Metro: Last Light developer calls the Wii U CPU "horrible, slow"
Developing for Wii U would have been "potentially to its detriment."
Awhile back Metro: Last Light publisher THQ said it would not develop the first-person shooter for Wii U, despite it appearing on Nintendo's platform during a demo reel. At the time, THQ said it was because the publisher wanted to "focus on what we knew," i.e. PS3, 360 and PC.
Many surmised that this was a money saving tactic for the financially burdened publisher, and while that may have something to do with it, developer 4A Games recently noted that the Wii U abortion was due to a technical limitation of the hardware.
“[The] Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU,” said chief technical officer Oles Shishkovtsov in an interview with NowGamer.
4A Games' Huw Beynon added, “We had an early look at it, we thought we could probably do it, but in terms of the impact we would make on the overall quality of the game - potentially to its detriment - we just figured it wasn't worth pursuing at this time. It's something we might return to. I really couldn't make any promises, though.”
“We had an initial look at the Wii U, but given the size of the team and compared to where we were last time [developing for PC and Xbox 360], just developing for the PlayStation 3 is a significant addition.”