Need for Speed: Rivals will not be released for Wii U or PlayStation Vita due to poor sales of its predecessor on both platforms, creative director Craig Sullivan told The Sixth Axis.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted launched last fall for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows PC and Vita, while the Wii U version launched this past March. Sullivan noted that a lot of time and effort were put into the Wii U game — which developer Criterion called the definitive version — only to have sales fall short of the company's hopes.
"Honestly, it's not the kind of stuff that I like talking about in detail, that much," he said. "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," he added. "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."
Additionally, Ghost Games developed Most Wanted using its Chameleon engine, which made the Wii U port possible. This time the team is developing Rivals using the Frostbite 3 engine, which is currently not available for Wii U and Vita. In the end, Sullivan said it came down to determining the platforms popular among Need for Speed's audience and focusing on them.
"[Rivals] is going onto new hardware, and you have to work out where you focus your efforts," Sullivan said. "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."
Need for Speed: Rivals will launch on Nov. 19 for PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. The PS4 and Xbox One versions will launch on Nov. 22.