Nintendo of America “has no plans” to publish Devil’s Third, the upcoming Wii U title from Ninja Gaiden designer Tomonobu Itagaki and is “not backing it in any way” in North America.

Unseen64, which has a strong track-record of uncovering cancelled Nintendo projects such as Mario Spikers, explains in a new video that the publisher is “purposefully distancing themselves from the game.”

“Nintendo of America has lost faith in [Devil’s Third],” the video states. “We could end up with a Disaster [Day of Crisis] situation on our hands.”

Developed by Monolith Soft for the Wii and published by Nintendo, Distaster: Day of Crisis was initially scheduled for a North America, but these plans were later cancelled.

“Nintendo of America has no intention of publishing the game in the US,” the video claims. “That is why we never saw it on [Nintendo’s E3 event] Treehouse Live this year and that is why it has been removed from the eShop.”

As the video notes, if Nintendo does pass on publishing Devil’s Third in the US, it could still be released via another publishing partner.

Nintendo of America has not confirmed that the rumour is accurate.

As for why Nintendo of America is apparently distancing itself from Devil’s Third, the video states early indications suggest it “just isn’t very good,” and cites sources in the European press playing the final version, who say it has “incredibly inconsistent frame-rate” and “less than sub-par” visuals.

The idea of Nintendo of America choosing to pass on a game other arms of the company are publishing because of quality concerns is not unprecedented.

Following confirmation that Disaster: Day of Crisis would not be released in the US, Nintendo exec Reggie Fils-Aime was vocal about is distaste for the game, going so far as to describe elements of it as “laughable.”

Devil’s Third has had somewhat of a rocky development path. It began life as a THQ title, but the now defunct company eventually decided not to publish the game.

The game is now scheduled to be released on PC and tablets, with South Korean developer Doobic Game Studios handling development.