Why Lego: LOTR skipped Wii U

Lego: Lord of the Rings shipped last month for nearly every platform under the sun. It is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation Vita, PC, DS, and 3DS. However, the children's-themed Lord of the Rings game is not available for the Wii U.

Fans of both J.R.R. Tolkien's fiction and Nintendo's new dual-screen gaming system may be wondering why the game skipped the Mario maker's first high-definition console. The answer, according to a Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment representative, is simple.

"The primary reason is that [Traveller's Tales] and Lego were already working on Lego City Undercover for Wii U," the representative said.

Nintendo director of product marketing Bill Trinen said in September that the company has been working with Lego on Lego City Undercover for "quite a while," noting that it wanted to have a Lego game for the Wii U launch. Though Lego City Undercover is not yet available, it is due out during Nintendo's "launch window" period, which spans November 18, 2012-March 31, 2013.

For more on Lego: Lord of the Rings, check out GameSpot's review.