THQ uDraw GameTablet 'doing very well,' software lined up through 2012
As Kinect and Move continue to make headlines as the season's hottest hardware, THQ is quietly enjoying the apparent success of its uDraw GameTablet, which launched November 14 for Wii. Early indications from the company suggest the kid-targeted device is selling well at retail (for around $70), as one tongue-in-cheek tweet from VP Danny Bilson hinted.
Without sharing specific sales figures, Wayne Cline, director of product development for THQ's Kids, Family and Casual division, got a bit more specific about uDraw's performance. "Our early reports are looking very promising, and I know we're doing very well at Walmart, Best Buy and Toys R Us -- outlets like that," he told Joystiq. "And we're getting really good first-look feedback from a lot of things like parenting magazines and such. It's looking very positive." But how long will that last?
%Gallery-99627%
Many Wii owners' living rooms are cluttered with the remains of a variety of plastic doodads and devices with little-to-no software support to keep them running. Not even Nintendo has backed its wacky, first-party peripherals -- remember Wii Speak or the Zapper? It's too early to tell whether uDraw is doomed to the same fate, but Cline was adamant that THQ would support the device with a steady flow of software.
"We got a SKU plan going on through 2012 calendar," Cline revealed, suggesting that uDraw will be treated as a platform by THQ and not just an experience dedicated to a single game or even genre. Right now, there are only three games available for the device: Pictionary and the bundled uDraw Studio are both drawing games, while platformer Dood's Big Adventure stretches the boundaries of the tablet and shows there's potential for software beyond just drawing stuff.
Cline confirmed more uDraw software would be coming next year, though he wouldn't provide a specific time frame. "Our next batch of software we'll be releasing in 2011," he offered, intimating that we might see uDraw games be released in bursts. "We haven't announced anything yet," he added, "but rest assured we don't intend this to be a one-holiday, one-trick pony."
