Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter apparently told an audience at the Develop conference last week that the only reason Nintendo created the Wii U Pro controller is because of pressure from Activision. While Pachter admits that Activision never said anything to him, it is likely that they told Nintendo that without a conventional controller for the Wii U, they were not planning to release titles for the console.

While it appears that Nintendo may have caved into Activision’s request for a conventional controller, whispers we are hearing suggest that they are not the only publisher/developer to express a similar opinion to Nintendo. It could be that in order to secure the new Call of Duty, while the tablet style controller does offer some very interesting possibilities, many of the mainstream franchises are going to need a conventional controller in order to offer the same game play experience that it offers on other consoles.

It is very clear that Nintendo does not want to miss out on the most popular titles as it did on the Wii; and offering the Wii U Pro controller does give the developer the same options that it has on other consoles, which is likely the best scenario in the short term while developers figure out how to best use the tablet-style controller and integrate it properly into titles. Still, developers that we spoke with tell us that they expect many of the most popular titles to just use the Wii U Pro controller for the Wii U version of the game.

Pachter agrees with nearly every analyst that we have spoken with in regard to the success potential for the Wii U. No one seems to expect Nintendo to repeat the success that it had with the Wii, and things are going to be more difficult this time around. The play that the company is making for the hard core audience is risky, and right now it is looking like a long shot that it will pay off in the short term. Still, it looks to have been key decision by the company in order to attract more players to the Wii U. It is a strategy that only time will tell if it was the right one or not.

Read more from Pachter here.