed which can changed the game appeal depending on how heavy they go with the Nintendo references.

Kyou said:
Will Nintendoland stay exclusive?!
Click to expand...

Nope it will get ported to the Ouya.

deviljho said:
iqUNtBZfFRofS.gif
Click to expand...

Awwww she's so cute!
 
M

Mihael Mello Keehl

Banned
Samurai-Don said:
It largely depends on whether Nintendo is funding the game development or just publishing the game. If they are funding the game then it will be the same deal with Bayonetta 2 and the game will remain a Wii U and 3DS exclusive no matter what, if however Nintendo is just publishing it then it's likely that it will get ported over once the exclusive period expires.

However do keep in mind that the Lego City Undercover is going to have Nintendo references in the game, so if it get ports they will have to be changed or removed which can changed the game appeal depending on how heavy they go with the Nintendo references.



Awwww she's so cute!
Click to expand...
She really is I love that gif forever
 
V

Visualante2

Member
bobbychalkers said:
They only published that ouside of Japan. This is all Nintendo.
Click to expand...
How do you even know though? Are Nintendo paying TT Games rent and staff costs? Or are they just paying WBIE a money hat. For all we know it could be some EA Partners like relationship where Nintendo handles distribution and marketing. I couldn't find a single press release explaining the relationship between WBIE and Nintendo.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
I guess it depends on just how involved Nintendo has been with the game. If it's a situation like Bayonetta 2 where they're funding the whole thing, then yes, it's extremely unlikely that it will hit another platform any time soon. Since we don't know that, it's hard to say.
 
D

deviljho

Member
People see that this game is nice and now want to play it.. but don't want to buy a Wii U... lol

Besides, the game is designed around the Wii U hardware. Porting will be more difficult than simply taking out sections in Rayman Legends.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
There are Nintendo references in the game and a major part of it has you using an in-game Wii U game pad. This game is never leaving Nintendo systems.
 
Schnozberry

Schnozberry

Member
deviljho said:
People see that this game is nice and now want to play it.. but don't want to buy a Wii U... lol

Besides, the game is designed around the Wii U hardware. Porting will be more difficult than simply taking out sections in Rayman Legends.
Click to expand...

It's also published by Nintendo, so unless Warner Brothers wants to pony up the cash for other platforms, it'll likely stay exclusive to Nintendo platforms.
 
S

Sean

Banned
Captain Smoker said:
Nintendo pays for the entire project and they're the only publisher. So, it will remain a Wii U/3DS exclusive.
Click to expand...

Wasn't this was the same setup for Ninja Gaiden 2 with Microsoft? Then pretty much exactly a year later there was Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for PS3.

I'm sure there's some kind of loophole in the contract where they could port it by adding/altering a little bit of content and changing the title (Lego City Police?) to sell it as a new game.
 
H

Hero of Legend

Member
I think Nintendo truly is footing the bill for this, it was the ONLY game announced at the conference at E3 2011, Ghost Recon Online *cricket chirps* and Killer Freaks (ZombiU) was announced at the roundtable the following day.

NG3:RE was published by them only outside JP.

And I had a HUGE realization last night about how they were able to lose that but not Samurai Warriors 3.

They paid for the localization in that, this happened to Tales of Symphonia as well, NG3 was already localized so Tecmo/Nintendo just reused that.
 
C

ColdBlooder

Banned
With Nintendo hyping this game up on every occasion , i think they seem to be very involved in the development process. Its very unlikely for it to go anywhere. Oh and theres a 3ds version wich happeneds to be a different game.

Maybe the whole "Lego City videogame franchise" stays Nintendo exclusive sicne its propably alot cheaper than snagging a Lego Movie IP game exclusive...
 
M

MrT-Tar

Member
Hero of Legend said:
And I had a HUGE realization last night about how they were able to lose that but not Samurai Warriors 3.
Click to expand...

But Samurai Warriors 3 did go multiplatform, it saw an enhanced version on the PS3. However, there is a good chance that Nintendo's localisation and publishing of the game outside of Japan, meant that the PS3 port never saw a Western release.
 
F

farnham

Banned
no it will appear on 360 alongside mario galaxy 360 (developed by rare) and also on ps3 alongside zelda sony edition (developed by crytek austin)
 
Porcile

Porcile

Member
Similar situation to Factor 5 and Rogue Leader back in the Gamecube days?

I've always got the the impression that Nintendo has presented this game as one of their own. It'll be interesting to see what happens later down the line.
 
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