Does the Wii U need GTA?

Grand Theft Auto, arguably the biggest franchise in gaming, makes it's long-awaited return next Spring. The Wii U, which will finally allow Nintendo to have most current third-party offerings on their console without any significant sacrifices and possibly even some improvements since the Wii U is slightly more powerful and of course has the unique Gamepad controller. We are already seeing early benefits of this with major third-party offerings coming out at launch like Black Ops II, Darksiders II and in the future with highly anticipated games like Injustice & Aliens: Colonial Marines. But Nintendo owners won't be getting all of the big titles. Bioshock Infinity for example, arguably the most anticipated multi-platform game of early 2013, is not currently slated for a Wii U release. Now it's heavily rumored that a Wii U version is in the works, but If it's 6 or more months down the line, that's not really offering an experience on par with the other consoles. Whether or not the Wii U will get ports of games that are on the Xbox 720/PS4 (or whatever those will be called) is in question. But since we probably won't even see those systems til 2014, the important thing for now is that owners aren't missing out on current third-party offerings, especially those must-have titles that have such a huge and loyal following. This is the first time it seems like there is a real shot at getting a GTA release on a Nintendo home console since Nintendo seems to be really making an effort at having third-parties on board this time. Granted, GTA V was just recently announced, but it's definitely coming out on PS3 and 360, with no announcement one way or the other for Wii U as of yet. If Nintendo really wants to prove viable to the core audience, they need to have releases like this on their system as well, and in a timely manner too. No one is going to be pleased to get a port when everyone has already moved on to the next big multi-platform release. Getting GTA on the system would speak volumes. They manged to get the two biggest holiday releases-Assassin's Creed III & Black Ops II for launch, which is a good start, but they need to keep it up as that will be the best way to get a good head start on whatever Sony & Microsoft are planning next. That's it for today, I will try and have a post up this weekend about the Wii U launch itself, possibly on Sunday so I can at least give impressions of the launch games I pick up (which as of right now are Nintendoland, New Super Mario Bros U, Darksiders II and probably one more, most likely Epic Mickey 2 based on the awesome demo). Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: The Water Knight Game