Report: Nintendo pulled devs’ Wii U demos at E3

Nintendo axed a number Wii U demos at E3 due to concerns that they would fail to impress, a new report suggests.

Games consultancy group Hit Detection claims in a white paper that external developers had created Wii U game demos with “underclocked development kits” for this year’s E3.

These developers “worked hard to deliver titles running on that hardware to demonstrate live at E3”, the paper read.

“However, due to titles not looking much better than what is currently available on Xbox 360 and the PS3, Nintendo decided late in the game to not show those titles and focus instead on tech demos.”

Hit Detection’s white paper, which Develop has obtained a copy of, is the first documentation of Nintendo’s alleged decision to pull third-party games from the E3 show floor.

Games built with the Unreal Engine, such as the next Batman and Darksiders titles, were initially scheduled for presentation at E3.

“THQ said Darksiders 2 was running on development hardware and could have been shown”, Hit Detection claimed.

The full technological potential of Nintendo’s next-generation system is a matter of debate.

Several sources speaking anonymously to Develop say the hardware specifics are yet to be finalised.

Unreal Engine and CryEngine 3 are said to be supported on the console, primarily due to the Wii U allowing for programmable shaders.