Nintendo has "to do what Sony and Microsoft have been doing" with new consoles - Bethesda boss

Straight-shooting Bethesda executive Pete Hines has said that Nintendo didn't get third-parties involved with the Wii U early enough, as Microsoft and Sony did with their own consoles.

In an episode of GameTrailers' Bonus Round transcribed by Gimme Gimme Games, Hines addressed the question of why third-parties like Bethesda haven't thrown their support behind the Wii U.

"The time for convincing publishers and developers to support Wii U has long past. The box is out," he said.

"You have to do what Sony and Microsoft have been doing with us for a long time and it’s not that every time we met with them we got all the answers we wanted.

"But they involved us very early on, and talking to folks like Bethesda and Gearbox, they say ‘here’s what we’re doing, here’s what we’re planning, here’s how we think it’s going to work’ to hear what we thought – from our tech guys and from an experience standpoint."

Hines said platform holders need to "spend an unbelievable amount of time upfront" talking with developers so that a given piece of hardware meets the needs of content producers - or they just won't be interested.

"If you’re just going sort off deciding ‘we’re going to make a box and this is how it works and you should make games for it.’ Well, no. No is my answer," he said.

"I’m going to focus on other ones that better support what it is we’re trying to do. So you’ve gotta spend more time trying to reach out to those folks before you even make the box, when you’re still designing and thinking about how it’s going to work."

Bethesda has said repeatedly that it currently has no plans to develop games for the Wii U. Hines said recently that the company's reluctance to engage with the console is "largely a hardware thing".

Both Microsoft andSony have drawn praise from various developers, first and third-party, for consulting with them prior to moving forward with the PS4 and Xbox One, both of which are due in November. Bethesda has games lined up for both systems, including The Evil Within and Wolfenstein: The New Order, as well as The Elder Scrolls Online, which is not coming to current-gen consoles at all.

Thanks, Lengendaryboss.