The Wii U seems to be bleeding exclusives lately: earlier this week there was Ninja Gaiden 3, now Rayman Legends has decided to jump ship and go multiplatform.
Rayman Legends was originally slated to hit the Wii U just weeks from now on February 26th, but the game has now been delayed until September and will now see a simultaneous release across all the current HD consoles.
Rayman Legends was unveiled at last year’s E3 and was considered by many attendees (myself included,) to be the best Wii U game at the show; the game was designed around the Wii U’s tablet controller, and it did a far better job of showing off the unique capabilities of Nintendo’s new system than any of Nintendo’s own first-party developed titles. While I doubt Rayman was going to be a system-seller, the Wii U is hurting for some quality third party exclusives, and I have to wonder if Ubisoft’s decision to take the game multiplatform had something to do with the Wii U’s sale performance so far.
With that said, I am kind of curious how Rayman Legends is going to work on the PS3 and 360: the game makes extensive use of the Wii U’s touch screen and tilt sensors, and I’m not sure how Ubisoft is going to port those mechanics over to the more traditional PS3 and 360 controllers. Still, Rayman Origins was a great game, and giving a bigger audience access to its sequel is definitely a good thing.