Wii U release delayed to be brought to 360, PS3

It takes a lot to get me even the tiniest bit peeved. But dear Geek Critique ... ians? It finally happened. I am PEEVED.

“Rayman Legends” is the next game in the long-running Rayman franchise, which had its roots way back on the PlayStation in 1996. Its original 2D platforming elements were re-imagined beautifully for 2010’s  “Rayman Origins,” an absolute joy of a game and one of the best platformers of the past 15 years.

The sequel to that game, “Rayman Legends” was supposed to be a launch title for the Wii U back in November, but it got pushed to Feb. 26 to give the developers time to finish it. If you’ve played a Wii U demo unit, you’ve probably played “Legends.” It was built for the Wii U, and takes advantage of its unique elements really well.

Given what a blast that demo is, it’s understandable how much I was looking forward to Feb. 26.

Until Thursday, when Ubisoft (the game’s publisher) announced that “Legends” would be delayed again.

Until September.

Now, if this was in any way meant to make the game better, I would be disappointed, but ultimately OK with it. But that’s not why they’re doing it.

“Rayman Legends” is finished. Ubisoft is delaying it for the sole purpose of porting the completed game to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and launching it for all platforms simultaneously.

Under the alias of Zeta69, a developer of the game posted on the Spanish-language EQL forum. A translation was posted on NeoGAF:
“If you’re pissed, imagine how we feel,” he said.

He elaborated that the team had been putting in a lot of sleepless nights and overtime to get the game ready for February.

“For us, this means we’ve spent six months barely seeing our wives, kids and friends for nothing because, after all, such haste wasn’t needed. Believe me, it was hell to swallow this news.”

Look, I don’t care that Ubisoft is releasing “Legends” on PS3 and 360. I’m actually really hoping to see a PC port as well.

But do you remember last week when I was talking about killer apps?
“Rayman Legends” could, for a lot of people, serve as a killer app for the Wii U. Especially considering how starved the new console is for games right now.

But to announce, a mere three weeks before it was supposed to come out, a delay of SEVEN MONTHS?
By knocking it back to September, “Legends” will have to compete with the likes of “Bioshock Infinite” and  “Grand Theft Auto V” on the PS3 and 360, and with Nintendo’s own first-party titles like “The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD.”

I don’t see why Ubisoft doesn’t just release “Rayman Legends” for the Wii U now, when its players terribly crave it, and go ahead and release its ports this fall. What would be wrong with that?
Nonetheless, I’ll still look forward to finally playing it in September. Finally.

Zeta69 responded to some people who were discussing boycotting the game, or even pirating it, due to the delay.

“This is not a decision taken by the development team,”  he said. “This comes from really, really high up, so please don’t pick on the game.

“Rayman Legends is an excellent game and will still be, and the team that made it doesn’t deserve to have your back turned on them just because some men in ties made the wrong choice.”