Ubisoft done making mature games for Wii U
CEO Yves Guillemot says Nintendo customers just aren't interested in mature games like Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs.
Apparently owners of Nintendo's troubled Wii U console don't play Assassin's Creed games. So it doesn't appear to be getting any more of them.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed that, following the release of Watch Dogs later this year, the company won't release any more mature-themed games for Nintendo's system, instead opting for more casual affairs.
Talking with Game Informer, Guillemot explained his decision. "It's very simple," he stated. "What we see is that Nintendo customers don't buy Assassin's Creed. Last year, we sold in very small numbers. What we see is that they are very interested in Just Dance, very interested by other kinds of games. So what we are trying to do is to focus more on the types of games they are interested in."
And apparently none of those games are mature. "(Watch Dogs) is coming to Wii U…it will be the only mature game we publish on it."
Wii U game sales only calculated for three percent of the company's total for the last fiscal year, which is a stark number considering the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 generated six and nine percent in just a month and a half of release. Watch Dogs will release sometime this fall for Wii U.
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replyRobert Workman posted a new article, Ubisoft done making mature games for Wii U.
CEO Yves Guillemot says Nintendo customers just aren't interested in mature games like Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs.-
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For me the problem is that mature games are mostly shit. "Open world" boils down to a big 3D menu for bad mini games.
People like Ubisoft games though. It amazes me that Watch Dogs and Assassins Creed are so popular. The thing I like about Nintendo games, Dota/CS/Quake, and indies is that the mechanics and gameplay are so good.
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Not really a surprise given that the majority of the garbage they push onto Nintendo platforms is bottom tier children's games and licenses.
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And I'm done playing Ubisoft games on PC, 360, PS3 or Wii U when they pull bullshit like this.
If you do a half-assed job, you get half-assed results. They mainly only did a bunch sloppy ports, one awesome exclusive (ZombiU), one that was supposed to be at least a timed exclusive (Rayman Legends) and some shovelware games.-
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Not blindly, just equal treatment when they're actually trying.
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so they out out 2 great games with Wii U specific hardware functions (more than basically anyone else has done) but you're mad because they didn't see the sales they wanted from those good games... k
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by what metric? compared to 0? compared to the game you made? 700k sales doesn't magically cause them to have made a profit on development or make for a positive ROI on the opportunity cost of spending x years on the game (or in this case a sequel).
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presumably they (along with Nintendo) expected a lot more Wii U sales so even with no change in attach rates they expected more unit sales. The meat of this particular issue also suggested they are unhappy with the attach rate of mature games on the platform. With the combination of those two factors it's reasonable to think their expectations were meaningfully higher than reality ended up at.
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Unless the only gaming system you own is a Wii U, im not really seeing why anyone would care. (Aside from Nintendo, of course)
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Assassin's Creed was nearly unplayable on the wii-u, it was so choppy and aliased it was a terrible port. Rayman legends on the other hand was beautiful and smooth and still one of the best experiences on the wii-u. They need to focus on what works for the system, they can't just dump their existing properties on it and expect them to sell.
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So I could get A Creed on a PS4 or Xbox One...Ubisoft doesn't honestly think I'll choose WiiU over either of those, right?
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I don't even think this is a problem for Nintendo. I mean, gamers have been screaming about stuff like this for years and it's never factored into Nintendo's success or lack thereof and we stories exactly like this every generation - hell seemingly from Ubisoft, everytime.
If Nintendo wanted to fix this, then they'd have to probably release more mature games themselves, but that probably mean expanding their own developers. The quick fix would be to just buy Capcom, which makes way too much sense, and then just make Capcom's titles exclusive. Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Onimusha, Lost Planet, and Monster Hunter all get added to Nintendo's "above E" portfolio. Added bonus they also get Mega Man and a ridiculous catalog of games.
But again, it's not much of a problem that I can see. That said, this possible solution here would also greatly benefit the Wii U library and probably end up driving more sales of the system, which is probably Nintendo's #1 problem.-
Long term it is absolutely a problem. The industry has moved away from exclusive titles being the driving force behind console success. Nobody but console manufacturers like exclusives.
Consumers don't like exclusives because it means they either have to own multiple consoles, or they have to choose their console based on the exclusives.
Developers and publishers don't like exclusives because instead of selling their game to people who own console A, and people who own console B, and people who own a PC, they can only sell to one of those. Which means less money.
Nintendo, because of their hardware design and the business strategy behind that, is still clinging desperately to the exclusive title model. And it is slowing killing Nintendo.
Sure, they could buy Capcom and say "Aha, now you have to buy our console to play these games!" And yeah, some more people will buy whatever Nintendo's console is just so they can get those games. But a lot of people will be pissed off by it. And even more people will wonder why the Capcom titles aren't as cool as they would be on Sony and Microsoft's consoles, and why they should bother.
The "buy Capcom" strategy ends up being a stop-gap that doesn't address the fundamental problems with Nintendo's strategy. Until and unless Nintendo addresses those problems, they're doomed to gradually fade away until they get bought by some other company just for their IP.-
This doesn't follow at all. Exclusives are still absolutely critical to console success, Nintendo's most of all. Nintendo is failing for a variety of reasons, none of which are their desire for platform exclusives.
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They can certainly be valuable in attracting people to one console or another, all other things being more-or-less equal. I'm saying a console manufacturer can't rely on royalties on exclusives to generate the bulk of their income. You need multiplatform games on your console, and Nintendo's strategy does quite a bit to discourage that, whether intentional or not.
If you have specific numbers that contradict that, I'd love to see them, but that's what it looks like to me.-
Putting it another way, you need people developing and selling quality games for your console if you want it to be successful. Hardware that is substantially different and underpowered compared to other current gen consoles makes porting games to your platform more difficult and sometimes completely impractical. That discourages multiplatform development for your console, which reduces the number of people developing quality games for your console, which hinders the success of your console.
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yes, this is part of where they're failing, but not because they're focusing on exclusives. It would be a mistake to do the reverse (cater to 3rd parties and ignore exclusives), they just should've done both (which we know can be done).
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Its clear to me that a game like AC would not sell well and i think watch dogs will do poor as well since every one looks to Nintendo for kids games and consoles.
I can say no one i know has a Nintendo console UNLESS its for there little kids if there after adult gaming its a PS or a Xbox. -
We'll see how well that statement holds up after Bayonetta 2.
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Ya, I don't know how well it will do being a Wii U exclusive. Hopefully it does well and causes some more people to buy the system.
Either way though it will probably do better than the Assassin's Creed games.
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/70620/assassins-creed-iii/
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/71748/assassins-creed-iv-black-flag/
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For me if I had a Wii U I'd certainly prefer to purchase Mature games on PC or the other consoles that have more power/user base for those games.
Nintendo's bread and butter though has never been mature game so....I'm sure they'll be fine. -
What I hate about this is they are complaining because they are just doing ports and expecting sales to be similar. It's like someone said earlier, if you target the demographic and make games to support the system or vice versa, you'll win. Without actually focusing on the peripherals and targeting the appropriate demographic you're just shooting yourself in the foot.
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Ubisoft isn't whining, they're responding to whiny WiiU owners and explaining their position. Why put that much of an investment into the platform with the smallest userbase? It just doesn't make sense.
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Last I heard the XBone was at 5 million vs the Wii U at 6.6 million.
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graph the monthly sales over time and we'd see why a publisher is more optimistic about the XB1 install base numbers, in addition to the demographic differences.
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Ubi did 2 Wii U focused games that were well reviewed (Zombi U and Rayman Legends). They've done more than anyone but Nintendo themselves to cater to the platform.
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They are right to abandon "mature" games on the Wii U. Zombie U has a life time sales of roughly 0.70 million copies on the Wii U: http://www.vgchartz.com/game/70793/zombiu/Global/.
Watch Dogs has 5.4 million across everything but the Wii U (roughly 30,000+ copies on the Wii U). http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=watch+dogs
People buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games, and are happy with the occasional third party title that is surprisingly good. That's not a platform Ubisoft should devote resources to.-
Those numbers for Watch Dogs, especially for PC, are almost certainly low due to not accounting for digital distribution.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/220791/Watch_Dogs_sales_stats_reveal_digital_and_tripleA_trends_in_2014.php-
Which makes my point even stronger, since Wii U digital distribution isn't exactly a big thing.
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Behavior of Shackers is rarely indicative of the main stream, though.
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You're complaining about Watchdogs sales on Wii U? It was delayed for 6+ months and isn't scheduled to be out until the 4th quarter, unless they delay it again. Maybe a nice February launch at $60 after it's $20 for PC on Steam. And lets be sure to announce that they're skipping the DLC right before the launch. You know, to give people an incentive to buy it.
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You misunderstand. I was comparing zombie u to watch dogs.
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You're comparing a barely average niche survival horror game (metacritic 77 and 75) with one of the biggest game launches in history?
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Zombie U was the tent pole title at launch for the WiiU, particularly in terms of third party development. The numbers I posted are exactly the kinds of numbers that Ubisoft folks would look at, and then make the decision to back off Wii U development.
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Let's see: late ports, crappy ports, skipped DLC. And bitching about a lack of sales after delaying the launch of one of the biggest titles in history. Gee, I wonder how a port of a game that launched months ago on every other will sell. Totally a Nintendo problem. Lol.
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What was wrong with Zombi U? Hasn't Ubi been releasing games on Nintendo platforms for multiple generations now? This isn't some singular data point based on a port, it's a trend they and many others in the industry observed with real data.
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keep in mind this is a continuation of a finding that many 3rd parties experienced last generation with Nintendo too
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They are about the only major 3rd party publisher to not have abandoned Nintendo. They have a right to say this. They've tried to make money on the WiiU and it hasn't paid off.
Now if they just pump that extra budget directly into their PC ports........I know, I know-
Definitely. I give Ubisoft props for even trying, even though the writing was on the wall before the console was even released.
The only way I see Nintendo getting thrid party publishers for their next console is to make it a hybrid handheld. That way, they're taking their respectable 3DS following and giving them access to gaming on their TV. This is something I see a lot of people taking advantage of. There is no device that has done this well, yet.-
I got lol'd at for saying this months ago but Nintendo's 1st party stuff could be done on super low power shit. If they offered me a device that combined the mobile and console libraries (with cross buy)but had HDMI out and wireless controller support it would be a no-brainer for me. They'd have me for several games and a few peripherals.
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I don't think gamers understand whats happened here, which is really mind blowing if you think about it.
Once upon time all there was, was Nintendo and all was good in the land. Then came SONY and Microsoft and the dawn of mature, gritty, violent games where born concepts that Nintendo are not familiar with.
Sadly the market was segregated never to be made whole again.
Nintendo never has, never will make "mature" games.
They don't get that kind of game. They rely on others to make them. However fans of Nintendo's products don't come tot he house of Mario particularly for those experiences.
They want something different.
What the COD masses (and I am generalizing since at some point we all played Call of Duty, Medal of Honor or what not...) don't understand is, that what we call "kiddie" Nintendo calls fun. And the Nintendo fan understands that.
Its a palette cleanser.
Heres the thing, if Nintendo right now, had the best machine in the market, it would still struggle. I truly believe that. Because Nintendo is not where you go to get your blood fix. Nintendo would not know what to do with all that raw horsepower either.
When you wish to make games for Nintendo you must think out of the box and make tings specific to the platform and more importantly to the demographic. Not just 30 year olds, but to families and children. That is not to be mistaken for retards that cant appreciate great graphics, and gameplay.
Its insulting, lazy, and lacks creativity.
Every company wishes to either fit their series into Nintendo's platforms (square peg in a circle hole) or they just throw their hands in the air and say :we cant develop for you"
Ubisoft at least kept their promise to support and this means something in this business where promises are broken left and right.
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