Author Topic: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U  (Read 23343 times)

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Offline NWR_Neal

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The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« on: December 01, 2014, 06:41:10 AM »

We're at the end of this chapter of Nintendo and Ubisoft's relationship and the state of major third parties on Wii U is troubling.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/39121/the-downfall-of-ubisoft-on-wii-u

At E3 2011, Nintendo’s Wii U was first revealed to the world alongside a variety of demos that Nintendo termed “experiences” because they weren’t representative of full games. The system was a mystery and filled with potential.

Midway through that E3, Nintendo hosted a developer discussion, as they usually do at the event. This one was different though. It was, according to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, “a first during (his) presidency at Nintendo.” The third-party publisher Ubisoft was given the chance to present their Wii U lineup at a Nintendo event. While Nintendo has occasionally brought in third-party publishers and developers into their events, they rarely handed off the reins to an entire other company.

The reasoning for the curious event seemed evident when Iwata introduced Ubisoft. The third-party company was set to be a “most important partner” for Nintendo, showing “stronger support than ever before.” This was supposed to be the start of a bold, new direction for Nintendo, one that encouraged third parties instead of chasing them away.

Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot certainly was passionate for Wii U at the time. "When we saw this console and the controller, we thought it was, for us, a good time to create all new product for that console,” he said. "We think it will take a lot of new gamers to the industry."

Guillemot’s reasons for optimism actually lined up with the direction that, in retrospect, Ubisoft went. He was excited for the concept of combining touch screen gameplay with traditional controls, as it allowed for potentially more social gameplay than ever before. With Ubisoft’s recent releases, most of which weren’t scheduled for Wii U, they all used smartphones and tablets to let players use a companion app that adds bonuses to the game. In 2011, Guillemot was hopeful that Nintendo’s system would have been the catalyst for all of that.


At that E3 2011 event, Ubisoft discussed their five in-progress Wii U games. The flagship title was Killer Freaks From Outer Space, which later became the launch title ZombiU. The other major title was Ghost Recon Online, which was actually the only third-party playable demo at that E3, and so far, Ghost Recon Online has not come out on Wii U. It was released on PC earlier this year and as of 2012, the Wii U version has been on hold. We reached out to Ubisoft but heard no update about the game. It’s assumed it’s still on hold, likely never to come out. The other three games were a new entry in the Assassin’s Creed series (which became Assassin’s Creed III), a new entry in the Rabbids series (which became Rabbids Land), and Sports Connection (which became a largely forgettable launch title).

One quote from that event has a little bit of a bite given what has happened to Ubisoft’s Wii U support. Hugues Ricour, one of the producers working on Ghost Recon Online, said adamantly that they were excited to work on Wii U because "Nintendo has proved with history that they can really redefine entertainment."

There wasn’t much official information on Wii U between E3 2011 and E3 2012, but when the floodgates opened up Ubisoft was still just as boldly supporting Wii U. At E3 2012 Ubisoft actually got to first show off the console publicly at their press conference. ZombiU, Rayman Legends, and Just Dance 4 were huge focuses of Ubisoft’s show, with all three hugely leveraging the GamePad.


During that same E3, even EA pledged their support to Nintendo. EA’s then-CEO John Riccitello proclaimed that EA and Nintendo were undergoing a "breakthrough in (their) relationship based on a stunning breakthrough in game technology."

Riccitello spoke of new gameplay opportunities, unique control methods, and a persistent online community. "What Nintendo's new console delivers speaks directly to the players of EA Sports and EA games," he said, declaring that the Wii U would kick off “an unprecedented partnership between Nintendo and Electronic Arts.”

Then, the Wii U came out and support from Ubisoft and EA fell apart.

At launch, Ubisoft had several games ready, including the flagship mature title ZombiU. By every conceivable metric we know of, ZombiU bombed. It bombed so hard that its aftershock was felt three months after launch when Ubisoft delayed Rayman Legends six months so they could launch it on other platforms in addition to Wii U. Rayman Legends wound up being the only major Ubisoft title that sold respectably on Wii U, as even the second holiday season filled with Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Assassin’s Creed IV barely moved the needle. Wii U games in general made up less than 5% of Ubisoft’s total software sales.

EA’s about-face was even quicker. They had Madden, FIFA, and Mass Effect 3 ready for the console’s release. Need for Speed: Most Wanted U, launched in March 2013, was the last game EA ever released on Wii U. Like the Ubisoft games, sales are hard to track, but by every metric, every single EA game bombed and bombed hard.

Likewise, Activision’s Call of Duty games sold poorly, though the publisher has found a sizable Wii U success with Skylanders. For example, Skylanders: Trap Team on Wii U has outsold every other version of the game aside from the Xbox 360 and Wii versions. Activision seemingly played Switzerland in this entire storm, quietly supporting Nintendo with the properties that made sense and slowly fading out the possibility of any other kind of support without making a big stink about it.


We’re at a point where looking forward to the Wii U lineup in 2015 is filled with even more uncertainty than ever. We know of a wide swath of Nintendo-made games, made up of new entries in classic series as well as games such as Splatoon and Devil’s Third. Those games all look very good, but aside from that, the Wii U library is a bunch of self-published eShop games and little else. The eShop isn’t a rosy proposition either. Numerous Nintendo-loyal developers, while active on 3DS, won’t touch the Wii U with a 10-foot pole. There are countless horror stories of companies putting effort in to a Wii U eShop release, only to see it sell a pittance. On the flip side, the Wii U eShop does have success stories, but it seems like that’s the exception, not the rule.

We might not know it, but the last major third-party release on Wii U may have stealthily released last week in Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs. Unfortunately, the Wii U version of Watch Dogs is doomed to be nothing more than the answer to a trivia question or a footnote in gaming history. There’s not a large group of people craving to play a six-months-late version of a game that they can get for $20 cheaper on almost any other home console. The inevitable sales implosion of Watch Dogs is a fitting end to the Wii U’s flirtation with being a home to major third-party releases. Third-party sales on Wii U seem like they’re going to end where they started: sad and alone.

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Offline kokumaker

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2014, 03:02:39 PM »
There's really no one to blame but the Wii U players who don't buy third-party games.

Offline Nile Boogie Returns

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2014, 03:18:08 PM »
Rayman Legends sank Ubisoft with so many Wii U owners. Remember This?


 â–¶ Rayman Legends Wii U Trailer - YouTube




and even though the output on Wii U is solid if not great, I still feel like a lotta folks never got over Rayman getting delayed for other platforms (and still selling best on Wii U at last check)




Offline Qbert Farnsworth

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2014, 03:22:04 PM »
I loathe the "blame the consumer" attitude that 3rd party companies have with Nintendo consoles. Ubisoft basically offered consumers the same experience on the Wii U that they offered on the other consoles. If you liked Assassin's Creed, you probably owned a PS3/360 already. Why buy it on the Wii U, or buy a Wii U at all for that experience? ZombiU was an unpolished experience with some unique ideas that were not executed the best. This lead to mediocre reviews, and a lot of people won't spend $60 on a game with mediocre reviews.

Rayman was outstanding - certainly an experience as good or better than New Super Mario Bros U. If you bought a Wii U early, chances are you like New SMB U. You could buy two well-reviewed platformers, and Rayman certainly would have had a higher attach rate because there was nothing else to play. Instead, the delay angered some fans. Nintendo basically had 9 months of bad press from post-launch up until around the time Rayman came out, and then Rayman came out right when people were buying Pikmin, Wind Waker HD, Wonderful 101, and if they owned another system GTA V. Perhaps if Rayman releases in the launch window, and ZombiU releases in the early fall so it's flaws can be fixed, they have two great 3rd party exclusives on the system instead of one mediocre game, and one great game which turned out to be a timed exclusive.

So now, Ubisoft says that Watch Dogs is their last mature title. It should sell poorly, and deservedly so. It received less than stellar reviews on the other consoles, and they're asking full price for a six-month-old game that could have, but does not, use the Wii U in a unique way. Somehow, this will be the fault of the Nintendo consumer.

Offline UncleBob

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2014, 03:24:20 PM »
There's really no one to blame but the Wii U players who don't buy third-party games.
How about blaming third-party pubs for not making games that cater to the Wii U audience?
How about blaming third-party pubs for sabatoging their Wii U releases? (looking at you ME3).

It's a bad business model to blame customers for not buying your stuff.  It's your job to figure out what people want and how to sell it to them.
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Offline Soren

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2014, 03:30:16 PM »
Ubisoft sealed their fate when they delayed Rayman Legends. A company that pulls the eject button less than 3 months after launch is not a company that was looking to support Nintendo in anyway. It was only hoping the Wii magic would strike again.
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Offline Stratos

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2014, 03:46:01 PM »
Ubisoft sealed their fate when they delayed Rayman Legends. A company that pulls the eject button less than 3 months after launch is not a company that was looking to support Nintendo in anyway. It was only hoping the Wii magic would strike again.


That probably explains the support in the early stage.  But as soon as they saw the writing on the wall they bailed.
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Offline WindyMan

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2014, 03:52:14 PM »
Reminds me of the Capcom "exclusives" for the GameCube.


At least we got Resident Evil 4 out of that. (And this.)
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Offline Neifirst

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2014, 05:17:04 PM »
EA:  Within weeks of releasing Mass Effect 3 on Wii U, Mass Effect Trilogy was released for PS3/360 at the same price.  Which would a consumer choose?  Need for Speed Most Wanted U came out 5 months later than PS3/360 at full price, while on other systems it was routinely marked down to $20-30.  Which would a consumer choose?

Ubisoft: My understanding is Rayman Legends sold better on Wii U than PS3/360/PS4/One.  It probably would have done even better if it had released in March as originally planned.  Who exactly is to blame there?  ZombiU got mixed reviews, at best.  And I'm sure new Wii U owners had memories of the original Red Steel.  Fool me once...

Frankly, these Western developers can keep their noise; I'm much more interested in offerings from Japanese developers like Square Enix, Capcom, Konami, Bandai Namco, etc.  Give me real entries in series like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mega Man, Castlevania, Ridge Racer, etc., and I'll be there with my $$$ day one.  And I'm sure there's a lot of other Wii U owners that feel similarly.  If only consoles hadn't completely imploded in Japan, we might get games like Bravely Default on Wii U instead of 3DS.

Offline sisibakbak

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2014, 05:29:40 PM »
I'm really interested, what are the eShop horror stories? I've always wondered how well indie games do on the eShop.

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #10 on: December 01, 2014, 05:32:55 PM »
The odd thing is that in the past week, I've just bought 5 Ubisoft titles.

I got Raving Rabbids Party Collection (which is the first three Rabbid games on one disc), Just Dance, Just Dance 2 all for Wii and Just Dance 4 and Just Dance 2014 all for Wii U.

I also finally picked up Sonic and the Secret Rings and Wii Sports Resort for Wii and Injustice for Wii U. All lesser games I've been slightly interested in but at a price that was right for me. I also picked up Tale of Symphonia for Gamecube as it was an original edition (no bestseller yellow) and in great shape at a $30.00 price tag. Aside from Wii Sports Resort, it's been a 3rd party extravaganza of purchases.
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Offline Soren

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #11 on: December 01, 2014, 06:02:18 PM »
EA:  Within weeks of releasing Mass Effect 3 on Wii U, Mass Effect Trilogy was released for PS3/360 at the same price.  Which would a consumer choose?  Need for Speed Most Wanted U came out 5 months later than PS3/360 at full price, while on other systems it was routinely marked down to $20-30.  Which would a consumer choose?


To be fair Most Wanted U came with the first DLC pack included, plus you can tell it had substantial development work behind it. Still, late port came late, with no post-release support.
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Offline Soren

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #12 on: December 01, 2014, 06:04:29 PM »
EDIT: Most Wanted U was also released on the same week the Origin store had it's big sale. Many people (including people on these forums) took advantage and got the game at half price.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #13 on: December 01, 2014, 06:10:33 PM »
Most Wanted was a fantastic port, but it was still either too late or priced too high.
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Offline ejamer

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #14 on: December 01, 2014, 07:10:11 PM »
As much as I'd like to blame third party publishers (who often made poor choices if they seriously wanted Wii U games to sell well), there are also good games out there that people simply didn't buy. Try to assign blame in a situation like this and everyone walks away a loser.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #15 on: December 01, 2014, 07:28:43 PM »
Quote
Numerous Nintendo-loyal developers, while active on 3DS, won’t touch the Wii U with a 10-foot pole. There are countless horror stories of companies putting effort in to a Wii U eShop release, only to see it sell a pittance.

could someone elaborate on the these two points?

Offline NWR_Neal

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #16 on: December 01, 2014, 08:42:10 PM »
Quote
Numerous Nintendo-loyal developers, while active on 3DS, won’t touch the Wii U with a 10-foot pole. There are countless horror stories of companies putting effort in to a Wii U eShop release, only to see it sell a pittance.

could someone elaborate on the these two points?

The specifics of what I've heard are all in confidence/off the record. I'll just say look at the companies that are active on 3DS and aren't really touching Wii U. Or the companies that released a Wii U eShop game and then didn't announce a follow-up.
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Offline Soren

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #17 on: December 01, 2014, 09:02:56 PM »
Off the top of my head the only companies I can think of are Renegade Kid (Mutant Mudds Deluxe, Cult County failure) and Gaijin/Choice Provisions (Runner 2,nothing else announced). And Renegade Kid's situation was probably biting off more than they could chew. Level-5 still hasn't released a game on Wii U but they've been working on something since last year for consoles.

If there are horror stories it isn't stopping most developers from releasing their games or helping port other people's game in the case of Curve Studios and Broken Rules.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #18 on: December 01, 2014, 10:17:48 PM »
Hmm, doing some research that would be Renegade Kid, probably Double Fine, maybe Nicalis (still waiting on 90's Arcade Racer) and maybe Frozenbyte.

Offline Soren

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #19 on: December 01, 2014, 10:55:33 PM »
Frozenbyte had one of the better selling eShop games if the charts to be believed. They also announced they were bringing the first Trine to Wii U.

The eShop is still going to be extremely hit or miss when it comes to projects and quality. There were articles a year ago touting how many projects were announced for Wii U on crowdfunding sites. Those that were funded (like 90's Arcade Racer, remember the dude got it funded, then Nicalis stepped it) still faced an uphill climb because they were being developed by small teams with limited experience.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #20 on: December 01, 2014, 11:05:07 PM »
Never Mind, Double Fine recently released Costume Quest 2.

Offline Jonnyboy117

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #21 on: December 01, 2014, 11:13:25 PM »
If there are good games that people didn't buy, that fault still lies on the third-party publishers and, to a lesser extent, on Nintendo. These companies are set up to sell games to people. As a publisher, that is job number one. Watch_Dogs may not be a great game, but Ubisoft did a fantastic job selling it on the other platforms. It's a shame they didn't give that kind of push to ZombiU or Rayman Legends.


There is no rational basis on which to blame consumers here. This is foremost a strategic error by Nintendo (making a system with similar horsepower to dying competitive platforms, thus ensuring afterthought ports before the market just moves on entirely). Following that, it is the fault of publishers who still don't understand how to make games for Nintendo's customer base, despite literally hundreds of examples across several generations of successful first-party titles.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #22 on: December 02, 2014, 12:19:18 AM »
Nintendo has a history of making consoles designed to only sell their own titles. 3rd parties have a history of leaving because they're tired of neither Nintendo nor Nintendo fans supporting them. Nintendo fans have a history of entitlement complexes, where they demand specialized versions of 3rd party games catered to themselves and the gimmicks of their chosen platform, but they never show up when it comes time to purchase the games that would encourage such projects. In other words, it's business as usual.  I look forward to this little dance starting all over again in a few years where Nintendo goes around asking what Konami and Capcom want in a console, but doesn't speak to Ubisoft; EA; or Bethesda at all.

And I've said it before but I'll say it again: EA promised an "unprecedented partnership", and that's exactly what we got. :P
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Offline UncleBob

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #23 on: December 02, 2014, 12:28:25 AM »
Yes, damn you Nintendo fans for not buying the same stuff we shovel out everywhere else and demanding higher quality games.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: The Downfall of Ubisoft on Wii U
« Reply #24 on: December 02, 2014, 12:40:11 AM »
Yes, damn you Nintendo fans for not buying the same stuff we shovel out everywhere else and demanding higher quality games.

Nintendo fans (as a community) bitch when they get versions exactly the same as the other versions ("why aren't you taking advantage of our system's unique features?! We're Special!"), and they bitch when they get versions that are too different from the other versions ("Ugh! This isn't the version that everyone ELSE got! BOYCOTT!"). The only things consistent in the whole situation are that Nintendo fans bitch, and that Nintendo fans don't buy the games in the end. It's a no-win scenario, and if I'm a 3rd party why should I even bother when I know no one in this market has my back and there's a high probability that I'm going to lose money on the effort?  3rd parties skimp on Nintendo consoles because they know they're not going to make money, and you know what? They're right more often than they're wrong.

Are there 3rd parties who traditionally don't put in parity effort between the different versions? Of course there are. But when you have Nintendo out there courting and making deals with minor (in the global sense) Japanese 3rd parties like Sega and Capcom while outright ignoring (in the planning stages) every Western 3rd party out there, can you really blame them for being skittish on supporting Nintendo?  Nintendo fans always seem to find a reason to not buy 3rd party games, and Nintendo doesn't give a **** because they built their console to sell their own games, and those (as usual) are doing just fine.  The only way this turns around is if Nintendo actually works with 3rd parties going forward, involving them in the planning and development of the console and the marketing of the games. But what would require Nintendo actually caring how any other company performs on their consoles, especially outside Japan.
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