Ubisoft has published its financial results and reports, and having reported losses has been outlining plans and expectations for a successful coming year; pre-orders for Watch_Dogs and other major releases are cited as positives, though despite Just Dance 2014 hitting six million sell-in units and evidently performing well on Wii, Ubisoft is predicting a "strong decline" in the casual market, not listing the dancing franchise among its biggest confirmed products of the coming year.
No doubt a new entry or two in the dancing series will come later this year and perform relatively well, but it's telling that Ubisoft's reports only reference the Wii U once in terms of important products, and that's the already-released Child of Light. Although Watch_Dogs — which the company claims is the most pre-ordered new IP in gaming history — is expected in 2014 on Wii U, mentions of the potential blockbuster generally focus on the upcoming 27th May release date on all platforms but Nintendo's. In a graphic highlighting the Digital Distribution market — another major focus for the company — the eShop is conspicuous in its absence.
After a few years of solid support — with some controversial decisions thrown in — from 2011 to 2013 for both 3DS then Wii U, Ubisoft has released nothing of note on the 3DS and appears to have been moving through (for the time being) final projects for the home console. Sales per platform perhaps show why — in the most recent financial year the Wii U contributed just 3% of overall sales; Xbox 360 and PS3 provided 27 and 25% respectively, with 9% and 6% across the PS4 and Xbox One. The 3DS contributed 0% as there were no actual games, while the Wii is right up there with 11%, no doubt thanks to Just Dance. The question is, how long can the Wii sustain these sorts of numbers, especially as it was a drop from 16% of overall Ubisoft sales in the previous year? Wii U, for the record, dropped 1% from its 2012 / 2013 figure.
We'd expect the new Just Dance entries this year to support the Wii U and, probably, the Wii once again. The challenge for Nintendo is to shift a good number of sales to its newer hardware to encourage more Ubisoft support for the system; it's possible, of course, due to the simple fact that if major first-party releases can boost hardware sales, more gamers with Wii U systems in the living room may shift their purchases of the dancing game from the older hardware. It's a tough scenario — if Ubisoft doesn't offer enticing games Nintendo gamers may not bite, but if sales numbers of games released are low then it won't produce high quality games for the systems.
Ubisoft support for Nintendo hardware is, at this moment, as low as we've seen in recent years. It's a situation that can be improved, yes, but also a reminder that much work needs to be done to draw major publishers such as Ubisoft back to the big N's consoles.
[source ubisoftgroup.com, via ubisoftgroup.com]
Comments 95
Not surprised. I think most people who like these type of Ubisoft games (not including Just Dance) probably have a PS360 or PS4/Xbone and would chose them for any system but the Wii U anyway to play online, trophies/achievements, etc..
Nintendo should really consider throwing more money towards Ubisoft's way. Especially if it gets Ghost Recon: Phantoms back in development for Wii U.
@Kyloctopus
doubt that throwing money at Ubi would have them sell more consoles, and certainly not with GR. Its no COD, and only a few will care. Nintendo has to chose wisely before spending money
@Kyloctopus I want Ghost Recon: Phantoms on the Wii U so bad. I really like it on the pc, but I've always been a console gamer and I know I would enjoy a full paid version on my Wii U even more than I enjoy the free to play version. Plus that way Ubisoft would actually get my money. I wont spend any on a free to play.
Didn't Nintendo at the start of the year say they were looking into merging or purchasing companies? Nothing seems to have come of that as yet - any additional first party developer would benefit the Wii U, 3DS and any future system they make. Think it's time Nintendo spent some money on acquiring.
Assassin's Creed Unity on Xbox One and PS4. Assassin's Creed Comet confirmed today on Xbox 360 and PS3 confirmed today. Wii U? Pftt. Watch_Dogs and Just Dance will be the only Nintendo 3rd party support from Ubisoft.
@FragRed: The problem with that is Nintendo isn't doing so well financially itself. They need money to buy companies.
@Tasuki
They have a ton of money in there warchest, they just bought at mysterious company for 100mil. Just because sales are down doesn't mean that don't have money to burn
Meh they can go elsewhere.
@rumple88 They bought a mysterious company? Where did you hear about this?
remember the good old days?
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/04/ubisoft_wants_to_be_top_dog_on_wii_u
@FragRed during the shareholders meeting
Gee... I wonder if the low sales are mostly due to Ubisofts decisions with the Wii U.... I won't buy their products for a reason anymore.
Mario kart & Smash must deliver& sell systems, making the wii u attractive to third parties. But Nintendo saw this coming & courted the indies. At least it's something. You can't blame ubi for looking it for #1.
Well I picked up asscreed last November and it froze my u three times. Haven't played it sence. Since then the only title I picked up from them was chid of light which was great. Rayman is still on my list but I have no interest in buying any other asscreed games. It left a poor taste in my mouth. Also not in to shooters. I buy maybe one a year so no splinter cell. If you want my monney then release what I want. I speak with my wallet.
The situation for Ubisoft and the Wii U is arguable but the situation for Ubisoft with the 3DS is just silly! The system itself is selling like hotcakes but... The last time Ubisoft published a game on it was November 2012! (See 3DS Ubisoft games here: http://ubi.com/US/Games/Search.aspx)
I'm not sure how they'd expect to have any games selling on 3DS when they're not releasing any!
And as an fyi, Splinter Cell Wii U was being cleared out for around $17 on Amazon earlier this week.
I'm going to light a candle for Watch_Dogs at my Beyond Good & Evil 2 wish shrine.
This sure doesn't seem like good news.
If they came out with games people want besides shooters and ASSCREED then maybe they would sell more. Child of light looks promising but how can one complain when they do nothing or half butted work? Watch dogs looks good but what else do they have? What rayman? and that was awhile ago!
@MrWalkieTalkie to be fair as far as third parties go they are top dog...that's not saying much though
Rayman good game picked it up for 20 bucks during the holiday
TBH watch_dogs doesn't interest me at all
Assasins creed I tried 1 and the patriot one and ahh okay game
Far Cry is my ubi fave and I see no hope of it coming to wiiu
This is disappointing but I can't blame them.
The Wii U is a disaster and the vast majority of ppl that own one have shown that they'd rather let their console collect dust while waiting on 1st party games and/or play 3rd party game on different platforms.
You can't really blame consumers though. They're going to buy what they're interested in and what they can afford. Nintendo is going to have to do a much better job and pretty much do a complete 180 in quite a few areas if they're going to create a platform where consumers want to buy these games and publishers want to put games on their hardware
"casual market"? that's a stupid myth created by the industry and more stupid is the people parroting and noding.
Just dance's sales are fine for a game that has been released non-stop for 6 years. It was obviosuly start to decline sooner or later. It has nothing to do with this magical "casual market" (whoever distorted that term deserves to burn in hell) and their nerd and geek support to the industry. If you make the same gamer over and over and over and over again, each year, with minimal changes people will get eventually bored. Why they should need 5 games when one does the job just fine?
It's ridiculous. Just finding excuses and issues to point their fingers at.
I am getting tired of this industry. It deserves its decline.
Just Dance has sold about 47 million copies trough the years - 40 million of these on the Wii.
Assassin's Creed ha sol about 59 million copies trough the years - 25 mil. on X360 and 25 mil. on PS3.
Going trough VGChaartz database you can see Ubosoft has sold trough the years 1/4 to MS, 1/4 to Sony and more than 1/3 to Nintendo. Nintendo owners mostly buying cheap casual games.
@MrWalkieTalkie To be fair they tried. They released a lot of quality games.
Can you even fathom a third party developing a Wii U exclusive on the level of ZombiU here in 2014? That simply is not going to happen. Ubisoft tried, they did their part for Wii U, and Nintendo failed them, so they're moving on. Plain and simple.
Honestly, they can't even expect Just Dance to sell on on Wii U, either. If it's essentially the same game on both platforms, that's their main problem, right there. Make the Wii remote+ read your movements more accurately. Maybe throw in some GamePad camera stuff.
3DS is self explanatory, but I think they're going to have to do alot more than release Assassin's Creed Just Dance over and over. Splintercell, ZombiU, and Watch_Dogs are good choices, but that's because they are different.
We need different games, and if they make new entries to a series, they need to be fresh, otherwise no one will care.
I don't care if Assassin's Creed is selling on Xbox or PS. If it's basically the same game as the last, I couldn't care less on whether it's available on Wii U. I won't be buying AC on Xbox One either, because it's the same crap.
I just want more UbiArt stuff. Child of Light and Rayman Legends are both must-own titles.
Disappointing, but expected. People can't throw the accusation of being a lazy dev at them. They gave us an exclusive game in ZombiU, something they did not do for the others. They had to take Rayman multiformat because of the tanking sales, and they had to delay on Wii U if they wanted it on 360. Simillar with Watch Dogs. They needed to put more people on the other versions, so took devs off tge Wii U because it would probably have sold about 50k and nobody cares about upsetting such a small crowd.
@Peach64 zombie u has sold an estimated 600,000 copys not counting digital.
3% is honestly not that low taking into account the fragmentation of the market and the number of titles Ubisoft has put on the Wii-U and 3DS versus X-Box 360, X-Box One, PS3, PS4, PSVita and online. Although I don't actually know the numbers if they only put 3 games out on the Wii-U and 3DS all of which are also out on other platforms with more complete versions and 50 out on other platforms that just aren't on the Wii-U or 3DS than of course Wii-U and 3DS aren't going to be a strong percentage of your overall sales, how would it be?
Wouldn't be surprised if Ubisoft do a last minute cancellation on watchdogs coming out on Wii U
@CaptOlimar30
That's a good point. Wii U and 3DS don't have nearly as many Ubisoft games as other platforms; the 7th gen ones, anyway.
Taking that into account, we wouldn't even know if people are still buying Assassin's Creed 1, 2, Brotherhood, etc. Far Cry 3 is still out there...
@Peach64
It really depends. Zombi U sold fairly well on Wii U, but they completely trashed their budget during the development by changing concepts. Also, if we consider that it costs $2 million tops to port an Xbox 360 game, they don't have to make as big of a return if development was only on Wii U. ZombiU was developed exclusively for Wii U, but again, trashed budget...
They can't even blame any sales count for Rayman Legends on Wii U alone, so I'd say that was a good choice.
I think the real question is how many titles do they have on the WiiU? If the answer is "only 3% of our games are on the WiiU platform" then a 3% sales figure is nothing to be ashamed of. It shows people are just as willing to pay for games on the WiiU as any other platform.
Unfortunately in the world of business, shareholders don't look at the figures practically, they just look at what it means for their wallet.
I've been playing AC4 recently, and although it's WAAAYY better than AC3, 25 hours in I'm getting bored of it. It's nowhere as good as Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, or W101. I also found Rayman lacking. Undoubtedly I say this as a Nintendo fan, but it doesn't change the fact that buying another Ubisoft game is a waste for me. I personally think their games are hollow and vapid. Watchdogs just look like AC with a hacker skin.
Although I'm disappointed games like Arkham and Street Fighter won't be coming to the Wii U, I'm really apathetic to the rest of the 'big' games 3rd party genre. I trust Nintendo and Nintendo backed game (Bayonetta 2/X/Hyrule Warriors) to make me happy, because I've been conditioned to expect Nintendo quality games.
Well I think all we can expect now on our Wii U's are first party Nintendo games and some indi stuff.
3rd party is all but gone...
@CaptOlimar30
that might have been an acceptable argument if the two 6 months old consoles that have less UBI games wouldn't have had more sales. Wii U has everything they have but no Zombi U or splinter cell for them.
You can all try to make this about the quality of UBI games, but they have been some of the best games in the past year, the problem has been that UBi put a lot of stock in Wii U and got no return in it's investment and is rightfully moving on, it's not like they are mad at Nintendo, what millions of dollars they made through Wii, some small part of it they lost with Wii U, and now they will release Watch_dogs as the final AAA game on Wii U, after that we will only probably see smaller and newer franchises like child of light hit the Wii U.
for me I have my PC and will buy a PS4 very soon, but for teenagers (that probably will only get one of these choices) I don't expect they will hop on the Wii U train.
You contributed to this reality Ubi.
Early Wii U adopters counted on you to deliver Rayman Legends. You did not deliver. Not in the sense that people were expecting anyway.
And to me you didn't deliver with Zombi U, which could've been something much more interesting had it remained a kitsch sci-fi game.
What else you guys provide is just the same games you release on other consoles.
Reinvent yourselves or perish.
Never bought their stuff anyway. Don't need major third party and I'm fine with a slim first party release schedule from Nintendo since I buy most first party titles on Wii U and 3DS.
I have most of Ubisoft's games on my Wii U. For the most part, they're pretty damn good. I don't want to see Ubisoft abandon their support for the Wii U, but if they can't make a profit...
I understand abandoning the Wii U, don't understand abandoning the 3DS
This shows how badly Nintendo messed up with Wii U. Ubisoft had a lot of games on Wii, from Raving Rabbids to Just Dance to Red Steel to Anno and others. Now, on the Wii U they've had to scale back releases, because the buyers and players just aren't there on the Gamepad system.
its because when people have a nintendo console that means there are nintendo games on it
and everyone know that they make the best games so when choosing between a nintendo game or 3rd party most people choose the nintendo game and that is why third party sales are low
@Mahe
On the gamepad system lol? Scapegoat the gamepad for everything. Yep, it's the gamepad's fault. People always gotta find something to blame. A real, tangible boogieman to point their fingers at.
Ubisoft had a bunch of casual crap on Wii. The only real exclusive they put on Wii was Red Steel and Red Steel 2, both of which only sold between 500k-750k. And that was out of one hundred million console owners. They brought ZombiU to the Wii U, and out of 6 million console owners has MATCHED the sales of Red Steel.
Then you factor in the multiplats like AC3, AC4, Splinter Cell Blacklist and Watch Dogs, and you realize that Ubisoft has brought MORE meaningful support to Wii U already than than they brought to Wii the entire generation.
But the bottom line is Red Steel couldn't sell on Wii out of a hundred million console owners, and ZombiU, AC3, AC4, Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs can't sell on Wii U. Has nothing to do with the console, OR THE GAMEPAD> it's the reality that the individuals who buy Nintendo platforms are not interested in AAA games. They didn't buy them on Wii. They're not buying them on Wii U.
I'm not buying the notion that Ubi did a great job supporting the Wii U. I just went and looked through a list of their AAA Wii U titles and just some things I noticed
Assassins Creed 3: on other platforms. Pretty damn buggy. Got the DLC well after the other console versions
ZombiU: Arguably their best effort, suffered from being a launch title. Got beaten up by critics which obviously put people off of buying it.
Rayman Legends: Delayed the game 8 months to make it multiplat. Challenge Mode download was kinda cool of them but still, an 8 month delay was douchey. Still sold best on WiiU
Splinter Cell Blacklist: Lacking local co-op mode that the other version had.
Assassins Creed 4: No DLC
Watch Dogs: Not even being released with the other versions.
Anyone seeing any patterns here? Cause this is NOT looking like a "great effort" to me. They couldn't even bother for parity between consoles. Or at least do something to make up for it. Arkham Origins didn't put the (admittedly doggieoopsiepoopie) multiplayer into the Wii U version. They realized that it'd piss Wii U owners off so they reduced the launch price to 50$. Ubisoft? Nothing.
@DakotaM47 Also NO FAR CRY!
NO FAR CRY OR ASSASINS CREED.
Plus Watch Dogs Wii U isn't mentioned AT ALL.
This is all Nintendo's fault for not competing.
It's doing more harm than good
Know what? I'm sick of this crap, if your game is not selling it's because you're not pushing it enough. Ubisoft, why should someone who has an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 buy the Wii U version of the game if there's nothing special about it? This is why multiplats on Wii U are not working; the Wii U does not have the same size install base or even the same install base at all the PlayStation 3 or 360 have, so how can you expect these things to sell well at all? You want to complain about a lack of sales? Make more exclusive games and then come back to me.
@JaxonH You know, not everyone has the luxury of secondary consoles.
Plus there's no point defending Nintendo now. UBISOFT, my favourite publisher, has relegated the Wii U to Just Dance. Inexcusable for Nintendo.
@JaxonH It is because the Wii was UNDERPOWERED compared to PS3. (I wanted to get LEGO Batman 2 on Wii but the PS3 was HD and now that is broken I might get it for Wii U...)
@WiiULoveGBA /s! Right?
wii is dead, without online there won't be a reason to make just dance anymore on the platform, and there goes a whole 11% of sales from ubisoft right there.
@ferthepoet 3DS makes them 0% of money. ZERO!
Alright look. If you want sales you have to take risks. Yes, the Wii U isn't selling well right now and yes they're not selling many of their games on the console. However, what they fail to realize is that the games they are releasing are half-donkeyed ports with no extra effort made on their part. They delay, leave bugs, release after other platforms; it's like they literally don't give a doggieoopsiepoopiepoodle, like they don't want the sales.
What they need to do is risk making just one good game focussed on the Wii U and using its unique features and make sure that it runs well, it's out before the other console versions and that it's sold at a decent price-point. No more of this herp derp £60 for a new game doggieoopsiepoopiepoodle; £40 is what we used to pay and I'm not paying more than that anymore. I will buy the game on the PC for £40 if I have the opportunity because the pricing is bulldoggieoopsiepoopiepoodle on the Wii U.
If they can do all that and cater to the fans they will start to sell not only copies of their game but systems as well; that is how the system works. You can' just throw a turd at the fans and tell them it's worth buying the console for. Just take a damn risk. The companies used to take risks. How do you think indie games do so well? Because they take risks, make good games that people want, sell at great price-points that people can actually afford and try to use a consoles features.
--- Alright, sorry for the rant but I just felt I should add my opinion of why they're not doing well on the Wii U, whether it's wrong or right.
You can share your opinion, but we prefer you not use profanity in it -Lz
@MrGawain X= First party.
CAN'T WAIT FOR THE ULTIMATE SAVIOURS O2 MEDIA AND TECMO KOEI WITH THE HIGH QUALITY HYRULE WARRIORS!
@Findonovan95 This. Times. Infinity.
@memoryman3 You mean that one game they released in 2012 and nothing since?
I could swear Ubisoft added some of their 3DS games to the eShop in 2013. Then again who would want to pay £40 for Ghost Recon when you can get it for £5 physical.
All nintendo's fault IMO
@KoiTenchi Sadly Western games and 3DS do not mix well at all.
Makes sense, Ninty needs to step it up.
AC4 was the best game for PS4/XB1 systems? I'm guessing if you bought either, there is a good chance you picked it up. Other then that Splinter Cell, and Rayman, what else did Ubi offer Nintendo gamers for the fiscal year?
The question is, is a loss now worth potential profits for the future? Watch Dogs, if ever released for Wii U will probably be their answer and sadly it is coming out too late to have a real impact.
@Diz93 Ahem Here's USB controllers for your PC needs.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=usb+controler&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=30907249221&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10281795875331516878&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_33ey1odvz3_b
@memoryman3
Because they released 0 games for it last year 0
@Andremario Assassins Creed IV is fantastic, and fits wonderfully as an open world adventure on a system that lacks them.
look, i love nintendo but it's like this. as @Peach64 said, ubisoft is a publisher that we cannot accuse of releasing the same game every year, but the problems are:
nintendo fanboys have hated them since the rayman legends fiasco (a game you're really missing out on, guys)
those that own a variety of systems (which may inculde wii u) will want the superior version of the game. in general, 3rd party games don't sell on the wii u, and that's why this is happening, and a lot of you are among those to blame. platformers that have always been close to nintendo like sonic and rayman will always sell on nintendo consoles cause they're always built for nintendo consoles. indie heaven is on wii u because many nintendo franboys accuse any big publisher of putting no effort in anything.
This is a tricky business. Personally, I've enjoyed Ubi's support of the Wii U. I purchased Rayman Legends on the Wii U over other versions, and have a blast playing it with my son. On the contrary, we selected Just Dance 2014 for the Xbox One, so as to dance without worrying about flying Wiimotes. So if Just Dance sales are going to break Nintendo, we unfortunately can't contribute there.
I feel sad about the "business" angle of these situations. For example, when I bought my Wii U, I figured we would see stronger versions of games. A lot of what came out on PS360 was scaled down compared to PC versions, but the Wii U offered more power. Yet, no one seemed interested in putting that work in, so most ports have been just that- ports. Sometimes with an extra feature, sometimes missing a feature. I had every intention of buying Watch Dogs for Wii U, but now that version is delayed until lord knows when, and my friends are pressuring me to buy it on Xbox One instead. It's a vicious cycle. If the Wii U version launched alongside the others, I would make the counter argument to my friends (who also have Wii U's) that it has the best second screen support, and the multiplayer should be sufficient. But with the delay, those units will move and only Wii U ONLY folks will get that version. Which is a small crowd, considering the game has last gen versions as well.
@Kisame83 Same problem here, but this time it's the PS4 exclusive ads that are pressuring me
@ZeroZX_Dev Rayman Origins 3DS......
Nintendo should buy Ubisoft. Then people would come crawling...
Wow...not even there biggest third party supporter is making it anywhere on Nintendo consoles, who could have guessed this
@Nik-Davies no...no we wouldnt lol
Ubisoft don't leeeaave me!
3 of my first 5 Wii U games were Ubisoft's, I wouldbe far more optimistic about the Wii U's future if it had both Ubisoft and Nintendo games on the way. They balance each other exceptionally well.
Makes sense with what Ubisoft has been doing to Nintendo fans, like the "exclusive" Rayman Legends, delayed Watch Dogs (that I guarantee it'll just be like all the other versions)...if they're just going to be lazy like all the other 3rd parties with these ports, keep them off my system.
It sucks, too, because Wii U feels left out of the party! I mean, even games going EVERYWHERE else are ditching Wii U. Why isn't Dragon Age Inquisition coming to Wii U, or Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, or Metal Gear Solid V GZ/PP, or Mass Effect full trilogy?
@Mizore I agree. With those big names not on it (And Ubisoft not panicing and completely tanking the prices) then there is a chance for deserving 3rd party exclusives to actually make some money.
@Kisame83 The Xbone/PS4 Tomb Raider is anything but definitive.
@Savino Yea, I get that. I'm just saying it's a bad cycle. The system doesn't sell enough to warrant game production...but it won't be able to sell if no one makes games for it. What do the other two companies do to inspire "faith?"
Let me put it this way. Xbox One has sold somewhere around 5 million units, as of the last figure I saw. And the last report I looked at put Wii U in the 6-7 mil range. Dismal compared to the Wii, and about half the speed of the Xbox One (maybe less), which makes the negative impression legitimate. But it also tells us that there are more Wii U's in homes than Xbox One's. So why is Xbox One guaranteed everything that isn't an exclusive, and the Wii U gets table scraps with gimped feature sets? We can debate future sales all we want, but an install base is an install base at the end of the day.
@unrandomsam ha, I'm just using it's official name. The Wii U could handle a port of the original version just as well. I mean, Deus Ex rocks on Wii U.
@AJWolfTill Not really what balances against Nintendo is Capcom/Konami/Sega. (Western stuff always makes awful compromises that the only way around is to use a PC).
Nintendo put out a system that only appeals to longtime Nintendo fans and familys. Those two groups do not buy 3rd party games historically, especially not mature themed games. The part that still gets me is how naive Nintendo was in thinking WiiU ever appealed to gamers. In order to do that they needed to offer everything gamers love about 360/PS3: great online, achievements, social features, and GAMES. They had the nerve to act like 3rd parties would flourish on WiiU given everything going against that notion. Iwata should step down for being so out of touch with reality.
@Kisame83 The Tress FX thing makes it look stupid anyway and destroys performance. (Who knows why they chose that over Super Sampling / Tessellation). I have only played the PS4 version but the framerate drops.
(Coincidently the same thing that caused me to turn it off - none of the other options it makes a different on maximum or not).
@memoryman3 Rayman Origins 3DS was released in November 2012. It's not the ONLY game they released on 3DS in 2012 but it's the highest profile one so I assume that's what he was referring to.
As I noted on my original post though, Ubisoft released zero games on 3DS since November 2012. I assume they have financial meetings yearly so the sales they are noting are probably only referring to sales from 2013 and this first part of 2014 AKA a time frame in which they released zero games on the system so obviously it would account for 0% of their sales.
I assume it isn't that literally no one bought a Ubisoft game on 3DS but that the amount of people suddenly buying 1 or 2 year old Ubisoft games (depending if they bought them last year or this year) were so few compared to the people buying the NEW Ubisoft games on other consoles that I assume the 3DS sales didn't reach 1% and then rounded down.
Sad to hear the last major 3rd party is pulling out For the record, I love Ubisoft games and bought ZombiU, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Rayman Legends and Assassin's Creed III for WiiU.
I makes me so sad to see Nintendo failing
Sales of Assassin's Creed seems to have peaked with AC III (even though Black Flag was a better game), Splinter Cell has peaked a long time ago, Just Dance peaked on the Wii, Prince of Persia peaked on the PS2, Rayman has peaked, Rayman Legends was a disaster on all platforms.
Far Cry may still grow stronger.
It is up to Watchdogs and the Crew to reinvent Ubisoft.
One problem that I see with third parties is that they are basically selling 100$+ games which might turn off some people that have noticed, while Nintendo doesn't do that (and I hope they won't)
Take for example Batman Arkham Origins. I was very interested in buying it for the Wii U since I'm a huge Batman fan and I loved the Arkham games, but after they basically said that there was gonna be a "Season pass" which included 2 DLC missions (one of them was a mission in which you played as Bruce Wayne during his ORIGIN story which was his training with the League of shadows if I recall)+ a lot of alternate costumes, I said "no", since this should have been included in the game in the first place as unlockable stuff. Plus no multiplayer....?
I waited I few months and I got it for 15 in Steam with the "season pass". Take that Rocksteady.... you could have gotten more from me but you screwed up
These companies are abusing the whole DLC/season pass thing
The worst offender in this was 2K with Bioshock infinite. Don't get me wrong. it's an amazing game, I love it, but for a game that is very story/art driven with an amazing world and characters, I was expecting - like any other similar game like that, that I have played in the past like the previous Arkham games - some things like unlockable art gallery or concept art, you know, the usual stuff. I started playing and collected the voxophones, and I found weird that It didn't had the gallery or anything but I thought to myself, "maybe it will unlock AFTER I beat the game, like Metroid Prime did". I finished the game and .... nope, that's it.
Well, guess was...... the art/music gallery is in the SEASON PASS along with 2 extra "chapters" and a challenge mode that has 4 maps..........
Why wasn't that in the original game?. Batman games had the art gallery / Batman encyclopedia and combat challenges in the first place..... with some extras as DLC if you wanted to buy those later
Videogames companies are changing the way they make games. They release a buggy/incomplete games that they end up fixing with patches after launch and the rest of the game is basically DLC
I was gonna buy Watch Dogs on Wii U but after hearing the whole Season Pass thing, I'll wait. They will drop the price on the e-shop it a few months or a year. In the meantime I'll play some other amazing NINTENDO games such as Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros
@Indielink
I've heard the parity arguments before, but they just don't hold any water. It's not parity issues that are preventing AAA titles from selling on Wii U. It's the fundamental issue of fans not taking interest in those realistic types of games. You could give Wii U the uber-duber, ultra-special super edition, and it won't make a split of difference.
@memoryman3
"Ubisoft has relegated Wii U to nothing more than Just Dance. Inexcusable for Nintendo".
Two things wrong with that statement. First, Ubisoft didn't relegate Wii U to Just Dance, we did. Wii U owners did. Not enough of us bought their games, so they didn't sell even remotely close enough to breaking even for Ubisoft. Ergo, support withdrawn. No publisher is going to actively keep making the same stupid mistake over and over again. Ubisoft ports AAA game, it flops and they lose money. Ubisoft ports AAA game, it flops and they lose money. Ubisoft ports AAA game, it flops and they lose money. It's just business. You can get angry about it but you should direct that anger at the party responsible- Wii U owners. Although, it's a little silly to get mad at people for having their own preferences. If most Wii U owners don't like or buy AAA games, that's just the way it is. That's life, as they say.
Second thing wrong with that statement ties into the first. Inexcusable for Nintendo? Nintendo doesn't have anything to do with it. It's Ubisoft's games, and not enough of us bought them. We were given SEVERAL chances to prove ourselves as a viable market for their AAA titles, and we spoke loud and clear. Nintendo fans won't buy their games. Nintendo has nothing to do with it whatsoever. Just Ubisoft, and Wii U owners. WE are the responsible party. And it's time people start taking some responsibility instead of shoving blame onto Nintendo for our poor decisions and failure to put our money where our mouths are. Talk is cheap. You can say "we want AAA games" all day long. But the sales numbers disagree with you. The sales numbers say we DON'T want AAA games.
You know it's bad when even Ubisoft tears away from your console. It's hard to see things turning around for the Wii U when 3rd parties are getting burned every time they touch it.
While I'm sure Nintendo fanboys would be perfectly fine with only 1st party games, it's not viable.
@mastersworddude @JaxonH
But it is kind of Nintendo's fault for not promoting these types of games, because thanks to the Wii, now we get kiddie NFC games and shovelware a as support. And that is not viable.
And £250 for exclusives and regular droughts is overkill.
@JaxonH If Wii U was more powerful, and Nintendo promoted it as "next-gen" non-Nintendo fans would take notice and buy the games.
@JaxonH
I'm not saying it's completely the cause for the lack of sales, Nintendo still very much has the stigma of being for families and there are tons of parents buying one for their 12 year olds who obviously won't be playing Splinter Cell. But that doesn't change the fact that there are "real" gamers out there who own a Wii U and would love to play those games ON their Wii U. But we get gimped. It's why I didn't buy those games and why several friends of mine didn't. Why the hell would I have bought any of those games (actually, I did get ZombiU and Rayman day 1) when I have access to a PS3/360/Xbox1 and can get a more feature rich version?
I frequent IGN in addition to NintendoLife and one or two other sites and let me tell you, the Watch Dogs Wii U hype was pretty huge on IGN...until Ubisoft delayed it. Wii U gamers ARE getting excited about grittier games until they find out their versions are going to be lacking.
@memoryman3
Marketing isn't the problem. And no, people wouldn't have bought the Wii U. People are comfortable with what they know, and they aren't going to buy Nintendo. They just aren't. Unless Nintendo gets ALL the 3rd party games, and I do mean all, and people are they have them for a good 2 generations, then people might start considering them. Problem is, that will never happen. Can barely get ONE game.
If Ubisoft won't even market their own games, why on Earth should Nintendo? No, it's not their responsibility, they've got enough to market of their own. Wouldn't matter anyways, Ubisoft knows this and that's why they won't bother marketing them, even though THEY spent all that money developing it.
At some point, you have to realize cch Nintendo just isn't that kind of console. It's like wanting a luxury car to sell itself as a sports car. And that's ok. You can't afford multiple consoles? Then don't get mad when you can't play all the games out there. That's just how it is. There is no equality in gaming. AAA doesn't sell in Nintendo, will never sell on Nintendo, and that's just how it is.
Theorizing if only they did this, if only they did that solves nothing. This is how it is. I advise to sit back, relax and just enjoy the console. If you like AAA so much that you can't enjoy playing any other kind of game, by all means sell what you got and never look back, cause you'll never be satisfied.
@JaxonH Why not?
stupid fanboys killed the Wii U
@Indielink
Here's the thing. If you own a Wii U and another console, then it won't matter which one is the definitive version, or which one runs better, because you have the choice of going with either or. If you only own a Wii U, then it won't matter which one is the definitive version or which one runs better, because you only have one option (and no person who wants to play Game A isn't going to skip it on Wii U when they have no other console to buy a slightly better version).
Yes, there are some, I emphasize SOME, Wii U owners who would love to play those games on Wii U (I happen to be one of them. I own every single multiplat on the system, even down to Sniper Elite v2). But not enough to have a major impact on sales. Lack of parity has served as a convenient excuse for why AAA has yet to sell on Wii U, but that's really all it is- an excuse. Some Wii U ports haven't measured up to other versions, but certainly not all of them. Some run even better on Wii U. And all have exclusive Wii U features via Gamepad and even Wiimote as well in some cases. Yet they still didn't sell, just like every other AAA port on the system. Even ZombiU, an exclusive that had no "other version" to compete with, still couldn't muster meaningful sales numbers. I'm not saying there isn't ANYONE interested in those games, just not enough to mean anything. Couple hundred thousand of us isn't enough to matter.
Sure, you may have passed on some AAA Wii U titles for another system's version, but many others, like myself, passed on another system's version to buy the one on Wii U. Unfortunately, it's just not enough to matter, even if every single person had gone with the Wii U version. If what you're implying were true, 3rd parties wouldn't be treating the Wii U version as an afterthought. If they even REMOTELY believed that there is substantial sales potential if they only make the game with parity, then that's what they'd all be doing. They're not stupid. They gimp our games because they know that even if they give us the best version, with bonus content, even an early release... it's not gonna make a split of difference. That's why they're hedging their bets and minimizing cost. I can't say I blame them either. I certainly don't like it, but I can't really blame them for it. I understand where they're coming from. In fact, I often find myself frustrated with how little interest Wii U owners (and Nintendo platform owners in general) show toward anything other than 1st party.
I think it boils down to the fact that Nintendo platforms ARE predominantly owned by children, and grown adults. But the age gap in-between is pretty sparse when it comes to Nintendo. It's like kids grow up on Nintendo, then hit their preteen/teenage years and rebel against Nintendo because they want to distance themselves from anything that could associate themselves as being children (that immature phase kids go through where they're afraid to be seen with their mother in public- they're desperate to not be seen as a child by their peers). Then later in their life, perhaps their twenties, when they're fully grown and secure in who they are and what they like, that's when they go BACK to playing Nintendo. For this reason, the age group that predominantly accounts for the bulk of AAA sales, is not present with Nintendo platforms. Which is probably why AAA games struggle to sell on them. The young kids and adults that the fanbase primarily consists of, aren't as interested in AAA games as the age group of 12-20.
That last part about the fanbase disproportionately consisting of young kids and adults to very little teens is just my theory. If you don't buy into it that's fine. It's just speculation anyways. But I do think there is some truth to it. To what extent, well, that's hard to say without hard data to go by.
@JaxonH I think you just nailed it!
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