Ubisoft Is the Leading Third-Party Publisher on Nintendo Switch

It must be because of MONOPOLY!

Well, okay, maybe not. But I'm surprised how many hours I've dug into it. Online play's a total timesink for me!

Ubisoft made a great Mario game! Can't get better than that.

Even without Rabbids things like Just Dance and that are huge.

Inb4EIRE slagging off 3rd parties while praising WiU.

@RyanSilberman I believe it! The board game takes hours too!

Say what you want, Ubisoft has been Ninty's most regular partner for a while. Even on Wii U, we got stuff like Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed 4 and Child of Light well after other big thirds had jumped ship. So yeah, this is extremely well-deserved.

@bert0503 Not if you play by the official rules, which most of my sessions go by.

But I keep wanting to play a session or two every day (just as I'd play multiple races of Mario Kart), especially when multitasking.

Nintendoomer reads:

>> Third party company achieves success on Switch <<

(Moves goal posts)

"Yeah but that was an exclusive 3rd party game that used Nintendo characters. So it doesn't count as a 3rd party success"

Wait for it...

Edit: LOL And like clockwork someone said something like that to take away some credit from the game:

"Well, no wonder. It has Mario in the name and on the box art.

Not saying that's the only reason it sold so well, but there's no way that that wasn't a massive helping hand."

Still need to buy Mario + Rabbids. I'm honestly not sure if I should get Mario
+Rabbids or XC2 first.

@IronMan28 Same here, just not sure.

Well, no wonder. It has Mario in the name and on the box art.

Not saying that's the only reason it sold so well, but there's no way that that wasn't a massive helping hand.

Excellent game. Thank you Ubisoft!

Mario and Rabbids is good so I'm not suprised that it has sold well.
It was included in lots of deals over the holidays so maybe a percentage of the sales was just because of that? But I got it for free with my Switch so I won't complain

How about that Rayman 4 you guys?

... Guys?

@GC-161

I expect to see 50 comments like that in this article.

Kingdom Battle was definitely good enough to warrant a sequel, but I highly doubt it. Hope the DK DLC is good!!

I also hope more 3rd party/Nintendo (S)mash-ups happen. Yes, that was an obvious nod to Smash Bros., but what I really mean is more fusions like Mario+Rabbids. My imagination thinks of Metroid+Halo, F-Zero+Rocket League, a bunch of Smash cameos... I'm grasping at straws, but you get my point.

Here's to Rabbid Luigi (the best one) being in Smash 5!!

Cause it have a mario in the Title Ubisoft. No one cares about Rabbids. Now you have one chance this E3. Beside the milking Just Dance games bring exclusive games to the switch like.....................................................Red Steel 3

I feel as if Kingdom Battle would not have sold as much if it were titled "Rabbids+Mario." I'm not hating on the game, I'm just pointing out something that could have possibly been a strategic move.

@KryptoKrunch Those dismissive type of comments are pretty predictable, actually.

Nintendo can't win. Like, not ever with these people.

I mean, Nintendo Life just posted a video dealing with 9 Mario games that need to be erased from existance.

Which proved that just handing the Mario license to a 3rd party dev does not guarantee success.

@MH4 Don't think it would have changed much, it still has Mario in the title and on the box. If it was a Rabbid game entirely, then yeah, I'd see your point.

That is one of my favorite games on the system. I’m excited for the new story DLC. 😁

@Markiemania95 All I'm saying is that I think putting the Rabbids before Mario as the focus would have slightly harmed sales. Mario would still be in it, it'd still be a fantastic game, it'd just be slightly less successful.

Good for them but I'd like to see some of their flagship franchises get either ports or announcements for releases later this year at E3

I still haven't picked this up, hoping the price drops a bit soon because as much as I like the X-Com style of combat, $60 is still too rich for something that doesn't appear to have that much depth from what I have seen from Let's Plays. Of course I said the same thing about Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon and I picked that up a couple weeks ago for $15 and it's amazingly good. I would have happily traded $40 for that one back at launch.

...Eh, I kinda just want a KH-style game with Nintendo characters instead. Doesn't have to be an Action RPG or anything, but...a game where Nintendo characters take on a new race of enemies. Like those...shadowy guys from Brawl, forget what they're called....who cares? lol

@Paraka (pauses Rayman Legends) hm?

Kingdom Battle is the main game I’m currently playing on Switch. The Rabbids have actually grown on me. And I bought UNO for the Switch as well, which is published by Ubi. So congrats to Ubisoft, now how about a Rayman 4?

My nephew has Mario Rabbids & he loves it, my son wants it badly. I wanna get it for his birthday & it's currently on sale from the eShop, if I was to download it now & then delete it without playing it, until his birthday, would there be any trace of it to spoil the surprise...?

Mario + Rabbids was Ubisoft's best game last year, so the amazing sales are well deserved.

Rayman Legends and Just Dance 2018 also raked in good sales, though nowhere near as good as Mario + Rabbids.

@RusevDay "Inb4EIRE"

You need to be far quicker. You're only about 12 hours late.

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/what_do_you_think_the_nx_is_poll?start=25940#reply-25951

And you were wrong on both accounts.

What I said about Ubisoft: "Regarding Ubisoft and their claim, they've definitely got the most successful selling 3rd party game on Switch. But in terms of numbers of games released they've not been great, with mainly cheap ports."

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/what_do_you_think_the_nx_is_poll?start=25940#reply-25955

The games they've put on Switch:

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle - Great collaboration
Just Dance 2018 - Garbage
Just Dance 2017 - Garbage port
Rayman Legends Definitive Edition - Brilliant game but a port
Monopoly - Mediocre lazy port

Their only upcoming game announced is "Starlink Battle for Atlas". A toys-to-life game that's not for me. Ubisoft have tonnes of massive games and franchises. It was sickening to watch their E3 show last year and watch all the games skipping Switch. Where's Splinter Cell, Far Cry, The Crew, Assassins Creed, etc, etc? The list is endless. Ubisoft are huge with studios everywhere. They could easily do more for the Switch.

Actually, where's Steep? That was supposed to be coming to the Switch. That's had major issues and is a very late port. It's disappeared into some blackhole. Speaking of hole, there's rumours that they're going to give us South Park: Fractured But Whole. But again, another old port. Maybe Ubisoft are working on a lot of Switch games, but publicly they're shown little real commitment.

"Even without Rabbids things like Just Dance and that are huge."

Can you tell me please what "that" is?

Little question about Mario + Rabbids.
My game is Retail Europe version, but my Main Account to play is USA version.
I had updated my game for First Play.
If i want to download the extra stuffs, should i change my account from USA to Europe ?

I hope people realize that not every game with the "Mario" in the name will sell. There have been plenty of "Mario" games with mediocre sales i.e. all the Mario Party games on 3DS, Paper Mario Color Splash, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, Mario & Luigi Paper Jam, all the Mario & Sonic titles on Wii U/3DS, etc

I'm pretty sure everyone here was crapping all over this game when it was first leaked as a collab with Rabbids. Nobody believed that having Mario as a character would make the game good, or make the game sell....

Mario + Rabbids will become the best selling non-"Mario Kart" Mario spinoff in nearly a decade. You don't hold that record by merely having "Mario" in the title.

...because Capcom won't give us MHGU? 🙄

Actually put more time into it than Odyssey. Loved it

@AshFoxX I felt the same as you, but said screw it when it was $40. No regrets at all. I've sunk a lot of time into it, and love it.

It's a great game, and the whole team behind it are very deserving of its success.

@GC-161 clearly, Ronaldo was the wrong cover face for FIFA 18 on Switch... :^P XD

Ubisoft were great supporters on the Wii U. I still can't believe we got Assassin's Creed games and Watch Dogs on the console. Just like I still find it weird there is DOOM and Skyrim on the Switch. Weird in a good way.

It's hard to peg the Mario + Rabbids game. Whilst it's very much a Ubisoft developed and published game, and they very much deserve the credit for it, the fact remains it was still a collaboration with Nintendo and uses their most famous IP. Anybody saying that's irrelevant and this should be compared equally to every other third party's efforts on Nintendo consoles is just being naive. Do you really think Nintendo consoles would have issues with third party publishers if everyone got to collaborate with Nintendo and use Mario or Link? Do you really think this would have sold as well if it was exactly the same game but without the Mario IP? Of course it wouldn't.

Again I don't want to take away the credit from Ubisoft. They pitched this game to Nintendo, and like I say it's very much their game. But let's not pretend third parties will look at this as success they can replicate and they have no excuse not to bring their full catalogues across.

Probably because it's a complete game designed for the hardware and not a compromised port originally intended for a more powerful machine.

If those Rabbid characters didn't make me want to throw myself out a window, I'd probably really like Kingdom Battle. It's too bad. Still, it's good to see support from Ubisoft.

@MartyFlanMJFan If he went into the redownload section on the eshop he would find it, but I think that's the only way.

@StormtheFrontier thanks for your answer, that's what I was thinking, I think I'll go for it and if he does find it so be it lol. Thanks again!

The most played game on my Switch!
Maybe the best for my taste!

While it's true that Mario being the main protagonist HUGELY helped the game taking off, I have to say Mario + Rabbids is a true gem. One of the greatest surprises of my 2017

Got the game at launch, and after nearly 40 hours thus far I know I'm quite near the end. I can't remember where though as I stopped playing it when I got stuck on a level and went and played something else.

It may very well be my favourite Switch game. It's certainly the most addictive.

Worth every penny and deserves every sale.

Completed Oddyssey last night so might go back to this to try and finish it next.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE couldn't agree more, Mario Rabbids is a great game and one of the best on Switch for me, however I seem to be playing a lot more Ubisoft games elsewhere then I am on Switch.

Hopefully South Park does come for those that don't have access to it but I suspect that Far Cry and Assassins Creed simply wouldn't run on the Switch. Even L.A. Noire, a game designed for PS3 has shown how it struggles with complex open worlds due to its limited cpu, so any of it's main franchises would likely have to be built specifically for the Switch. This is the key for all 3rd parties really, DOOM is a minor miracle on the system, yet even being so heavily stripped out and halving the framerate it has more than it's share of issues and we've yet to see anything of Wolfenstein 2.

Ubisoft and others can certainly do more but we also need Switch owners to buy something which doesn't have Mario on the cover to prove to them that it's worthwhile

I just want a release date for Steep!!

Ubisoft do an amazing job. ZombiU will always be close to my heart. And that rabbids game is awesome!

I reckon after the success of using a Nintendo IP, and having difficulties with the Steep port, I suspect it has been delayed so they can re-structure it and release it using the 1080 Snowboarding IP.

@MH4 Rabbids + Mario just doesn't sound right though.

@MartyFlanMJFan no. You can delete the game and the save file. The o my thing would be that if you pretended to buy it in front of him, it would say purchased so I guess you could tell him om his birthday that your gonna get the game for Him and start to download it again Undocked?

@Paraka Not going to happen anytime soon.

@ZeldaToThePast I think to choose, I'll flip a coin like I did with Stardew Valley and Golf Story.

See, third-party developers can be successful on Nintendo consoles. They just have to err... put Nintendo characters into their games...

@JSG87 thanks for your help

Best game on the Switch, all things considered. Of course Mario and Zelda are top, but Mario+Rabbids is original and original can succeed or flop. This is a great success and needs a follow up soon. Arms although original was not in the same league.

We need a company up there with Nintendo and Mario producing original games, maybe like Rare was.

@Haywired Mario like Mickey Mouse and Richard Branson is a corporate logo and sells stuff 🧐

Ubisoft has been my favorite 3rd party developer for a number of years. I only have mario +Rabbids and Just Dance (both of which are great) in the switch but hopefully they bring over their other heavy hitters, Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy games, The Crew etc. Looking forward to see what they have at e3 this year

Mario and Rabbids is one of the BEST strategy games that I have ever played. I love all the movement options available in a single move with dashes, team jumps, specials and unique characters.

I hope the Donkey Kong DLC replaces Mario with DK so that you have to rescue Mario (a nice twist) and get someone besides Mario in first character slot for story missions.

I both love and hate Ubisoft. I certainly like them best among AAA publishers, as they're they only one displaying much creativity on a regular basis. OTOH, like Bethesda, they often have over-ambitious ideas they fail to deliver on and have difficulty restraining the scope of ambition to reasonable producible levels so we end up with broken messes. Still, they're our only "major AAA big budget" publisher that pushes out unique concepts, sink or swim, like an indie. When I think of the majors....Activision has Overwatch and WoW....Destiny 2 kind of sucks. EA has Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, mostly on permanent hiatus, and little of their current content appeals at all to me. 2K has very little that interests me anymore. They're just a GTA/Sports shop. RDR may work out well but I'm not really hyped. Ubi has such a library of reliable and experimental cool stuff. Assassin's Creed, Watch_Dogs, Farcry, For Honor (a bad, broken game, but so experimental you have to love it in a way), GR Wildlands, R6, Steep, Crew....they need to get off the "always online with season passes and currency" kick...it's killing so much of their current otherwise fun games as the online just dies out in weeks, breaking the world.

Looking forward to seeing what they can do as they realize their series of persistent online games are failing hard despite being good games, and their Switch game is a big win.

@MartyFlanMJFan If he browses the eshop and passes the game it'll say purchased instead of listing a price

@IronMan28 I have both XC2 and Mario Rabbids, I can tell you I've put a couple hours into Mario Rabbids, and still plan on going back. On the flip side i'm about 93.5 hours into XC2 and still have so much to do in that game, really loving it. If you like a good JRPG then I'd go with XC2 you'll definitely get TONS of value out of it.

@dougphisig That sounds good, I'll take that into consideration. Is XC2 in handheld mode as bad as digital foundry makes it seem? I ask because my house has 2 Switch consoles and the TV isn't always an option for me.

@Aerona ah that's true, never considered that... thank you. He's only six so I may get away with it... I'll have to give it some more thought. Thank you!

@IronMan28 I don't play it too much in handheld mode, i mostly play docked. I have played it a little in handheld and while I could tell the difference graphics wise I didn't play it enough to comment what it ran like all the time since I made sure pretty much I watched all cinematic sequences on my big TV since that's how I enjoy it. In docked it runs fairly good most of the time minus a few minor annoyances not enough to stop me from enjoying the game. I even downloaded the japanese audio, but still ended up keeping it in english just because I got used to playing with english audio, and kind of enjoyed everyone having a non american accent lol.

@JSG87 That's exactly what I mean.

My favorite Switch game. Which is impressive when you consider what other great games are on the Switch.

I absolutely loved Mario + Rabbids. I am excited for the DLC and look forward to a sequel too. They still can add so much and can expand even further-- bowser, pvp, new level mechanics, etc. etc.
Great job on a fantastic game

@IronMan28 Personally I'd go for Rabbids, I think it's better than the Xcom games!

Also really hope we get M+R 2!

It has Mario in it, so it shouldn't be considered a 3rd party success. If anything, it's more of a 1st party title than a 3rd party. Some people are blind that way, and will buy anything with Mario on the front cover. In my opinion, Ubisoft scammed people into buying this game. I will never buy Mario + Rabbids for that reason, because I expect Nintendo to make a Mario game, not a 3rd party developer. Also, I consider Bethesda Nintendo's biggest supporter right now, not Ubisoft.

@KirbyTheVampire It had everything to do with it.

@dougphisig the English accents in XC are awesome and XC2 looks great as well, so I can't blame you for keeping the English vo's on. Maybe I'll just play it when the TV isn't in use.

@datamonkey2 Rabbids looks good, but I'm honestly leaning toward XC2 atm. I like the idea of something different, but I also love the XC games.

@MongolRaider
A game is a scam not because it's bad, but because Ubisoft is the developer?

????

@westman98 It's a scam because it's an an Xcom game with Mario in it, and the fact that we got a Mario game from a 3rd party developer in the first place!?! That doesn't seem right at all. Total scam if I ever seen one!

@electrolite77 It's a man trapped in sheep's clothing. I't's 3rd party, but it's a Nintendo game all the way. That's something I expect to see from Nintendo, not from a 3rd party developer. If you can't see that, then you're in some serious denial, my man! Really, the only reason Nintendo gave Ubisoft permission to begin with is because Nintendo knows most fans won't even bother buying third-party titles unless it's got some cutesy, cuddly characters in it. Not Nintendos fault at all, they're just stuck in a time bubble because fans won't allow them to leave it for the most part. Funny you mentioned that Bethesda only brought 2 ports for the Switch, but act like like Ubisoft put some new releases out? I'd much rather play Doom, Skyrim, Wolfenstein 2, and possibly Fallout 4, over 2 dancing games, a Monopoly game, (which are not games, btw,) and port of Rayman Legends. Of course the Mario game is exclusive, why wouldn't it be? Besides, it's an uninspired, copy and paste Xcom game with Mario and Rabbids in it. I'll take Mario Odyssey over that trash any day. Also, with Bethesda, they gotta start somewhere, and they even said they're not done supporting the Switch, not being vague like Ubisoft.

@MongolRaider
"That doesn't seem right at all."

The only thing that doesn't seem right is your own wonky perception of what's "right" or "wrong."

"this proves to be encourage Ubisoft and other major developers to start taking more risks on the Switch" yeah Square will release Final Mario and EA Call of plumber duty

@westman98 That was weak, just like your standards. Figured as much. I guess one man's trash is your treasure, right? Hey, I hear Ubisoft is coming out with another exclusive title for the Switch called Splinter Zelda: Mariobliss. I think you will like it, no, I mean love it, considering how big of a sheep you are. Have fun with your 1st par, err, I meant 3rd party trash!

@MongolRaider
I feel like this was supposed to own me...

If Mario being developed by a non-Nintendo company ruins your perception of the character's "purity", than so be it. But that has nothing to do with the game's quality, nor does it make the game a first party title, because regardless of what you or anyone else says, Mario + Rabbids is a 3rd party game. Period. End of story.