It's fair to say it's not been an easy ride for Rayman Legends and the Wii U. Starting off with the delightful news last year that the game would be a Wii U exclusive, to the unfortunate announcement in February this year that it was no longer confined to Nintendo's latest console, but being released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. We can't forget that the mention of a delay was also in there too.
However, Wii U owners could avail themselves of the Rayman Legends Challenges application which went down a treat, only to be left with a rather sour taste in our mouths when it was announced that the Playstation Vita would receive Rayman Legends, along with some neat exclusive content.
In a recent interview with GamesBeat, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was asked if he still stood by the decision to delay the game. Guillemot explains that the real reason behind the agreement to postpone the game to a later date was that the company didn't feel it would sell well enough on Nintendo's new console:
What happened was that we saw the Wii U was not going to sell enough of those games. The game is going to be fantastic, and we didn’t want those creators to wind up in a position where even after making a fantastic game, they didn’t sell well enough. We decided that we had to come out on enough machines that players can try it out on any one that they have, and give more time to both improve the game on the Wii U and create versions for the other consoles.
I think it was the right decision for gamers and for the team. My role is to make sure that the team is happy with the quality of the work they do and the reach they can have. The quality is there now, because they had more time. They’ve expanded the possibilities of the game. It’s much bigger content-wise. We have new bosses in key levels and so on. The experience is much more complete. I think it will be one of the best games we’ve ever done.
Sometimes we have to go against the urge to get to market too fast. We have to make sure we give enough time and resources to our creators to they can reach the potential in their games. This time, they were very close to excellence, but not quite there.
We respect Ubisoft for being honest with its fans, and despite everything that has happened — we don't hold grudges here at Nintendo Life — we're eagerly anticipating Rayman Legends to hit the Wii U this year.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comment section, as always.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 75
well it was kinda obvious id say...
i dont care one bit cant wait to get my hands on this.
Well, the have finally admitted it!
I think it would have sold ok as at the time Wii U had no new content and owners were looking forward to the first big game since launch last year.
By delaying it I don't think that many more Wii U's would have been sold to make much of an impact on sales for the platform.
Uh, that's obvious.
The real question was why they delayed the Wii U version as well, instead of releasing the Wii U version first as a timed exclusive, and then releasing on other consoles later.
They should have said this in February.
But yeah, I don't think this will do well releasing against GTA...
They finally tell the truth.
Legends cancellation? Yeah, they said on Facebook back in Feb that they saw the tears of PS360 Rayman fan community and so decided to giv.....what? Grim sales forecast? ..So now the truth comes out. And here we thought they were loosing sleep over excluding part of the fan base but really it all just came down to the profits.. Well of all the lousy, no good, rotten.......
@MilesVor Microsoft. They have a policy that says any game released on their console, can't have been released on other consoles first, and needs to have the same content on disc. The PS3's disc capasity isn't fully used on multiplats because of this, for instance.
Of course, I would love it if Ubi had just said a big f*ck you to MS and ignored the xbox, but they care too much about money to do that.
Ha ha, I think some people are butt hurt on this...
I agree that if Rayman Legends was released on Wii U in february, maybe it would have sold a lot, as there was nothing else upcoming, (at least for me), on the radar, and I guess a lot of many other people.
However, I stopped being angry at this long ago, we got the rayman app, which was awesome and the Wii U version is getting some exclusive content and all the extra content being developed for it. I still absolutely plan on getting it for Wii U, (Although for the first time like.. ever, I want it for the vita too! I loved origins on the vita and I've never felt I needed two games on different systems before)
Anyway, it seems a totally legitimate reason. I doubted it'd remain exclusive anyway, that I dont care about, I'd like it to be a timed exclusive, but seeing we're getting extra content and we have the Rayman app, I have no problem with that now.
About the MS thing... not sure if its true, but if it is, I just HATE that policy and I'd definitely love publishers to say FU to MS, though from the way it looking how many people will get an XBone, it'll only make it easier to do next gen. Never really liked MS's attitude anyway, so I'd always want a PS4 over it anyway, but XBone seemed to do a good job to put me and most people off from the looks of stuff.
He still doesn't make sense. He could have released it on the other consoles later and with even improved stuff, and updates for the Wii version etc. It would have sold more on the Wii U at the time, bad decision. But the free app was cool.
but really it IS better this way for Wii U fans. Otherwise, we would have learnt of a much better game on the other consoles 6 months after the Wii U version, and they wouldn't patch the original Wii U version making it the inferior version. So ultimately for Wii U fans this is the best scenario.
and the best thing that came out of it was the Wii U fans reaction which showed to Ubisoft that there's a large fanbase of Nintendo fans, something they thought that maybe there wasn't.
Hm, they would've been the one selling a lot as there weren't too many competing games aiming for my money.
Kind of a stupid way of playing it safe. If it makes the game better, though, I'm all for it - but rest assured that I'll probably end up not picking this one up straight away as there's lots to play for me anyway.
They couldn't release it on Xbox later as MS don't allow ports unless they get them day 1. It's quite simple really. Wii U sales wouldn't have been enough, so they had to go multiplatform, and to go multiplatform they had to delay it on Wii U.
To those saying it would have sold well in February, have you seen Monster Hunter and Lego City sales? They are not great, and they are games unlike anything else on Wii U. Rayman is a 2D platformer, and most Wii U owners already have one of those in NSMBU.
It'll launch close to Wonderful 101 in Europe, so it depends on the quality of that game whether I will pick up Rayman Legends right away. I sort of understand their concern, but that move alone made matters so much worse for Wii U from my perspective. The fact that one of its more promising exclusives was pushed away and made a non-exclusive really made me feel like the console had troubles for the first time since I bought it.
b23cdq
The PS3's disc capasity isn't fully used on multiplats because of this, for instance.
That part is a load of rubbish there has been many time's content has been cut because of the 360 HD disc's.
What Ubisoft did was the right decision, even tho it's releasing close to other games it has a much higher chance of selling well than on Wii U alone , which would have sold poorly just look at other 3rd party games.
So, basically they think their game isn't good enough to get selled.
Anybody ready for a "Rayman cancelled for Wii U" headline??
Wii U's user base means that without a boost in hardware sales, 3rd party publishers/developers will lose a lot of money. It's not good business and unless the Wii U sells well over Xmas, against the might of the PS4 and erm...X(?), we might not see the new year in. I don't like to admit it but it smacks of the dreamcast and Jaguar. Some very average launch titles followed by a trickle of games over the next year, followed by the console being pulled.
The sad thing is that this is another lie. It's as @b23cdq says, they wanted their game on the Xbox and therefore had to delay it.
Ubisoft are not a developer that are at all important to me.
(Not interested in lowest common denominator ports).
Bought Rayman Origins (Twice once on wii and again dirt cheap on pc) and hated it thought the wii version might have been bad but it is just boring dunno why it is rated so highly.
What is good is generally not always what sells well. If there is any Ubisoft that is really worth playing then I would like to know what it is.
Good games don't have to be expensive to make. Look at Super Hexagon for example. Mediocre games that only have the graphics to go on are expensive to make but they are not worth having. (Great games with Great graphics seem to be few and far between if they exist at all)
Okay, okay... Well of course there would have been a low install base for the Wii U back in Dec-Feb as the console was still new with no real killer app, but that isn't enough of a reason to complete crap on those that did buy the console with a nine month delay TWO WEEKS before the game's launch.
This title has been a personal rollercoaster of emotions for me (ranging from "yeah fantastic game" to "can't be arsed supporting this" and everything in between). One thing is for certain, this will be the final Ubisoft game I will ever buy. They can keep the PS360 fanboys happy all I care, but they will never get another penny from me after Rayman Legends.
Rayman was so one of the main games Nintendo where showing at their pre- launch events, it was one of the reasons i bought a U , i feel it would have sold mega in February as it was the one game many where looking forward to and would have sold a few systems to. For info as mentioned above, the Jaguar was a console with very few games and many rushed games that's why it failed. The Dreamcast did not fail it had some of the most amazing games at launch and beyond ,it all ended because of new Sega management and they had bled money since the Saturn they had to toss up between cancelling Dreamcast or one of their arcade divisions which produce Pachinko .Dreamcast lost .
We knew this already. Why is this all of the sudden news?
Thx for the honesty but as cool as this game is it's going to have to wait until there is a lull in games on the system before I buy it because between all of Ninty's first party games coming out this fall and other amazing looking games like Watch Dogs, etc i don't think I'm going to be able to afford everything that's coming out, so some titles will be pushed back to the "eh if there is another software drought I may pick it up in a sale" pile.
Back to Legends though ,i feel it may not sell as well released in August ,it's competition is vast ,plus i know this sounds crazy but by giving Wii U owners the Challenge app they may created a few thousand U owners that have had their fill of Rayman Legends for now. Not everyone can afford to buy every major new game and come August there's going to be a few on the market .I hope they sell well on the U so that Ubi keep making good software for it.
ubisoft is only looking for money, creators dont think in sale quantities
eg: shenmue sales were bad but it's still a major piece of gaming history and i'm sure their creators are proud of it
with ubisoft behavior on rayman, the only thing that is sure is that is will sell even worst than if it was released when it was originally planned
If they're waiting for the install base to create a good opportunity for sales then they should delay the game until 2015.
Rayman Origin was very good and many people are looking forward to Rayman Legends. Ubisoft has withdrawn support and let's hope that Sega will not follow suit.
Now that the cat's out of the bag.
They'll probably get at least a couple more sales on Wii U thanks to Game & Wario, Pikmin 3, and Wonderful 101 getting people to buy a Wii U. I hope people support the Wii U version first.
The Rayman Legends Challenges app was pretty good, I gotta admit that. Still, I'm kinda on the fence about getting the actual game when it comes out. Firstly, some of the excitement has certainly died off with all the mess. Secondly, when it's finally released, there will be a lot of games fighting for my hard-earned cash, and some of them, like Pikmin, Zelda and Donkey Kong, I want way more than Rayman.
I know I'd only account for one sale, but Rayman Legends WAS my reason to pick up a Wii U around launch.
Scrolling down the front page when I came this title I thought it said "Delayed Pikmin 3" and my heart literally skipped a beat and I almost died of a heart attack.
just for not supporting nintendo ubi I boycott you and EA except for dice and bioware
Was it so hard to tell the truth (hopefully this is the truth) from the beginning?
I will not be getting this on day one. Wonderful 101 will take priority for me. And with Wind Waker HD and Pokémon X/Y in October, I will be getting this later down the line. A longer delay wont hurt me.
I'm supposed to have applied ubisoft montreal job, but now I believe that I will work for Beenox
well at least they were honest about it.
I never really cared much for ray man, I'm looking forward to watch dogs, saw the trailer and it looks awsome IMO
They were improving the entire game during the delay rather than setting the Wii U version to the side and working on the ports?
Well, if that's the case, I'm kinda glad it got delayed. Better to delay a game to make it better than to rush it to market and have it feel incomplete or broken. And even if the version that would have released in February wouldn't have felt incomplete or broken, the delay will have made this game better anyway.
Can't wait for this game.
Well, at least they were being honest. I won't hold the delay against them since they decided to include over 30 new levels.
I love how they're telling us now when we already knew the reasons behind the decision to make RL multiplatform the second they announced the horrible news.
They should've told us in the begining,and not beat around the bush,at least they've told.
Wow,the same excuse other developers use.At least they're not lying to us,but they should've just told us in the first place.Also,the "low sales" thing is not that true.I bought a Wii U for playing Legends.But too bad it's not coming until the day before my birthday.
so, i guess wii u fans are gonna be really happy when they see a commercial for rayman, then at the end of it...............get exclusive content first on xbox live!
Why couldn't they just say this months before? Did we really need to wait for their actual reason?
I was thinking that it was something along those lines. I can't blame the company for trying to maximize their profits, This should be a wake up call to Nintendo to better promote the Wii U.
Sounds like they don't have confidence in their own IP Rayman Legends would have been a big success on Wii U, and would have helped sell more consoles at that time period As for the Rayman Legends on Vita AND getting the same content, that was a dumb move from UbiSoft. I'm not really impressed with UbiSoft's moves as of late, but I'm still looking forward to Rayman Legends, Assassin's Creed, and Watch Dogs later this year.
I call doggiedododingleberry on this
At the time RL was set for release the wii u was doin ok.
So that makes no sense to me
I can't blame them
And i hope that they realize that their splendid plan horribly backfired. When Rayman was ready, he had virtually no competition, neither on WiiU nor any other system. Now he has more than he can probably chew. Good job Ubi. Making a safe bet into a risky gamble out of fear for "risky gambles"...
That's fine. I can respect that; Wii U was struggling in sales and you didn't want your near perfect game to struggle too. That makes sense and lines up with the common (if flawed) third party sentiment, and you even presented it more inwardly focused than blatant refusal to back it. Pulling the exclusivity still sucks since you could have waited overall, but at least you claim to have used the time well.
HOWEVER-
Instead of saying that, you danced around with industrial strength BS like "we believe in supporting every system" and simultaneous release. So I still say you got what you deserved. Oh, and you better make good on playing the BG&E card. You know how bad it can be now.
lol to funny ubisoft lol look at it this way..lame reason and sad on ubisoft will lose money ..heres why...epic mickey sold like hotcakes..was on wii only..epic 2 was on all systems and didn't sale as well as the first..do the math
@miiandmario I can,,,look at the first epic mickey.was only on wii and sold well epic mickey 2 went on all consoles and didn't sale well at all.plus putting it out when nintendos good games are out hmmm sorry ubisoft nuff said
But at least it's PS360 getting the ports now.
@Drobotic They won't get ports. Some are even getting exclusive content, which means they have been working with their dev kits.
Like @SanderEvers said, they really picked the wrong time to release this on the Wii U. I mean REALLY picked the wrong time. February was a better date to market the game. September will not cut it. Given the attitudes of the displeased Wii U gamers that had to wait 7 months, plus other titles like WWHD, Wonderful 101, GTA 5, etc all coming in Sept. Ubi shot themselves in the foot with the Wii U audience.
Ubisoft's definition of near perfect is very very far from mine if they think Rayman Origins is anything other than utter garbage. I hated every second of it (Forced myself to play it as I bought it at full price. Then tried the PC version again when it was dirt cheap and it was boring from start to finish).
They are like the banks they want all the profits but none of the risk or responsibility.
Makes sense, but I still wish it was still a Wii U exclusive.
@slim80 True maybe if it stayed a Wii U exclusive it would make people want to get the system knowing it would have a lot of exclusives.
At least there's a chance they filled the time gap with improvements that would have either been nonexistent or updates.
A. Rayman Legends could've worked as a system exclusive that would drive console sales had they released it as an exclusive.
B. Microsoft has a policy where companies can't release multi-platform games first on other consoles.
C. Delaying the game was an even worse idea because now it'll have the same problems that Origins had where big games are coming out at the same time (skyrim, Zelda, Battlefield, and more in origins case. GTAV and entirely new consoles are coming out around the same time as legends)
So no, I'm still not giving this any grounds as a good business decision. And it's not honesty if they lie about reasons for 4 months.
I understand that you want more money but you didn't have to delay the Wii U version.
I thought it was going to say that the Wii U version would be put on hold. As much as it would have been cool to play it at launch I agree with their decision to make it multiplatform as Rayman Origins was on every platform including the Vita so we shouldn't feel bad for bringing it over. Doesn't mean they couldn't have given us the watered down Wii U version when it was supposedly finished.
So, now when they do release it and if it has less sales than they expect and if it does better on other consoles will they also drop Nintendo or what?
They would have made more money releasing this game earlier as there are so few games on Wii U worth buying, it would have sold a ton. Now less are interested and especially that it is no longer an exclusive.
This company seems dumb to me. The other games they plan to release on Wii u are in genres that sell poorly on Wii U splinter cell, assassins creed, and watchdogs all seem like games Wii U players will not buy with enough sales to make them happy, but lets wait and see.
That reason doesn't make any sense; it'd be one of the few titles out there... a lot of people wanted the game... I would have bought it at launch, had it been there!
Even if they released it a bit later, like march... it would have sold well.
Now it's going to sell worse, on Wii U, because of it's Non-exclusivity.
@GamerJunkie
I completely disagree with that last paragraph.
@Williaint Like I said, lets wait and see. So far I see that people on Wii U get excited for games like skylanders and disney infinity and wonderful 101.
They don't seem to care about sports, FPS, strategy, mature games. Hopefully they will start to care about more genres and 3rd parties can thrive, but so far I just don't see it.
Probably already said here, but...
Software won't sell if people aren't buying up the hardware (which Ubisoft is trying to convince people of).
...however...
Hardware won't sell if software isn't available (which Ubisoft would have helped turn around if they didn't delay the game to make way for porting it).
Looks like he was right, Wii U was pretty risky to be exclusive on as a third party.
Which is now making me wonder what is going through Square Enix's mind when announcing XBone versions of Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3.
That's nice, Im not buying it. Too many good games this fall and winter anyway.
Delay cuz fear of not enough sale? WTF didn't they see my pre-order last January? I wouldn't had cancelled it had it being released on schedule.
Thanks for telling the truth, Ubisoft.
But, I still won't be buying your games because there will be more worthwhile titles out around the time when yours will be coming.
So this was a double-edged sword from the beginning?
On one hand, they could be right and, as dumb as Micro$oft's policy is, Xbox sales could really help out in general, among other platforms.
HOWEVER, as mentioned numerous times, this had virtually no competition in February and could've surprised them in terms of sales. Now that more big games are coming out on the new release date, especially ones that are very likely to be a bigger priority, what are they going to do if the Wii U versions sells poorly because of that(and could've done better by being the sole big release for a while in Feb)? As mentioned by another user above, are they going to drop even more support?
@Peach64 Maybe we know different people but I don't know anyone who was picking up a Wii U solely because of MH or Lego City. However, I do know plenty of people who got one/were getting one because of Rayman Legends.
Not only is it going multiplat(which ain't a deal really) but it is also up against bigger, likely higher priority titles. This has good potential at hurting the Wii U's version's sales even more.
Well, that's nice and all, but... Don't they grasp the concept of a "system seller?" I know traditionally third party games aren't but we all also know this one had the potential to be one. Had being the key word, since it's no longer exclusive.
The creators deserve to make as much money as they can from this fantastic game; gorgeous and unique titles are rare enough. The problem wasn't with Rayman going multi-platform, it was simply the false promise of it being exclusive and delayed release date. Ubisoft will hopefully learn to be more decisive in the future.
@Lobster Rayman isn't a system seller unfortunately, no matter how great it is it will never be a system seller.
"Ubisoft Delayed Rayman Legends On Wii U In Fear Of Low Sales"
Of course!
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