THQ won't give up on Wii
Rewards still there for third-parties.
There's still plenty of life left in the Wii software market for third-party publishers, reckons THQ CEO Brian Farrell.
"Do we see big growth prospects on a platform that's been out for so long? No. But are there opportunities? Absolutely," he told MCV.
"Sometimes you have to take a step back. This time last year hardware numbers on Wii weren't good and people were saying it was dead. But then holiday arrived and sales shot up. Consumers still know about Wii, it's still good value, it's still a mass-market product. I love it when competitors say they're going to de-emphasise it. There's still a huge Wii market – over 70 million users worldwide."
Farrell went on to discuss THQ's next Wii venture, the recently announced uDraw tablet. "I've been in the industry a long time, and I've never seen a reaction to the product like this be so universal. Retail loved it and said, 'Oh, Nintendo should have done this'. This is exactly the reception we wanted.
"I challenged the team because a couple of years ago, when Guitar Hero was doing so well, people were saying 'peripherals, this is where the business is going'. So I asked the team what sort of peripheral makes sense from an entertainment standpoint? I did not want Violin Hero. And when this idea came up, I realised this was it. Drawing is as universal as music, right?"
Farrell will find out soon enough – uDraw goes on sale in early 2011 alongside three launch games: uDraw Studio, Pictionary and Dood's Big Adventure.