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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Is Ubisoft lying about ZombiU?

All this talk is really sad because ZombiU is a really good game. Sadly, like lots of good other games, ZombiU didn't sell well, which probably means Ubisoft would not invest the time and money needed to make such a good game great.



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LilChicken22 said:

They're absolutely lying. ZombiU was a low budget game with many flaws and glitches, so it didn't have much developtime = less costs (not more than 1,5 years). Also, this game sold almost 500.000 and in no thinkable universe a half a million sales is bad for a new franchise. Red Steel also did about 600/700k and they came with a sequel. Just like the rest of the third party developers, they're trying to come up with excuses not to develop for Wii U.

Red Steel broke 1 million (http://uk.ign.com/articles/2007/04/26/ubis-big-wii-hits); I believe the figures on this site do not include Europe.

You also have to remember that Red Steel was a Wii game which typically cost less then half the budget of an average HD game. For the average HD game, less then 1 million sales is cause for concern.

It's a shame really as I quite like the game and it seems to have a few fresh ideas.



I don't think they are lying.

That video had these points:

1) The 5 ports cost around $1.2m to make each. Which Ubi said was VERY low for a port and which ZombiU was not included in.
2) ZombiU was a different game at first, however, he incorrectly stated it was intended for PS360. It was ALWAYS a Wii U exclusive game even as Killer Freaks from Outer Space.

So this has always been a Wii U game built ground up on Wii U hardware. Hardware that was likely routinely changing and from all rumors known, it changed quite a bit as Nintendo went from all newer parts to focus on items that were essentially along the same architecture family as Wii so it could continue backwards compatibility.

If a true port like AC3 cost Ubi about $1.2m, then a ground up new game that definitely had a lot of R&D work along with actual game finalization due to it taking big changes in game direction... it had to have cost quite a bit more to make.

I'd wager heavily that ZombiU had a cost of $10m, give or take a small %. This would still be considered "lower" than the average HD game for PS360 which wikipedia has sources showing the average is $18m to $20m. So I don't think saying an exclusive game like ZombiU cost Ubi $10m+ to create is too far fetched.

Now, this is a game that Nintendo had a hand in an potentially paid a portion of it. However, we have no sources saying anything about Nintendo's investment in this game beyond the obvious of marketing and bundling with hardware where they likely paid Ubi for these copies of the game.

For the sake of argument let's take THIS IMAGE as fact since it seems pretty legit. That means Ubi would make $18 per full priced copy.

We know they sold over 500,000 to retail and some unknown amount digitally. But since some of those 500,000 are definitely not at the full price we'll make an assumption and say that only 500,000 total sold and they gave Ubi $18 each back.

$18 * 500,000 = $9,000,000 So that's $9m of GROSS REVENUE to Ubi.

But, that doesn't include packaging, shipping, non-developer salary costs, etc.

So yes, its VERY likely that Ubi, a company that doesn't have the history of attacking Nintendo like EA and others do, is telling 100% truth that ZombiU has NOT come close to breaking even yet, let along being profitable.

Now, this doesn't mean the game was a failure in its own right either. It does have a 14% attachment rate which is VERY high. Had WiiU sold 2m more consoles and thus reached their original goal, ZombiU should be around 800,000 units sold thus, making it profitable in the first 6mos on the market. As it is now, it will take two years or so to reach profitability on a console that will grow but will also have far more competition.

Granted, that's assuming word of mouth for the game as well as budget pricing and decent placement in eShop allows it to continue to sell a few hundred thousand more copies. Something not really heard of from any publishers that is not named Nintendo. Thus, its not likely to get a sequel.



500k = 30 million.
That game could not cost more than 10 million, no way in hell. Thought, it looks like a very cool game.
Probably, Ubisoft expected to sell 3 or 4 millions, since it was pratically the only exclusive title on the WiiU that has some real relevance.
But, loss? No way.



My grammar errors are justified by the fact that I am a brazilian living in Brazil. I am also very stupid.

The game, as a whole, was very unpolished. This is because it was built on a previous game which was changed. The turn around time from the old game in development (killer freaks in outer space) to ZombiU was about a year, and people cannot expect Ubi to present a perfect game in this time. But i can see how people who are a little less in the know about the Video Games industry could be put off by this.

I, personally, loved the game as a new IP. felt is was very ambitious, considering all Zombie games at that time were just generic FPS with zombie skins for enemies.
Would love for them to bring a second one and i can see it being Multiplatform (if it is made), but as a Wii U owner i would not be angry about this, or boycot the game like i know many would. I dont care what is exclusive and what is not, i just care about the games i want to play and will buy, and Zombi U 2 is definitely a game i would pick up.



Current Game Machines: 3DS, Wii U, PC.

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I think they're waiting to see how the Wii U does this holiday and into 2014... if sales pick up they'll probably reconsider a sequel of some sort. If not, then they'll be glad they didn't waste time money and effort into a sequel that would have gotten them a minimal return if anything.



On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.

WagnerPaiva said:
500k = 30 million.
That game could not cost more than 10 million, no way in hell. Thought, it looks like a very cool game.
Probably, Ubisoft expected to sell 3 or 4 millions, since it was pratically the only exclusive title on the WiiU that has some real relevance.
But, loss? No way.

Ubisoft doesn't get the entire 60$ when they sale their games at 60$ they get between 15-20$ plus the vast majority of that game was sold at less than 60$ probably around 30$



Bet reminder: I bet with Tboned51 that Splatoon won't reach the 1 million shipped mark by the end of 2015. I win if he loses and I lose if I lost.

I don't think they are lying. Game maybe made 12 million and cost (including advertisement) was around 15 million, so they were "far" from making profit, around 150.000 units short and that is a lot.

It is a shame because the game looks fun and is a good mature exclusive for the console, I do hope that third party sales pick up fast, at least make the publishers some money, so at least we get ports of everything even if no exclusives come from them.

I am doing my part, even though I still don't have the console, already bought 4 games, all third party. Now I hope a friend travels soon to US to get my Wii U quickly.



chapset said:
WagnerPaiva said:
500k = 30 million.
That game could not cost more than 10 million, no way in hell. Thought, it looks like a very cool game.
Probably, Ubisoft expected to sell 3 or 4 millions, since it was pratically the only exclusive title on the WiiU that has some real relevance.
But, loss? No way.

Ubisoft doesn't get the entire 60$ when they sale their games at 60$ they get between 15-20$ plus the vast majority of that game was sold at less than 60$ probably around 30$

So it was a failure, that is around 7 to 10 million =/



My grammar errors are justified by the fact that I am a brazilian living in Brazil. I am also very stupid.

I don't know, what Ubisoft said could be BS. I'm going to say it sold 400k in physical sales, 50k in digital.

Let's assume that about 1/2 of those people bought it for $60, the other half got it for discount at $30. That's roughly 18 Million in revenue. The game screams low budget. It has glitches up the ass, low quality textures, about 10 weapons in the whole game. It also isn't very long and has few cut scenes. Lets assume it had cost 10 million to make. With it costing 10 million to make, that's roughly a profit of 8 million. AND awhile back on twitter the creator or something said a prototype for the sequel was being created.

He must've gotten consent from the company to develop a sequel or something, meaning the game was profitable. The problem is, a few months later Ubisoft said at E3 they were dropping all support for the Wii U because of the install base. So what happened to this prototype? Is it still out there? Maybe they're waiting for the console to get a larger install base to finish making it?

All seems a bit fishy to me.