Tomb Raider isn’t coming to the Wii U

Tomb Raider Logo

The new Tomb Raider game that is coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this year won’t make it to the Wii U. When Crystal Dynamics (the studio developing the game) was asked about it, they had this to say:

When we started developing the game we made a conscious decision that it was all about building the game for a platform and making sure the game was specific to that platform. Given that we’ve been working on the game quite a while before Wii U was announced I think it would not be right to try and port it across. If we started building a game for the Wii U we would build it very differently and we would build it with unique functionality.

While it’s a little saddening that the Wii U will miss out on a AAA multiplatform title, it’s refreshing to hear that Crystal Dynamics don’t want to settle for a heartless direct port.

On the other hand, the Wii U can support “traditional” games just as well as those that use the new controller’s touchscreen, so a direct port wouldn’t be all that difficult to produce and would simply open up the game to a larger audience. One might as well make the argument that the game was “ported” directly from the Xbox 360 to the PlayStation 3 with nothing that takes advantage of the PlayStation 3’s larger discs.

What do you think?

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Comments, Reactions, and General Hooliganism

  1. I think you made the right points. It’s good that they don’t want to just do a mere port, but at the same time, the Wii U still could use its support. They don’t have to do a port for the Wii U–they could announce and work on an enhanced version for Wii U a little later. But hey, maybe they’ll develop something specially-made for the Wii U now.