Ubisoft Won't Release A Finished Wii U Game Until Nintendo Sells More Consoles

[seditary]

This is basically Ubisoft saying publicly to Nintendo 'give us a fat sack of cash for our game.'

Fuck off Guillemot.

 

[Callate]

...Does it even need saying that more people would probably buy the Wii-U if there was a better library of games available for it?

Will the circle be unbroken...

 

[major_chaos]

Really? Why doesn't someone from PR slap a muzzle on this guy? I actually kinda see where they are coming from, The WiiU has a poor install base and the idea that anything other than the holy trio or Smash bros will change that is laughable so investing at this point is a losing prospect. But that really isn't something you wan't to just come out and say at E3, ever. All this has done is damaged Ubi's already horrible PR even more and given the perpetual howling wrath of the Nintendo fans a more specific target.
What is it about the concept of "Use some of your massive stacks of cash on some PR people instead of TV ads" that eludes companies like EA and Ubi?

 

[The Lunatic]

Well, that's fine.

Ubisoft hasn't released a "Finished" game in a very long time anyway.

 

[Xyebane]

Really sounds like he doesn't have faith in his game to me. You drive console sales with good games, not the other way around. Besides, there are more Wii U out there than Xbones but he is happy to release games for that console.

 

[Under_your_bed]

Don't feel bad WiiU owners: they've never released a finished game for PC either!

 

[FalloutJack]

Oh, so you don't like money anymore? Cool, I'll take it! *Snatch*

Oh yeah, Nintendo. I've got games waiting too, really! Pay me money!

(Yeah, I got nothin'.)

 

[FPLOON]

So, WHY THE HELL DID YOU MAKE THOSE GAMES if you AREN'T GOING TO RELEASE THEM!

They wanted a challenge... but the challenge never said they had to "release" the game afterwards...

OT: Ubi Ubi Ubi... Don't you know that you have the POWER to make people WANT to buy a WiiU to play one of your games on said WiiU?

Wait... You don't? Well, this IS an interesting predicament... I guess I don't know how business works after all...

 

[JayDeth]

I'll buy a second WiiU if Nintendo comes out and tells Ubisoft to take their game and shove it up their ass. Or not let them release it. Or whatever the equivalent would be if they can't do something like that. I played MK8 the other day. It ran smooth as butter and wasn't a buggy POS. You should try making a game like that at some point, Ubisoft. Maybe I'll actually buy one at some point instead of just laughing at the funny videos they made out of them on YouTube.

 

[franticfarken]

Hasn't the Wii-U sold more than the Xbox-One?
Although you can say the Wii-U came out earlier, i'm pretty sure there are more in families homes right now than xbox-one's.
So "we won't release the half made games before Nintendo sells more products, but it's OK guys. We have 20 or so games coming out for the Xbox right on your doorstep!".

Don't know why I bothered to respond to you when I know full well you will simply say I am wrong and ignore noticeable trends with sales and think that somehow 3rd parties would be system sellers despite the fact that hasn't been the case for a long time with nintendo. That or a good 3rd party title would sell regardless. Sorry, but 3rd parties do not sell on nintendo consoles in general regardless of whether they are good or not. Neronium really likes nintendo, but understands reality and reality is not kind to 3rd parties on nintendo consoles.

Although this may be true, the reason given by Ubisoft is both hypocritical as well as stupid.

Your forum post right there is significantly more beneficial for Ubisoft to use than what Yves Guillemot stated.

Hence my and others annoyance.

 

[xaszatm]

OK...then why are you releasing Watch_Dogs six months after it is released on other consoles if you don't want to lose money? And no, don't talk to me about integrating the Wii U controls, late ports rarely sell well, especially on a more family orientated console like the Wii U. If you are so up about profits, why bother in the first place?

 

[Dragonbums]

Ain't that a slap in the face to the devs who worked their asses off on that game. Only to be told that since the console in question doesn't have a high enough userbase for them to potentially sell to it will be shelved forever.

So, those devs better be getting paid extra for that shit. And honestly it makes me very worried about how the Wii U version of Watch Dogs will turn out.

Come the fuck on people. Just..don't fucking make the game for the system.


This is the biggest slap in the face to Wii U owners I have ever seen. And regardless of whether you like the Wii U or not, this kind of behavior should not be tolerated. At all. What if it's your system of choice getting the shelved treatment?

 

[EvilRoy]

Ain't that a slap in the face to the devs who worked their asses off on that game. Only to be told that since the console in question doesn't have a high enough userbase for them to potentially sell to it will be shelved forever.

Honestly this kind of thing happens a lot in any sort of field that involves the general public. You produce a product or design based on a perceived future demand, so you can bust that shit out when the chickens come home to roost, and then the chickens never come. Or they're late, or a fox thinned them out.

This has happened to me, in a field as unrelated to videogames/media as you can get. I have produced designs that I know without a shadow of a doubt will wait years to decades before they see the light of day if they ever even do.

It sucks, but sometimes you gamble and lose. Choosing not to use a design or release a product is an attempt to avoid wasting the time and effort that went into it, rather than firing it off at a time where you know it can't possibly succeed.

 

[Dragonbums]

Ain't that a slap in the face to the devs who worked their asses off on that game. Only to be told that since the console in question doesn't have a high enough userbase for them to potentially sell to it will be shelved forever.

Honestly this kind of thing happens a lot in any sort of field that involves the general public. You produce a product or design based on a perceived future demand, so you can bust that shit out when the chickens come home to roost, and then the chickens never come. Or they're late, or a fox thinned them out.

This has happened to me, in a field as unrelated to videogames/media as you can get. I have produced designs that I know without a shadow of a doubt will wait years to decades before they see the light of day if they ever even do.

It sucks, but sometimes you gamble and lose. Choosing not to use a design or release a product is an attempt to avoid wasting the time and effort that went into it, rather than firing it off at a time where you know it can't possibly succeed.

But what makes them think that this will do them any good in the future. Most third party devs know by now ( I hope they do) that they cannot even begin to compete with Nintendo when they release a game on their own platform. I believe the article stated that they are waiting for SSB to be released before they launch the game. But that's play a risky as hell game.

Super Smash Bros. is a game of extremely high addiction and longevity. Even more so if the wifi isn't total trash like it was last gen. If they are planning on releasing this game around that time- they are sending that game to an early grave. A very early grave. Nobody is going to buy it because they are too busy playing SSB. And that's not even including the other games slated to be released on the Wii U later in the year.

This is the same thing they did with the Rayman game, and it didn't really pay off at all. Why do they think it's gong to work now?
Especially when they just said they will continue to release unpolished bugged games until the Wii U gets better. What benefit will that give you? It will just have Wii U owners associate your name with shit ass games that hardly work. Which means they are even less inclined to buy the game.

No. This attitude needs to be stomped lifeless immediately. Perhaps other fields can pull this off. But videogames is not one of those fields is not one of them. We already have enough bad habits. Let's not add one more to the list.

The man should of just shut his damn mouth about this.

 

[Harleykin]

i got gallons of fuel if you'll buy some cars....maybe getting fuel is a reason why one would buy a car...
and you already developed (=paid for) it. might as well make a buck right now...
ubisoft: we'd like to be EA on consumer polls srsly!!1
oh and "we don't have a number in mind" yeah nice... nintendo could sell 2000 units a day and they might still say not good enough
i might try to avoid ubisoft products (even though i love rocksmith....ugh...good things in the hands of idiots)

 

[EvilRoy]

Ain't that a slap in the face to the devs who worked their asses off on that game. Only to be told that since the console in question doesn't have a high enough userbase for them to potentially sell to it will be shelved forever.

Honestly this kind of thing happens a lot in any sort of field that involves the general public. You produce a product or design based on a perceived future demand, so you can bust that shit out when the chickens come home to roost, and then the chickens never come. Or they're late, or a fox thinned them out.

This has happened to me, in a field as unrelated to videogames/media as you can get. I have produced designs that I know without a shadow of a doubt will wait years to decades before they see the light of day if they ever even do.

It sucks, but sometimes you gamble and lose. Choosing not to use a design or release a product is an attempt to avoid wasting the time and effort that went into it, rather than firing it off at a time where you know it can't possibly succeed.

But what makes them think that this will do them any good in the future. Most third party devs know by now ( I hope they do) that they cannot even begin to compete with Nintendo when they release a game on their own platform. I believe the article stated that they are waiting for SSB to be released before they launch the game. But that's play a risky as hell game.

Super Smash Bros. is a game of extremely high addiction and longevity. Even more so if the wifi isn't total trash like it was last gen. If they are planning on releasing this game around that time- they are sending that game to an early grave. A very early grave. Nobody is going to buy it because they are too busy playing SSB. And that's not even including the other games slated to be released on the Wii U later in the year.

This is the same thing they did with the Rayman game, and it didn't really pay off at all. Why do they think it's gong to work now?
Especially when they just said they will continue to release unpolished bugged games until the Wii U gets better. What benefit will that give you? It will just have Wii U owners associate your name with shit ass games that hardly work. Which means they are even less inclined to buy the game.

No. This attitude needs to be stomped lifeless immediately. Perhaps other fields can pull this off. But videogames is not one of those fields is not one of them. We already have enough bad habits. Let's not add one more to the list.

The man should of just shut his damn mouth about this.

They aren't trying to wait to compete with Nintendo, they're trying to wait for Nintendo to be ready for them.

The idea is that when Ubisoft decided they wanted to design a game for the WU, they had to figure out how much money to spend on it. So they had to guess at how many WU there would be when the game was ready for release. If they trusted Nintendos estimations, and budgeted for that assuming say 15% penetration to make the math easy, then Ubisoft budgeted for a game that would hopefully sell around 1.5 million copies.

But then it turned out that Nintendo was really wrong, and only sold about 3 million WU (easy math again). So now instead of needing to make 15% market penetration to meet their projections, Ubisoft has to make 50% market penetration to meet projections. That is crazy. The only games that come close to 50% penetration on Nintendo consoles are huge first party titles like MK8 and SB. So in order for Ubisoft to make its money back, they would need to make a game that sells better than a first party Nintendo game on a Nintendo console. They flat out know this isn't going to happen, ever, so they're going to wait until projected sales are achievable. It doesn't hurt them to do it, games don't spoil over time.

Maybe he shouldn't have told everyone, but this strategy is really not surprising at all. I honestly expect that there are a number of WU games produced by other companies trying to wait on a better base.

 

[bluegate]

I believe the article stated that they are waiting for SSB to be released before they launch the game. But that's play a risky as hell game.
-snip snip snip-

Aside from what EvilRoy already pointed out;

You believe wrong; Ubisoft is hoping that Smash Brothers will ship enough Wii-U units to make it viable for Ubisoft to, at some point, release the game they have sitting on a shelf. I would suggest stepping back a bit and re-reading the article.

 

[Dragonbums]

They aren't trying to wait to compete with Nintendo, they're trying to wait for Nintendo to be ready for them.

What does that even really mean? If they are just talking about the fanbase, shoot man, Wii U still beats Xbox One. How long it took to get to that point is irrelevant.

What is being "ready" for them? The big three have made bad sales predictions all the time. PS3 was a fucking mess. Didn't stop devs from ignoring bad first 3 year sales, wacky hardware programming, and little install base to make great games for it.

The idea is that when Ubisoft decided they wanted to design a game for the WU, they had to figure out how much money to spend on it. So they had to guess at how many WU there would be when the game was ready for release. If they trusted Nintendos estimations, and budgeted for that assuming say 15% penetration to make the math easy, then Ubisoft budgeted for a game that would hopefully sell around 1.5 million copies.

So what, Nintendo is supposed to sell the game for them now? They already made and finished the game. Currently they are getting Zero return on this game. Nothing, Zelch, nada. A complete full zero. All because they may or may not make a million sales on the system? You want it that bad then your going to have to advertise the game. We all know for a fact that Mario Kart 8 wouldn't of made the sales it did if they didn't whore off the game in advertising on every facet of the internet and television. It would mean fuck all if Nintendo had 20 million owners. If you half ass the advertisement you get half assed sales.

But then it turned out that Nintendo was really wrong, and only sold about 3 million WU (easy math again). So now instead of needing to make 15% market penetration to meet their projections, Ubisoft has to make 50% market penetration to meet projections. That is crazy. The only games that come close to 50% penetration on Nintendo consoles are huge first party titles like MK8 and SB. So in order for Ubisoft to make its money back, they would need to make a game that sells better than a first party Nintendo game on a Nintendo console. They flat out know this isn't going to happen, ever, so they're going to wait until projected sales are achievable. It doesn't hurt them to do it, games don't spoil over time.

In those scenarios you would then want to get a high attachment rate. I have no doubt that as more Wii U's are sold the attachment rate for MK8 will rise as well. It's already a must have game if your going to have a Wii U. Then again with todays' industry it's all about blowing your whole load on graphics that do fuck all for gameplay quality, and then whining about how many games they have to sell for cost returns. They too could also try for the slow but stead attach rate method. But you know...they can just let the game sit there and collect dust.

I'm pretty sure 3 years later when nobody gives a shit about this game anymore they will decide "Nintendo is ready for it."

Maybe he shouldn't have told everyone, but this strategy is really not surprising at all. I honestly expect that there are a number of WU games produced by other companies trying to wait on a better base.

Maybe there are games being withheld form the Wii U. The difference is that those companies aren't actually stupid enough to admit this fact face front. But that's fine with me.

They can pull a 3DS again where they ditched the system in it's early years and are now trying to get back a spot on the system that's not clogged with lines of good Nintendo 1st part and 2nd party affiliates that consumers would rather buy rather than their game.

It seem that the Wii U is gonna head that direction as well.

I honestly cannot even bring myself to care anymore. My only advice to Nintendo next time around is to not trust American Third party devs beyond anything but face value.