When Nintendo took the wraps off its next-generation console -- the Wii U -- at E3 last month, it never expected the quick slap it got from investors -- who sent shares plummeting to their lowest levels in years.

"Honestly speaking, the reaction to our presentation and what I heard from people I met and the mood of the convention did not chime at all with what happened in the stock market," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was quoted as saying. "It's very strange."

Strange indeed, since a handful of developers of different strata in the marketplace recently interviewed by Gamasutra had very different takes on the new console that is expected to hit shelves sometime in 2012.

Common to most of their opinions was the fact that not much is known about the hardware other than its name and the fact that it features HD graphics and a built-in 6.2-inch touchscreen tablet-inspired controller.

Not surprisingly, when Gamasutra chatted with the developers recently, it was Ubisoft who expressed the strongest enthusiasm for the Wii U. This is to be expected, as the publisher/developer intends to have five titles ready for play on the console when the hardware launches. Indeed, Ubisoft was the only publisher to show real Wii U games at E3 (including Nintendo, which only brought tech demos).

Ubisoft was also the first third party game publisher to have titles ready for the original Wii when it was released in 2006, and for the Nintendo 3DS portable earlier this year.

"My first reaction to the Wii U wasn't about horsepower or new features, but had to do with my excitement about its gameplay," says Xavier Poix, managing director of all of Ubisoft's studios in France. "And that's something you need some time to think about, so I'm not entirely surprised about the mixed feelings people expressed about the Wii U.

"They just didn't have the time to really understand what's new about the console and what it's really about -- the fact that, with the new touchscreen controller, you are enabling people to have a different tool to play together... you are offering two different playing experiences to two different players at the same time. That is very exciting."

He confirmed Ubisoft's earlier report that its five Wii U titles in development are the third-person shooter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online, Killer Freaks From Outer Space, an unannounced title in the Assassin's Creed franchise, a sports title, plus an addition to Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids series. He wouldn't elaborate further.

Poix suspects that the first Wii U customers will be gamers who are more hardcore than the typical Wii fans "since it is the hardcore gamer who usually wants to experience the newest things," he says, "which is why we aren't hesitating to come up with a first-person shooter game like Killer Freaks that appeals to that sort of player. But the rest of the family and the mobile gamers will follow very quickly after that, once they see what the console can do in the living room, how much it appeals to them, and its price point."