UbiSoft declares unwavering support for WiiU!

[Joelcool7]

ClaudeLv250 said:

Joelcool7 said:

lol Canadian Bias, well I guess I have a lot of pride that a lot of the best games that come out are from Canada but I wouldn't say that I believe they are flawless or beyond reproach.

Your right publishers didn't bring many big budget titles. But honestly their was The Conduit which was a big budget title considering the average costs of making a Wii game. Their was Red Steel 2 which if it had been successful 500,000+ copies would have likely lead to more big budget software from UbiSoft. I hadn't realized till i just looked it up but apparently MadWorld had a pretty big budget as well, though I must say the game was pretty shitty.

Then while UbiSoft didn't release the largest budget games from the get go they did give us ports of some of their biggest intellectual properties. Splinter Cell Double Agent was one of UbiSoft's most expensive titles and it was on Wii within the launch window. Yet this big budget title based on one of UbiSoft's biggest and most successful franchises bombed.

Rival Swords was also released on Wii and was a big budget title from UbiSoft Montreal, the game would later be ported to HD systems and see pretty decent success. But the Wii version bombed. In 2010 UbiSoft tried again with a Wii version of Prince Of Persia Forgotten Sands produced by UbiSoft Quebec the title took full advantage of the Wiimote and had to be built from the ground up for the Wii, it supposedly carried a lofty budget. In the end PoP:Forgotten Sands lost UbiSoft a ton of money.

Fact is UbiSoft did try several times to publish bigger budget software whether they be ports of big budget games on other platforms or like Red Steel and made exclusively for Wii. Sega too tried with High Voltages games and Mad World but failed miserably. EA never bothered really investing much money into core titles and Activision did find limited success with its biggest lisences but they failed to generate sales in line with the HD platforms making Wii versions far less of a priority.

Wii consumers did have many chances to support and buy bigger budget software. Yah not as many chances as the HD systems had but Wii consumers proved very early on that they didn't care for the big IP's and big budgets that came with them. Other big budget games which set out to fill the gap by bringing us FPS titles and mature games, they failed miserably as well. This is why UbiSoft stopped and so did Sega and the consensus from the other publishers is that if UbiSoft and Sega couldn't pull off selling big budget software based on some of the strongest IP in the industry then they wouldn't try either.

As for Nintendo's software, yah you really can't use that as an example. Nintendo's software always sells on Nintendo's hardware really well regardless of budget. You can't really use it as proof that big budget software from third parties could sell that many copies. Also do note that Nintendo failed the last time they released mature games on their platforms as well. Look at Eternal Darkness which supposedly sold around 300K it was one of the best horror games I have ever played and Nintendo invested a shit load in it and it failed to produce high sales. While ED was definatly profitable it wasn't good enough to warrant Nintendo hanging on to Silicon Knights. Then their is Giest which I must admit was glitchy but it was one of Nintendo GameCube's largest budget games and had been in development for like 5+ years, yet the game bombed.

So if Nintendo couldn't sell mature shooters and horror games on their platforms why do you think third parties stand much of a better chance? Yes I realize RE sold fairly well but it still sold far greater on competitor platforms then on Nintendo's .

You can't tell me you honestly don't see where the publishers got the idea that big budget mature or hardcore titles would not sell on Nintendo's platforms. Maybe Nintendo can turn it around with WiiU it appears to have some major titles headed its way if they don't sell the publishers are going to turn to the other platforms like they did this generation! Nintendo consumers need to buy the big budget high quality software!

This is some gross revisionist history - the fact that you have to pull scraps from the Gamecube like Giest and use that to justify lack of Wii effort speaks volumes. The only thing close to big budget from Ubi on the Wii was Red Steel and that sold over a million, at no point did they capitalize on this beyond a sequel years after people stopped caring. The fact that you think Rival Swords is a high budget game is hilarious and a testament to your warped views. It's a port of a PSP game which is a port of a game Wii could already play through backwards compatibility - what was high budget about that?

To my knowledge RIval Swords was a direct port from the Xbox from last generation, not the PSP though a PSP port bearing the same name was also released. The original version was called Two Thrones and was made by UbiSoft Montreal and was indeed a big budget venture while I can't say it cost them a ton to port the title the game was by no means low budget.

When I mention those ports as big budget it is because at the time of their releases they were big budget titles. They were multiplat releases but still big budget games. Much like when Assassins Creed launches on WiiU it will be called a big budget game simply because it is a big budget game.

I pull on the examples from GameCube because during that generation Nintendo themselves tried to sell mature and hardcore games based on the most popular genre's at the time. FPS and horror, but Nintendo themselves failed to make them successful. Fact is if Nintendo themselves could not make a successful game in the FPS or Horror genre how can anyone expect third parties to do so?

Fact is the lack of hardcore games based on FPS or Horror or other genre's didn't occur just due to Wii. It had its roots in Nintendo's history and these games haven't sold well on Nintendo's platforms in some time. Other games like the relaunch of GoldenEye also prove this point the game should have been successful its based on what is credited by many as the first real modern FPS and it was one of N64's highest grossing titles, yet it failed to push enough units to be considered anywhere near the success of the original or even the failed GoldenEye game on GameCube.

I am not giving a warped sense simply explaining why publishers were reluctant to give Wii good FPS titles or hardcore games. You mention Red Steel but honestly 1.2 million copies is not a massive success when you compare it to what a good FPS sells on PS3 let alone 360! Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on PS3 alone sold more and it was also released on 360 where it sold even more. When deciding to put a major budget behind a game you look at its potential to sell and while Red Steel was pretty good it didn't take priority because lets face it their is more money to be made releasing an FPS for 360/PS3/PC. Red Steel 2 did eventually get made and proved that UbiSoft couldn't rely on the franchise to bring in a good enough income to justify the budget or creation of the title.

Also a question has to be asked as to what you classify as big budget. I classify a Wii title that costs above 6 million to be a big budget game. On the Xbox a 4+ million dollar budget made a game big budget and since Wii wasn't too much of an advancement and dev costs remained pretty close to the same a six plus million dollar budget is a big budget Wii game. Don't agree with me that is the definition given by Penny Arcade at PAX and supported by developers.

If you want a 12+ million dollar title like found on HD systems and classify that as big budget, sorry bud but not even the majority of Nintendo's first party titles come anywhere close to that kind of budget. In fact I can't even see how you could spend that much on a Wii game unless its multiplatform and your counting the 360/PS3 dev costs into it in which case I guess it would be a big budget game.

Anyways fact is if we go by what game developers call a big budget Wii game (6+ million) then the Wii has plenty of them. Many of them did not recieve the sales to justify the high dev costs!