The Wii U version of Watch Dogs has been delayed, Ubisoft has confirmed.

The title is still on track to launch on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PC between April and June 2014, with the Wii U version following at a later date.

In a statement provided to VideoGamer.com following the announcement, a Ubisoft spokesperson said:

"We made the difficult decision to further delay the release of Watch Dogs on Wii U to focus the team's resources where they could have the broadest possible benefit for both our customers and Ubisoft".

The delay follows rumours that the Wii U version had been cancelled after pre-orders for the game were cancelled by GameStop Italy and its absence from Nintendo's release schedule.

Source: Ubisoft Q3 FY14 Conference Call

Source

Looking at Ubisofts Q3 results the WII U is just not profitable to them. To me this sounds like it has been quietly cancelled. It also reminds me of this.

If Ubisoft is backing away from you're platform, you're in trouble.

Ruh roh.

"to focus the team's resources where they could have the broadest possible benefit for both our customers and Ubisoft"

Ouch.

I honestly thought that the Wii U version had already been canceled months ago.

huh, didn't know this was coming out on Wii U although it makes sense. AC4 did after all.

"We need to delay Rayman on Wii U so we can launch simultaneously on all platforms for the best interest of our customers."

"We need to delay Watch Dogs on Wii U, but launch simultaneously on all other platforms earlier for the best interest of our customers."

Yup, so did I. I kinda consider the Wii U just an exclusivity box at this point, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.

@taku128: I'm guessing they don't have very many customers on the wii u

Any word on how AC4 sold on Wii U?

@bmccann42: 1% or 2 % of total sales. PS4 + X1 was >30%

@jimmyfenix: Ouch, but not exactly surprising...

Hey it's only delayed and not cancelled for now. That's a win in its own right for Nintendo.

Considering how poorly Blacklist and AC4 done on there (both technically and commercially), I'm just surprised it wasn't cancelled already.

Can't say I'm surprised, but since nobody bought a Wii U but me and I plan about buying Watch Dogs on PC. So that's like zero sales right there, right? Still, that's a bit of a dick move by Ubisoft. Understandable, but still a dick move.

I'm sure the 7 people who pre-ordered this on Wii U will understand. amirite boiz?

Seriously though. It makes financial sense. Make this already delayed game better on the consoles that matter and not deliver another Assassins Creed 3.

This is one of those games I had considered getting a Wii U for. It just seemed like the kind of game that would be really awesome to play on the Wii U. I'll understand if they cancel it but still I'd rather them not. This seems like a kind of game that would really use the Game Pad in an interesting way.

After seeing what has happened with the Wii U, I'm not even surprised anymore.

Assassin's Creed IV shipped on more platforms than ACIII and was a better game. It's not the number of consoles being shipped on that's the issue here. It's Ubisoft's willingness or lack thereof to dedicate resources to a specific version of the game that they had already committed to in relation to the other platform versions that will have much larger amounts of sales. It's still a dick move toward those that may have wanted the game on the Wii U or even preordered that version, but it's at least understandable why they'd do it.

I'm going to pretend that I think that this delay is so they can add meaningful gamepad functionality to the WiiU version. That is way less depressing than the reality of the situation.

But that's fine, I guess. I'll play this on PC and continue to enjoy my Marios and Zeldas and whatever else on WiiU.

I haven't seen sales numbers so I can't argue about commercial success, but they did poorly from a technical standpoint? I didn't play Blacklist at all, but I played the WiiU version of Black Flag start to finish and it worked perfectly well all the way through.

Ditto

I know that. I was saying to not make it another AC3, which means a complete turd of a game (tons of bugs, tons of shitty mechanics, broken gameplay, terrible story, etc.).

And now the wait begins to see if Call Of Duty will come out on WiiU this fall.

I think E3 is going to be really weird this year for nintendo....

There really isn't anything wrong with either game from a technical standpoint. I've put more time into ACIV on Wii U than Splinter Cell, but they're both pretty solid versions of the games.

According to Digital foundry it is the worst version FPS wise Even compared with the PS3 and 360 version.

With performance so far behind every other version of the game, it's hard to recommend the Wii U game at all, despite its image quality matching PS3 and Xbox 360.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-assassins-creed-4-next-gen-face-off

So they did not put much effort in the Wii U version to begin with. In all honestly I would not be surprised if they will cancel the Wii U version completely like others did before. Crysis 3 and Alien just to name two games that got delayed and then canceled.

@darji: Huh. I only played the WiiU version of it, so that is definitely... illuminating. While I don't dispute their methods or their results, I don't agree that it was ever unplayably bad. It was a totally fine, functional version of the game. In any case you are correct that it obviously was technically behind the other versions.

It would be a damn shame if you're right about them canceling WiiU's version of Watch Dogs outright, though. The thing needs more good games, and that definitely seems like it's shaping up to be pretty swell. On the other hand, if it's going to be a significant leap behind every other version of it, maybe we're better off. I don't know.

Eh, don't bother getting into it with Darji. He sees FPS comparisons and will react as though games that are actually pretty playable, like ACIV Wii U, are unsalvageable garbage.

It was never unplayable but looking at these results it is the worst version you can get. If you do not mind these differences it is totally playable that is for sure.

As for Watch Dogs Wii U. During the last weeks there were several rumors about it being canceled so there could be still truth to it. We will see what happens after the other versions will be released It would not surprise me though if they will still cancel it. Honestly does it make even sense after releasing it for PS3/360 PS4/One and PC and then a few month later or so for the Wii U? Who would buy it then?

One step away from being cancelled then, unless this really is for quality assurance purposes which judging the quality of Black Flag's "cinematic" 20-25 fps average on Wii U, Watch Dogs is going to need some serious help to have any kind of hope at running on that console.

they should just can it, no one is going to buy the worst version of the game.

you know, I'm always fascinated with Ubisoft on their marketing research and multiplatform teams. It's not cheap, even during the PS2, Xbox and gamecube days they delivered a quality product.

Delayed Cancelled on Wii U.

Toss my hat in for not knowing Watch Dogs was even coming to Wii U

I'll go one step farther and say that I actually completely forgot the Wii U was even a console.

The fall of this thing is just so depressing in an "I told you so!"-sort of way.

Sucks for the 20k people that were going to buy it on Wii U.