We caught a pretty lengthy glimpse of Metro: Last Light at E3 2012 this past June and loved every little bit of what we saw. Today, however, Chief Technical Officer Oles Shishkovtsov at developer 4A Games said the “Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU,” according to NowGamer.
Of course, the launch hype is still very high, so these comments may be used to be getting some attention, but he backs up his claims with some proof. He says that ports of Batman: Arkham City and Mass Effect 3 are less than stellar, and he has a point. Batman has been widely praised for its excellent gameplay but it has also been a letdown as the Wii U-specific controls haven’t turned out to add anything major to the game. And of course Mass Effect 3 has had some pretty major bugs on Wii U since launch.
Shishkovtsov admits that the console is far too early in its lifecycle to make any sort of long-term claim, understanding that developers may need time to adjust to the new development workflow of Wii U and how to fully utilize its potential. This is especially possible considering developers are only now truly unlocking the power of the Xbox 360 as witnessed in games like Halo 4 that look far better than anything else to have graced the console in the last few years.
However, Shishkovtsov does say that 4A Games has completely abandoned the idea of bringing Metro: Last Light to the Wii U, saying:
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, just developing for the Playstation 3 is a significant addition.
So, while we won’t be seeing Metro: Last Light on Wii U at all, it will still be coming to other major platforms. While it would be nice to see the game come to Nintendo’s console, it is clear that, without the sort of rendering power 4A Games thinks it needs, the Wii U just isn’t up to snuff.