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Ubisoft CEO Squashes Any Lingering Hope for a ‘ZombiU’ Sequel
Following the consistently low sales of their Mature-rated games on the Wii U, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has decided that since a majority of Nintendo fans don’t seem to be too interested in that kind of entertainment, they’re just going to stop making them. This means Watch Dogs, scheduled to arrive later this year, will be the final M-rated game Ubisoft brings to the Wii U. This also means no more ZombiU, though that should come as surprise seeing as Ubisoft confirmed last July that they had scrapped the prototype for a sequel they had in-development.
This disheartening bit of news comes from Game Informer, which recently had the chance to chat with Guillemot regarding their plans for Nintendo’s console. The gist of it is the publisher will be shifting their focus entirely on bringing family-friendly entertainment, like their incredibly popular Just Dance series, to the Wii U from now on.
Their decision to not turn ZombiU into a series makes sense from a business perspective, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. ZombiU is a fantastic game that had the potential to become a strong new horror franchise. It certainly deserved to last longer than it did.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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