Need for Speed: Rivals, the newest installment on the Need for Speed franchise, will not be on the Wii U and the PlayStation Vita due to weak sales of Need for Speed: Most Wanted on the platforms,  according to creative director Craig Sullivan.
When asked by Sixaxis why NFS: Rivals was not on the Wii U and Vita when the previous installment was, Sullivan replied, “Honestly, it’s not the kind of stuff that I like talking about in detail, that much. We did a load of extra work on the Wii U version, and we had a lot of guys working on that stuff, you know?
It didn’t really sell that many, in terms of the Wii U market. I would love for it to have, because we put so much effort into that, trust me. I’d love for it to be way bigger than it was, and the same for the Vita.
[Rivals] is going onto new hardware, and you have to work out where you focus your efforts. The 200 people working on this game are only capable of making so much, and doing so many different versions of the game, so we had to go with where we think the biggest audience will be for the game, and that’s where we are.”
NFS: Rivals also features the Frosbite 3 engine, one that EA has indicated that, while possible to use for the Wii U, it is not a high priority for them until the install base increases. According to Criterion, Ghost Games (the developers of NFS: Most Wanted) had used the Chameleon engine, which made the port possible.
NFS: Rivals will launch on November 19 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC and on November 22 for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Published: Oct 22, 2013 03:00 am