Gearbox got Wii U devkits two months before E3

Gearbox got Wii U devkits two months before E3
Neon Kelly Updated on by

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Aliens: Colonial Marines was something of a surprise entry on Nintendo’s montage of upcoming Wii U titles. The game is due for release next spring (on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC), but Gearbox only received the development hardware for Wii U a couple of months before E3, the studio has revealed to VideoGamer.com.

Given that the game has been in production for several years, some might see this as a sign for concern, but development on the Wii U version is going well thanks to the game’s use of the Unreal Engine 3, as producer Brian Burleson explained.

“We didn’t get the hardware for the Wii U until a couple of months ago, and we’ve been working on it since,” Burleson told VideoGamer.com at E3.

“The software, it’s pretty easy to work on, so that makes things a lot easier. When you already have something working, especially on the Unreal Engine, it’s a pretty basic, straightforward port at that point. Unreal makes it easier to do that, for sure.”

As several people have pointed out, the Wii U touch screen would make an excellent Motion Tracker, as seen in James Cameron’s iconic 1986 film.

Burleson refused to be drawn on details of the Wii U game, but added that Gearbox is aiming to produce a similar experience across all supported platforms.

“It’s too early too early to talk about the specifics on that [Wii U functionality], because we’ve just got things working,” he explained. “We’ll talk more about what that’s going to be and what’s going on in the future. But the goal is always to make it… for all the platforms to be the same.

“It really sucks to have a game be nerfed on one platform, or missing a feature on one platform. So the goal is always to make we’re fully-featured, and that everything is the same experience.”

But Burleson expressed confidence in Gearbox’s work on the platform so far.

“It [the game] runs on the console, and you can do some really cool stuff with it. We’ll talk more about that in the future, but just think about the possibilities.”

Neon saw Aliens: Colonial Marines at E3 earlier in June and was quite impressed, despite the inclusion of some odd Alien designs.