Nintendo might not be ready to ditch their family-friendly image, but they certainly would like to tap into the lucrative mature-game market. (Lucrative as in the top-selling game of 2010 was Call of Duty: Black Ops, a shooter, with over 18 million units sold.) Reluctant to actually make violent titles themselves, the company is turning to French developer Ubisoft for help attracting older, bloodthirsty crowds to its upcoming Wii U console. Though the joint roundtable discussion the game makers held during last week’s E3 trade show was supposed to focus on some of the new ways developers could utilize the Wii U’s tablet controller, the subtext was all about how Nintendo is taking M-rated games more serious this time around. I say this for two reasons:

1. All of Nintendo’s top brass were present while Ubisoft showed off its violent content. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata started the event by touching on why they were hosting a press event to highlight a third-party developer (a first during his time at the top) and then proceeded to introduce Ubisoft C.E.O. Yves Guillemot. Together, they touted the companies’ valuable partnership as Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime and venerable game designer Shigeru Miyamoto sat in attendance in the first couple rows. What this all amounted to was a considerable endorsement of the types of mature games Ubisoft is working on exclusively for the Wii U.

Those of us in attendance saw a preview of the squad-based shooter Ghost Recon Online and the humorous sci-fi shooter (with real-time-strategy elements) Killer Freaks from Outer Space. Aside from the novel implementations of the Wii U controller, GRO looks to have the run-and-gun gameplay typical of the genre. More interesting was Killer Freaks, which featured a magnum-toting redneck blowing holes into cute carnivorous creatures. At one point, the gunslinger walked in on two of the critters as they engaged in some light S&M spanking. At this point, sitting relatively close to Miyamoto, I got that “is it OK to laugh at this?” vibe that I used to get as a kid when watching R-rated movies with my parents. But apparently it is, otherwise they wouldn’t be there.

2. Ubisoft only wanted to preview its mature upcoming titles. They bragged that they had five games in the works but only showed off three: Ghost Recon Online, Killer Freaks from Outer Space, and an untitled installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The two they left out were an unannounced game and a new Raving Rabbids. One could argue that Ubisoft only wanted to demo what they had ready, but if that was the case, why did they even mention Assassin’s Creed? They showed one slide that listed a few brainstormed ideas of how the developer could possibly use the Wii U tablet (interactive database, fast weapon selection, alternate puzzles, etc.) but didn’t offer any real substance whatsoever.

The company didn’t even want to talk about what kind of Assassin’s Creed game they were working on. When GamePro’s Kat Bailey asked if this was going to be a remake of an older title (from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3’s back catalog) or something original for Nintendo’s platform, Senior Technical Architect Marc Parenteau hid behind the claim that they’re making the “best Assassin’s Creed experience [they] can bring to the console.”

So why did they want to talk about this game when they clearly didn’t have much to show yet? Because Nintendo wants to announce to the world (via game journalists) that they won’t sit idle during the next generation while Microsoft and Sony attract consumers to their respective platforms with top-of-the-line M-rated games. Will they be successful? I’m pessimistic. Sure, these new titles will have plenty of exclusive features and gimmicks to distinguish them from the current sea of shooters and action games, but is that really what the core gamers want? Will it be enough to drive customers away from the perceived top-shelf experiences on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (and/or their eventual successors)?

It’s certainly refreshing to see Nintendo making an attempt to broaden its appeal, even if they’re not jumping all the way in by producing the content themselves. They’re still playing it safe by tapping Ubisoft to take the risk with these tablet-controlled console games.