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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - ZombiU Was "Not Even Close" to Profitable, No Plans for a Sequel

Blood_Tears on 08 July 2013

Link: http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/07/08/zombiu-was-not-even-close-to-profitable-no-plans-for-a-sequel/

 

ZombiU Was “Not Even Close” to Profitable, No Plans for a Sequel

by Giuseppe NelvaJul 8th 2013 11:39AM3

Wii UNewsWii UNews

Those that are holding their breath for a sequel of the Wii U Exclusive ZombiU may want to start breathing, because it simply isn’t coming, as explained quite curtly by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in an interview on Gamesindustry International.

ZombiU, one of the most popular launch titles for the system with players, was not profitable, he says. Not even close. As such, he says, there are no plans (or even desire) for a sequel.

It was, in fact, because of that game’s performance that Ubisoft decided to make Rayman Legends a multiplatform game.

While Ubisoft has gone on record multiple times swearing that their support for the Wii U is ensured and solid, they may want to find ways to make money out of it, because as of now things don’t exactly look good. From what Guillemot says, it seems that the platform has time until Christmas to prove its worth.

We must find a way to ensure the creativity of those games could have a big enough audience. We hope it will take off. At the moment, we’ve said ‘let’s do through Christmas and see where we are from there.

To be fair ZombiU was a great game, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of title you’d see perfectly aligned with a Nintendo console’s primary target and customer base. I’m actually quite amazed that someone at Ubisoft really thought that it’d be anywhere close to profitable to begin with. Live and learn…

Source: Gamesindustry International



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JGarret on 08 July 2013

Was about to post this.I saw it on GI (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-08-does-nintendo-stand-a-chance-this-holiday)

There´s also an interview with Peter Moore: "The lack of online engagement that we see on Wii U [is troubling]," says Moore. "It's so integral to what we do. They're so small it's hardly worth running the servers. It seems like a box that's out of sync with the future of EA - which is one that gives a real social feel to our games. The Wii U feels like an offline experience right now."



ghettoglamour on 08 July 2013

Release it on non-dead consoles if you want to break even at least.

Edit: I've just checked up its sales here and it actually sold quite decently (460k). What were they expecting, to sell more than Mario Bros? They should have spent less money to make it then. It's their fauolt



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Madword on 08 July 2013

Wasn't this game originally in dev as something else and for multi platforms (i.e it wasnt a zombie game)... because surely changing that would have taken time and money. So i suspect its not just the Wii-u's fault if the game took longer and cost more to produce because it had a change of theme.



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BloodyRain on 08 July 2013
BasilZero said:

Of course it wasnt....the Wii-U sales were enough reason to doom this game lol.

Only saving grace I can see happening is now making the game multiplat but I dont even think they'll do that due to a partnership or deal with Nintendo (plus with the name lol - unless they call it Zombi like their other game).

I don't think there expectations with zombie U was all that high especially on a new console. It must have truly been a massive fail in terms of sales then lol.



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Barozi on 08 July 2013

Wow so bad ?

Well I didn't expect it to be a financial success, but if it didn't even come close to be profitable with around 500k sold copies then it's pretty bad planning from Ubisoft.



JGarret on 08 July 2013
BloodyRain said:
BasilZero said:

Of course it wasnt....the Wii-U sales were enough reason to doom this game lol.

Only saving grace I can see happening is now making the game multiplat but I dont even think they'll do that due to a partnership or deal with Nintendo (plus with the name lol - unless they call it Zombi like their other game).

I don't think there expectations with zombie U was all that high especially on a new console. It must have truly been a massive fail in terms of sales then lol.


And that surely must have had something to do with the decision to make Rayman a multiplatform game.



noname2200 on 08 July 2013
Madword said:
Wasn't this game originally in dev as something else and for multi platforms (i.e it wasnt a zombie game)... because surely changing that would have taken time and money. So i suspect its not just the Wii-u's fault if the game took longer and cost more to produce because it had a change of theme.

No, it was always a Wii-U exclusive. They did revamp it, but that only took a year, and the core idea of the game remained intact.



outlawauron on 08 July 2013
JGarret said:
Was about to post this.I saw it on GI (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-08-does-nintendo-stand-a-chance-this-holiday)

There´s also an interview with Peter Moore: "The lack of online engagement that we see on Wii U [is troubling]," says Moore. "It's so integral to what we do. They're so small it's hardly worth running the servers. It seems like a box that's out of sync with the future of EA - which is one that gives a real social feel to our games. The Wii U feels like an offline experience right now."

To be expected when Nintendo puts such a low priority on their online infranstructure.



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green_sky on 08 July 2013

Sold 460k according to vgc and still no monies. Should they have stick with killer freaks from outer space? Seemed to have more personality than zombie game.