Topic: Red Steel 2 Sales Projections Halved

[NWR_DrewMG]

Ubisoft slashes its sales expectations for the upcoming action title.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=20794

 Ubisoft has cut sales projections for Red Steel 2, due out in March 2010, in half from 1,000,000 to 500,000.  This comes shortly after Ubisoft's "Avatar: The Game" sold under projected figures last month.      

"For Avatar we said 2.5 million units and our expectations were more in the 3.5-4 million [region].  On Red Steel we decided, in our expectations, to divide the quantity by two and previously we had around a million," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot on a financial conference call earlier this week.    

The game, which was originally slated to release in fall of 2009, will release in North America on March 23, according to the Ubisoft webpage.

[Jonnyboy117]

Hrm, because it sucks? I hope not.

[broodwars]

I think Ubisoft just realized that even released a month later, Red Steel 2 is competing directly with the multiplatform Bioshock 2 (which will probably slaughter it).  And if that doesn't, you also have God of War III and Final Fantasy XIII releasing just a few weeks prior.  It's a busy month, and it's likely that the audience that would buy Red Steel 2 probably has a pretty expensive February->March already.  That is, of course, unless the mythical Wii expanded audience actually shows up to the party for once.

Of course, I'm not disregarding the possibility that the game sucks, either.  This is an Ubisoft Wii title, after all.

[vudu]

Honestly, I'm expecting another XIII here--a game with a neat hook and interesting art style that winds up being dull and uninteresting.  I'd love to be proven wrong, but my hopes aren't high.

[NWR_pap64]

Of course, I'm not disregarding the possibility that the game sucks, either.  This is an Ubisoft Wii title, after all.

In all fairness, when Ubi puts all of their talent behind a title they can make an amazing title. Rabbids Go Home was an excellent adventure title with some incredible creativity put into it. It looks like Ubi may be putting the same kind of creativity into Red Steel 2. Not saying that it WILL be fantastic, but considering its been in development for a long time and use MotionPlus I doubt it will be terrible or even mediocre like the first one...

[Peachylala]

Pap, while I agree with you, Ubi is trying to aim at pleasing the same audience who bought Metroid Prime 3/Trilogy. Not only is their reputation with the non-casual Wii audience pretty much destoryed, if Red Steel 2 isn't all that it's cracked out to be then their already damaged rep gets more damaged. There will be no saving them.

Also, I bet Nintendo would be pretty pissed since Retro supposedly helped them out with M+.

[ShyGuy]

500k sounds about right. They could still hit a million lifetime with good reviews and promotion.

Conduit is sitting around 400k lifetime, right? But COD4 Wii is looking at 500k after only two months, so there you go. If people know the name, and it has some brand recognition they will buy the Wii FPS. Ubisoft just needs to get the Red Steel name out there.

The official Red Steel forums have had a Fan kit for download the past month, but Ubisoft hasn't told anyone about it. Failed attempt at viral. http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6421073957/m/6471087618

[NWR_pap64]

Pap, while I agree with you, Ubi is trying to aim at pleasing the same audience who bought Metroid Prime 3/Trilogy. Not only is their reputation with the non-casual Wii audience pretty much destoryed, if Red Steel 2 isn't all that it's cracked out to be then their already damaged rep gets more damaged. There will be no saving them.

Also, I bet Nintendo would be pretty pissed since Retro supposedly helped them out with M+.

You talking about sales? Because I wasn't talking about sales, I was talking about overall quality.

Still, I agree that the game will be difficult to sell to the core Wii audience. The first game, while successful, was a critical failure and fans hated it. Ubi has gone back and forth between being a Wii supporter and being just another apathetic third party, and the casual efforts are pretty damn bad. So with this I doubt the game will even read 500,000 copies by the end of 2010.

[NWR_Lindy]

To be brutally honest, I see no reason whatsoever to pick up Red Steel 2.

1) The first game in the series was lackluster, giving me no confidence that its sequel will be any good.
2) It has no online multiplayer.  Come on Ubisoft, having a single-player-only FPS game that isn't named Metroid Prime just doesn't cut it these days.  Let me put it another way: I'm expecting RS2 to have a half-assed single-player component...the least you could do is give it some badass online functionality.

[Kairon]

2) It has no online multiplayer.  Come on Ubisoft, having a single-player-only FPS game that isn't named Metroid Prime just doesn't cut it these days.  Let me put it another way: I'm expecting RS2 to have a half-assed single-player component...the least you could do is give it some badass online functionality.

So basically... you expect the game to be underwhelming in all respects?

[ShyGuy]

Lindy makes me angry!

[Urkel]

I've still stuck to my boycott of Ubisoft. Of course, I'll make a single exception for NMH2. I'm not going to punish poor Suda.
 
The only way I would even consider buying RS2 is if it's GOTY material.

[Chozo Ghost]

If competing with other games in March is an issue then why don't they delay the game further until april, may, june, or whenever? And by delaying it they could use the time to add an MP component.

[EasyCure]

What if it gets TP syndrome; starts off strong and falls thru towards the end because ubisoft stopped caring since you know "hardcore games don't sell on wii" and thats why they sliced their sales predictions in half for this title?

edit: Looky that, linked an article from today to yesterdays post

(sorry, i'm feeling too lazy to make up a new post)

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't think it would be possible to do online play well in this game. There are all kinds of ways to deal with lag in a FPS, but there's no way to hide it in the swordplay, and you'd need 100% accuracy to pull that off. They had the choice to be like Brawl or to be like NSMBW, to do online badly or not to do it at all.

I've still stuck to my boycott of Ubisoft. Of course, I'll make a single exception for NMH2. I'm not going to punish poor Suda.
 
The only way I would even consider buying RS2 is if it's GOTY material.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. It's ridiculous to buy a game solely to support those who made it and just as ridiculous to refuse to buy a game in an attempt to punish those who made it. Buy games because they're what you want to play and don't let industry politics be a factor.

[Kairon]

I've still stuck to my boycott of Ubisoft. Of course, I'll make a single exception for NMH2. I'm not going to punish poor Suda.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. It's ridiculous to buy a game solely to support those who made it and just as ridiculous to refuse to buy a game in an attempt to punish those who made it. Buy games because they're what you want to play and don't let industry politics be a factor.

However, buying a game out of genuine interest in the curiousity and style of an influential creator is, in my book, perfectly fine.

[D_Average]

Woah. No online in this games?  What's the point. Even if it reviews well I think it'll sit around like Madworld and Overkill. Without solid online the word of mouth buying will probably fail.   I think it was 1997 I played Doom online. Why is this still such a hurdle?  Inexcusable.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

"What's the point."

A swordplay adventure.

[BlackNMild2k1]

To be brutally honest, I see no reason whatsoever to pick up Red Steel 2.

1) The first game in the series was lackluster, giving me no confidence that its sequel will be any good.
2) It has no online multiplayer.  Come on Ubisoft, having a single-player-only FPS game that isn't named Metroid Prime just doesn't cut it these days.  Let me put it another way: I'm expecting RS2 to have a half-assed single-player component...the least you could do is give it some badass online functionality.

I don't think RS2 would work very well with multiplayer unless there was more 1:1 skill with the sword.

[Ian Sane]

See I figured that since Red Steel was junk it would make no sense to assume that Red Steel 2 would be any good.  I never understood why anyone was interested in it.

But then the first Assassin's Creed wasn't considered to be very good but they made a sequel to it anyway and in the end the sequel was well received.  And Ubisoft was responsible for that as well.  There is precedence of Ubisoft flupping a first game and then recovering with the sequel.  So now I don't know what to think.  I'd still wait for reviews though as Ubisoft has never really impressed me much, especially on the Wii.

[Chozo Ghost]

See I figured that since Red Steel was junk it would make no sense to assume that Red Steel 2 would be any good.  I never understood why anyone was interested in it.

Because the first Red Steel was obviously rushed in order for it to be a Wii launch title. It obviously wasn't ready to be released, and that's why it sucked. With this game Ubi has spent much more time on it (even delaying it some months). Another thing to be excited about is this one has M+ support which means the sword fighting will be more 1:1 instead of waggle.

So don't dismiss it before it has even been released. We know MP is out of the question with this one, but that doesn't mean it won't be a solid SP adventure ala Zelda or whatever.

[NWR_insanolord]

This is just a giant self-fulfilling prophecy. They don't expect it to sell, so they're not going to bother trying to market it, which means it's not going to sell.

[broodwars]

If competing with other games in March is an issue then why don't they delay the game further until april, may, june, or whenever? And by delaying it they could use the time to add an MP component.

Because that would make sense, that's why.  Unless they're seriously going to support this game with a marketing campaign on-par with Nintendo (hah!), I think it's insane to release this game in March when they could push it back a month or two and really make sure this thing's ready to go.  I know I have a passing interest in the game, but my wallet's more than already owned by Bioshock 2 and FF XIII in that timeframe (there's also Dante's Inferno in there somewhere I'm somewhat interested in).  I have more confidence that they won't suck than I do with Red Steel 2 and I doubt I'm the only one, so unless Ubisoft's ready to play ball they'd better get the hell out of the way.

[Jonnyboy117]

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. It's ridiculous to buy a game solely to support those who made it and just as ridiculous to refuse to buy a game in an attempt to punish those who made it. Buy games because they're what you want to play and don't let industry politics be a factor.

Hello, sexy. I like the way you talk.

[Dirk Temporo]

1) The first game in the series was lackluster, giving me no confidence that its sequel will be any good.

Even though it's a fundamentally and completely different game utilizing additional technology, and the first one was a LAUNCH title for a system which hadn't even been thoroughly tested as far as control accuracy goes? Good thing that makes sense.

2) It has no online multiplayer.  Come on Ubisoft, having a single-player-only FPS game that isn't named Metroid Prime just doesn't cut it these days.

Good thing it isn't an FPS then.

I'm expecting RS2 to have a half-assed single-player component

Which is pretty retarded given the game is ENTIRELY about the single-player.

And TBH if you're putting the fans of this in the same boat with the people who are going to eat up FFXXXVI and God of Brown and Generic Plots, I think you have a screw loose.

This is just a giant self-fulfilling prophecy. They don't expect it to sell, so they're not going to bother trying to market it, which means it's not going to sell.

This is exactly what I thought when I read the news post. I figure they're just doing this to get out of spending any money on marketing, so when it sells like ****, they can say "See, we totally called it"