Angry Birds Star Wars II Landing Sept. 19

Get excited, mobile gamers. As expected, Rovio and Lucasfilm on Monday morning confirmed they are gearing up to launch a sequel to the mega-popular Angry Birds Star Wars game.

Angry Birds Star Wars II, launching on Sept. 19 in app stores worldwide, will follow the story of the three prequel Star Wars movies, and introduce never-before-seen Angry Birds Star Wars characters, Rovio said. In addition, players for the first time will be able to "join the pork side" and play as one of the evil pigs.

"We are thrilled to be able to introduce the exciting next chapter in the Angry Birds Star Wars saga to our fans around the world," Jami Laes, executive vice president of games at Rovio, said in a statement. "Some of the most amazing character additions are versions of young Anakin, Mace Windu and Darth Maul."

The game also features so-called Telepods technology from Hasbro for another interactive layer of gameplay and content. The technology enables players to select which character they want to use in the app by "teleporting" a physical character into the game.

Gamers can unlock new characters and super powers by placing one of the Telepods physical characters on their phone or tablet's camera and scanning it into the app. More than 30 figures will be available for purchase at launch in September.

"Now fans can enjoy unprecedented and seamless dual play in both physical and digital Angry Birds experiences," Hasbro's chief marketing officer, John Frascotti, said in a statement.

The first Angry Birds Star Wars game, launched in November, has been a huge success for Rovio, receiving more than 100 million downloads since its release. Rovio on Friday hinted that a sequel would be coming soon.

Game developers: Nintendo's Wii U is in a 'disappointment'

Electronic Arts' Peter Moore hints that his company may not bring other games to the Nintendo console.

Nintendo's Wii U is in developer crosshairs after a less-than-stellar start.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published on Monday, Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore confirmed that his company -- one of the largest in the gaming industry -- has no games currently in development for the Wii U.

"We were there with four games for them [at launch]," he said in the interview. "It's been a disappointment when you look at sell-through and, as a company, we have to be very judicious where we deploy our resources."

Nintendo has been loath to admit fully that the Wii U has been a "disappointment." The company has acknowledged that sales are softer than expected, but it believes that first-party titles, including new installments in The Legend of Zelda and Luigi franchises, will turn things around.

Still, it's hard to argue with Moore's sentiment. Over the last several months, Nintendo has been unable to sell 100,000 units in a single month in the U.S. Meanwhile, its elder competitors, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, have been beating it in overall unit sales. And with both Sony and Microsoft preparing new consoles for later this year, even more trouble seems to be on the horizon.

A strong game library has always been the reason consoles sell well. That said, another major game publisher -- Activision -- has nothing planned for the Wii U. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg told GamesIndustry.biz that his company has "no announcements now" about upcoming Wii U games.

Even Ubisoft, which was one of the foremost supporters of the Wii U at launch with ZombiU, is taking a wait-and-see approach. The company's CEO Yves Guillemot said that ZombiU was "not even close" to profitable, causing him to shelve any plans for a follow-up. What's worse for Nintendo, he said that his company is willing to wait and see what happens with the Wii U through December, but if things don't turn around, Ubisoft would need to "see where we are from there."

So, what does the future hold for Nintendo and its Wii U? If publishers continue to ignore the console, nothing good.