Wii games are still being made in 2019 because people are using it

Ubisoft announced the latest Just Dance title, Just Dance 2020, at E3 2019. The trailer and announcement were good fun, with all the celebration you’d expect from the series, but the most striking thing might have been the Wii logo included with the rest of the platforms. Why would Ubisoft bring such a popular game to a system that is all but dead?

Users on Reddit and Twitter quickly latched onto the idea that Ubisoft was bringing Just Dance 2020 to the Wii so that senior citizens and hospital patients in rehabilitation could play it.

This post on Reddit was upvoted over 4,300 times:

Then there was this twitter post, which also went viral:

Neither explanations are correct, however. “It would be inaccurate to say that Just Dance is available on the Wii solely because it’s developed for physical therapy purposes,” an Ubisoft representative told Polygon. “Just Dance 2020 is coming to the Wii because our audience wants it.”

Who is playing Just Dance on Nintendo Wii these days?

I asked the representative if they had an idea what the demographics of the game’s audience are. “A lot of our players are children and families who continue to play on Wii,” they told Polygon.

The explanation really is that simple: There is demand for Just Dance on the Wii, and Ubisoft is happy to meet it.

The social media posts from fans weren’t far off the mark, though. We were told that Ubisoft has “donated consoles and Just Dance games over the years to children’s hospitals where they use the game with patients to help with movement, exercise, rehabilitation and just for fun, bringing a smile to their faces.”

So the game is used in those contexts, that’s just not the primary reason the game is being ported to Wii.

Just Dance 2020 will be coming to Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Google Stadia, Xbox One, and yes, Nintendo Wii on Nov. 5, 2019.