Ubisoft Sees No Profit or Point in Wii U Mature Titles

[Vault101]

Because they're not interested in them, mostly because they see right through them for what they really are: shallow attempts to seem "adult" when in fact they're so blatantly juvenile it's painful. They have no interest in such childish antics because they know while they'll make money for a few years their lasting power has always been suspect. Their repertoire of RPGs is fine, they have no interest in the FPS craze especially since it seems to be going DOWN as of late, and for RTS's they have Pikmin for that. They work by genre and mechanics, not by trying to emulate the efforts of writers just copying what's hot on TV at the moment.

thease so called "mature" games have been around for a long time and have made a lot of money, COD, Halo, Ass Creed say what you want people buy that shit

and Nintendo did have a "mature" title...it was called Metroid

I don't blame Nintendo for sticking to what they know, its just not my fault if its not my thing anymore

 

[Vault101]

And the fun part is the fact the only customers of Nintendo systems is that limited demographic is exactly why the 64, Gamecube and WiiU were failures by comparison to their competitors.

I'll defend the 64 (and possibly the gamecube) they both had enough good games to justify their existance, particually the 64 (thanks to Rare)

now the Wii as far as I'm concered was a peice of trash..the Wii U? its hard to say, I can accpet mabye I'm not the target there

 

[AJ_Lethal]

What!? Sega tried the entire generation before the Dreamcast. They just never had a chance because Nintendo gained an early monopoly in GEN 3 which road then right until they made the shittiest console by comparison to other consoles at the time they ever did. (The 64, which was such an incredibly bad system compared to the PS1 mechanically wise, no one made games for it) And even then, they did a pretty damn good job even if their sales ratio were comparable to the PSP verse DS.

Let me school you a bit about Sega: when the Genesis was at it's prime Sega released the Sega CD in anticipation of that the competition will use CDs. Problem is, a) they jumped the gun by 4 years b) they rushed it and the SDKs were slow to deploy, resulting in a tiny library of games (mostly FMVs) that quickly wore off. Still, it managed to sell decently. You think they will stick to it for the remainder of the generation, didn't you?

Nope, Sega decided to extend the life of the Genesis with the 32X (a 32-bit extension). Sounds like a good idea, isn't?

Nope, Sega decided to rush that shit and making it complicated as fuck. That means there were a little amount of games. You think they will stick to it for a while, didn't you?

NOPE! Sega decided to rush the Saturn in the same year the 32X was announced, and to make it even better it was more fucking complicated than the 32X, leading to a 32X 2.0 situation.

When Sega released the (amazing, I admit) Dreamcast it was already too late: they lost their customer base, they were bleeding money left and right and the PS2 was coming. They were done because they were desperate on getting an imaginary golden goose.

(which I'm still depressed by, because it showed Nintendo has a monopoly on handhelds when a handheld with so many more fantastic games failed)

The PSP "failed" because Sony couldn't figure out what makes a handheld successful. Ditto for the Vita.

 

[LaochEire]

The PSP "failed" because Sony couldn't figure out what makes a handheld successful. Ditto for the Vita.

Is 80m units sold a failure? Heard they did alright with it. Obviously, not DS levels, but made a return on investment at least.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

The PSP "failed" because Sony couldn't figure out what makes a handheld successful. Ditto for the Vita.

Is 80m units sold a failure? Heard they did alright with it. Obviously, not DS levels, but made a return on investment at least.

That's why I put it in quotes, it "failed" in the sense it wasn't a serious threat for the DS.

 

[LaochEire]

The PSP "failed" because Sony couldn't figure out what makes a handheld successful. Ditto for the Vita.

Is 80m units sold a failure? Heard they did alright with it. Obviously, not DS levels, but made a return on investment at least.

That's why I put it in quotes, it "failed" in the sense it wasn't a serious threat for the DS.

Fair enough, I understand what you mean now.

 

[GonzoGamer]

This console generation is all messed up.
Nobody wants to support the one console I may consider buying at some point...I probably wont...because nobody will support it.

But I'm still wondering why Nintendo doesn't make their own mature titles. They're good at making the Mario and Kirby games, why the hell don't they put together a team to make a mature fantasy rpg or a killer fps, or maybe an rts since they have the touchscreen anyway.

It's a Nintendo console. No one ever supports them. This is seriously not a new thing, and was never going to change.

IDK. They had a really good GTA on the DS: Chinatown Wars. I actually liked it more than GTA4. Probably my favorite game on the DS.
It is possible.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

You're right, their attempts thus far have been really lame but it always seems like they're just dipping a toe in the market. I don't feel bitter about it but I too think it's weird.
What I do feel bitter about: I finally have money to buy all of these new consoles and none of them interest me. wpp

It's not weird because they know there's nothing all that interesting from a genre/mechanical point of view with FPS's or "mature" RPGs. They have better things to do than pander to the flavor of the month instead of building brands that can last decades.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I think, it's just the fact that the WiiU has sold horribly in general which is a far more reasonable explanation than demographic smearing; as even the Wii had a smattering of "mature" games amidst all its shovelware and family friendly stuff.

Ubisoft's excuse here suggests that they aren't ready to completely sever ties with Nintendo yet; probably waiting to see if the WiiU picks up a bunch of sales this Christmas now that the system has some actual fucking games coming.

 

[DeimosMasque]

While it's unfortunate it is understandable. As much as I love my Wii U I do understand its been a low seller and people like EA and Ubisoft have very little chance of making their required profits, especially since the architecture and programing is probably a lot different than the the PS, XB and PC's.

It's unfortunate, but at the same time I wish the idea was more like "What can we make that would be unique for the Wii U," instead of "Eh, screw it just pump out another yearly franchise."

 

[AdamRBi]

And from what I've heard, the segregating of the players in Nintendoland is one of the main complaints behind it because it didn't really work well in party games.

Woah woah woah... I'm not sure who you heard THAT crock of lies from but my friend, my friend, but Mario Chase, Sweet Day, and Luigi's Ghost Mansion are amazing party games. Their biggest and best feature is the use of the gamepad.

And honestly, the party games Nintendo makes are irrelevant if they work anyway. Because they are literally games about gimmicky minigame mechanics that don't work with any other genre.

And this is somehow a problem? It almost sounds like you never knew the joy of playing simple minigames on a couch with friends.

Sorry, what I had written here before was a little rude. Enjoy the rest of your night/morning/day whenever it is you check these.

 

[GonzoGamer]

You're right, their attempts thus far have been really lame but it always seems like they're just dipping a toe in the market. I don't feel bitter about it but I too think it's weird.
What I do feel bitter about: I finally have money to buy all of these new consoles and none of them interest me. wpp

It's not weird because they know there's nothing all that interesting from a genre/mechanical point of view with FPS's or "mature" RPGs. They have better things to do than pander to the flavor of the month instead of building brands that can last decades.

Really? Use your imagination. There's quite a few interesting and unique things that can be done with an rpg fps and Especially an rts utilizing the touchscreen controller. It wouldn't be pandering if they made something really good, it's pandering when they make something halfassed.

 

[Robert Kalmar]

Rayman isn't an adult game, is it? Their statement would still allow for Rayman development. Are we just going to ignore that they specified mature titles like Assassin's Creed rather than say, Just Dance 8 or whatever?

It's not an adult game, yet it's not a casual game like Just Dance either. It's in the "for everyone" category like Mario games. The funny thing is AFAIK, Just Dance sold barely better, than AC games on Wii U. Sure, it's a smaller budget game, but why is it ok to sell just 280k of Just Dance and not ok to sell 260k of AC3? But really, i won't miss these games on the platform... I'm done with UbiSoft AAA games since AC Brotherhood, it made me lose all my faith in their big budget games. Yeah, i know i'm part of the problem, but there is a problem for a reason... Mainly: Nintendo fans don't want dark and gritty "Mature" games on their platform. They bought a Nintendo platform for a simple reason: they want colorful and fun games, which can be played by anyone. I play "mature" games mainly on my PC and local coop with my friends on my Wii U.

It's funny how you answered your own question. "Why is it ok for a much lower budget game to sell 280K when the much much higher budget game AC3 sold 260K and was called a failure".

Because its lower budget. It's as simple as that.

Well yeah, but i don't think that ZombiU was a huge budget title either. It reeks "i'm a budget title!" all over the place. The graphics are poor, it would be even poor on the GameCube, there are little variety to enemies and locations etc. Yet it sold around 700k and Ubi considers it poor numbers. I think it's just BS and they want to jump on the "Nintendo is for kids and casuals" bandwagon. Well, frankly it can be true... At least kids like creativity and fun games.

 

[Robert Kalmar]

Huh, i thought the only capable division of UbiSoft is the marketing department... I mean, they clearly sold an average at best GTA clone to millions of dissatisfied customers (Watch_dogs). I don't think it has to do with the skill of their developers, it's the guys above them, that makes these decisions. Yvet said in an interview that games like Rayman, Child of Light and Valiant Hearts are morale booster projects, where the developers gained creative freedom. So, you can guess how happy their developers are about making AssCreed every year.

Except their clear lack of understanding of how to sell to Nintendo customers contradicts that. The marketing department actually comes off as a section that, at best, only knows how to sell to ONE type of gamer and that is NOT good from a business standpoint. In fact, more and more pubs seem to be encouraged by their dev teams to be as exclusive and elitist as possible, making themselves incapable of truly bringing new customers. For as much as people compare the current state of the industry to the film industry, gaming clearly does not GET what the film industry does to be successful. If anything, gaming is like the American comics industry right before its collapse. They really lack the kind of pragmatism to be considered competent businessmen. They have no clear long-term vision and they waste money on the stupidest crap.

Well, after reading Yacht Club Games interview it sounds to me, that they just needed to ask nicely to market their games properly, if they are incapable of this "great" task. Also, I think the BS around Rayman Legends played a large part of it. They could have released the game, then port it to other consoles later. The game was finished, delaying it for no reason probably pissed many Nintendo fan off, including Michel Ancel, their own developer...

 

[Robert Kalmar]

At this point I think Nintendo and their fans should count themselves lucky that Ubisoft isn't failing to see profit or point in simply Wii U titles as a whole instead of simply the mature ones.

Nah, this is just BS. They already stated that they have some Wii U projects in the pipe, but they don't release them because of... badummdish! low sales! If, they know that it's made for the Wii U's audience, why don't they release it? Some games already proved, that low HW sales doesn't equals to low SW sales. You just need to make a game, that the owners of the console want. So, it's wrong, they don't see ANY game profitable outside Just Dance on Wii U.

 

[JCAll]

You're not sounding like an asshole, and I completely get that. My point merely was that despite Platinum's idiotic statement of "wanting to have the game reach a wider audience," Bayonetta 2 isn't going to sell anything close to what the first did precisely because it's being released on the wrong system for it. B1 was sold in 2010, right after the Christmas glut (at least outside Japan) and this was still the height of CoD fever. Gamers are finally over than banal crap and are looking for something different. If it was released now, I'm sure it would do a lot better, and they could have just gone to Kickstarter to get funding. I know I sure as hell would have donated.

It's one thing to make an all new IP exclusively for a system, but it's another to make a sequel exclusive. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't have a couple hundred bucks to blow on a system I'd only buy for one game. Maybe three games including Devil's Third and Shovel Knight (if my computer wasn't a slow piece of crap and I liked gaming on a PC).

Thing is, I don't think Platinum actually owns the rights to Bayonetta. SEGA does, and SEGA didn't want a sequel made. At least until Nintendo showed up on the doorstep with a suitcase full of money. Nintendo is funding it, Platinum is making it, and Nintendo is publishing it. SEGA get's to sit back and get paid success or failure and the only people taking real risks are Nintendo and Platinum.

Is it stupid that SEGA didn't want to make Bayonetta 2 for every console, absolutely. But neither Platinum nor Nintendo are in the wrong. Plus it looks awesome, so there's that.

On a side note. Platinum...Keep control of your damn franchises! Did you learn nothing from Capcom!? I really, really wanted Viewtiful Joe 3.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Well, after reading Yacht Club Games interview it sounds to me, that they just needed to ask nicely to market their games properly, if they are incapable of this "great" task. Also, I think the BS around Rayman Legends played a large part of it. They could have released the game, then port it to other consoles later. The game was finished, delaying it for no reason probably pissed many Nintendo fan off, including Michel Ancel, their own developer...

Well, they're incapable of that great task because asking is something they can't comprehend. Again, they seem to believe they should get everything by default despite the fact that they've done nothing to earn it. Nintendo does not waste money on idiots which is what 3rd parties have turned into. If anything the past few years should teach Nintendo to just become self-sufficient and make 3rd parties unneeded.