Rayman Legends Delay Spells Frustration For Wii U Owners

The most upsetting piece of news, Thursday, came as not so much a shock to devoted Wii U owners but more like a slap to the face.  Ubisoft announced that the much anticipated Wii U exclusive Rayman Legends would also be available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.  The sequel to the critically acclaimed, surprise hit of 2011 would now garner a much more widespread audience; something fans of Rayman Origins had complained about since Ubisoft's initial announcement that Legends would be a Wii U exclusive. The shocker comes from the news that Legends would be delayed until September because of the title becoming multiplatform.

The February 7th announcement came just three weeks shy of the expected February 26th release date. Now, Wii U owners will have to wait an additional seven months to get their hands on the game. Rayman Legends was originally announced as a launch title for the Wii U back in November 18th but was delayed until the first quarter of 2013. The fans waited the extra three months only to be hit with the news that they must wait another seven. 

Fans began questioning whether the delay for the Wii U version is necessary when the game was set to release in a couple of weeks. Was it because Legends wasn't yet ready or is it because they planned to make it a multiplat?  Ubisoft then issued a statement:

“There are no issues with the game development. All of the information was in the press release, the only reason for the delay is to release on multiple platforms.”

“We usually release all of our platforms simultaneously (aside from PC). We’ve made special exception sometimes in the past but it’s definitely just on a case by case basis and not our standard practice.

“In this case, Ubisoft recently decided they wanted to release the game on multiple platforms so the decision was made to launch them all at the same time rather than separately.

“I know it’s not an elaborate, ‘convincing’ answer, but it’s the simple truth.” -Sarah Irvin, Ubisoft public relations specialist

It seemed clear that Wii U owners would have to wait longer for their game drought to end as the console has not had a major title release since launch. With the recent news of Tecmo making Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge go multiplatform as well, has been frustrating for Wii U owners and spells trouble for the console as a whole.


Within hours, Uplay's Miiverse community along with Twitter lit up with complaints of fans threatening to cancel their preorders due to the extended wait.  Analysts suggest Nintendo should be worried about the console's future.

Rayman legends getting delayed and multiplatted is not a good sign for wii u.
— Arthur Gies (@aegies) February 7, 2013

Wii U owners can, however, look forward to Nintendo's plans for games when e3 rolls around along with the fact that Platinum Games' still has not yet made Bayonetta 2 a multiplatform game, but with the recent bits of news, anything may happen.