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Martin Good, executive VP of THQ’s kids, family and casual games label, isn’t shaken by Nintendo’s newly announced Wii U.
The uDraw series hasn’t been around for a whole year yet, but the capabilities and functions of the Wii U controller could displace THQ’s purpose-built tablet if Nintendo was to release its own software.
Yet Good was unfazed by this fact when asked by CVG if the similarities between the devices annoyed him: Well, no, not really. None of this is a surprise. As you know, we thought of it 18 months ago and released it last season”
We think we’re really on the front for it and well poised to exploit this because we’ve already been playing with the drawing mechanic and we’ve got a lot of game designs in the pipe. It’s only going to get better with that experience.”
He added that THQ never meant to enter the peripheral business.
That other thing that’s really interesting is that THQ never really went about being a peripheral manufacturer – that wasn’t our intent. But we had to do so to exploit this new gameplay opportunity and that broader market.
The fact is we had to create our own peripherals including for 360 and PS3 to be able to play with that audience.”
uDraw is headed to 360 and PS3 this autumn. The franchise could find a new niche on these platforms.
The publisher has staunchly defended it from doubters, calling it ‘a platform, not a fad‘ and saying it has a five-year plan for the device.
THQ unveiled uDraw for at Gamescom last year, and 1.7 million units have been shipped since its worldwide November launch.
