Pachter - Pro Controller CoD threat comments were "an educated guess"

Industry analyst Michael Pachter has said his comments regarding Activision forcing Nintendo to create the Wii U Pro Controller were "an educated guess," as he was never told by either firm this was the case.

Speaking with VentureBeat, Pachter said he deduced Activision would withhold releasing Call of Duty on Wii U without a standard controller as his was of "putting two and two together."

"I am putting two and two together to conclude that Activision put pressure on them," he said. "I do not know this either first-hand or third-hand; nobody told me. I am merely deducing it from what we know, and it’s an educated guess.

"If the Pro Controller is for multiplatform games, that means it is for third-party games. Nintendo has never done anything altruistically for third parties, so I concluded that they added the Pro Controller because of pressure from third parties. The pressure could have come from anywhere — EA with sports games, Ubisoft with Assassin’s Creed, or Take-Two with GTA — but it seems to me that the ‘prize’ that would make the Wii U legitimate as a console of choice for multiplatform games is Call of Duty."

Pachter cited a quote from Black Ops II developer and Treyarch head Mark Lamia, who said at E3 it looked as though the Pro Controller was tailored the game.

"He is working on for release this fall, and you can see how I concluded that Activision put pressure on them," Pachter concluded.

Wii U releases this year.