LogFAQs > #949656570

Metalsonic66 posted...

I still think it's weird that the DS and 3DS got exclusive Zelda games but Wii-U did not

Makes enough sense. The DS and 3DS were each Nintendo's only system at their respective power levels, so any lower-spec handheld games for them would have been exclusive (particularly where PH and ST were designed around the DS' touch screen, for better or worse). Meanwhile, BotW was intended to be exclusive, but between delays pushing it fairly late into the WiiU's lifespan and the WiiU's commercial failure (which would have made it hard to turn a profit on such a higher-budget game), plus the desire to make sure the Switch launched with at least one real killer app, they made the decision to launch it with the Switch as well. If BotW had come together faster instead of being delayed, odds are it would have been a WiiU exclusive.

That does kind of beg the question, though, of whether or not BotW releasing as a WiiU exclusive would have done more to prop up the WiiU's sales and earned it another year of support. I know a non-trivial number of people were waiting for a new Zelda or Metroid before taking the plunge on it, and even the early speculation that BotW was going to be delayed to be a Switch launch title was enough to convince many of them to not bother with the system. Given that the game has sold ~50% more copies than WiiU consoles have sold (19 million vs 13 million), only 1.6 million of those were for the WiiU, and the Switch version actually had a >100% attach rate at one point shortly after launch (as in, more Switch copies had sold than Switch systems), it wouldn't surprise me at all if coming out earlier as an exclusive had spurred another couple million WiiU sales. But then presumably the game would not have been as well-received if they'd compromised its quality to rush it out sooner, so perhaps it wouldn't have made that much if a difference. Hard to say.

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