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

[fauzman]

coreyerb said:

fauzman said:
A lot of nintendo fans touted ZombieU as one of the Wii U's key exclusives precisely because of its production values and its hardcore nature (doesnt get much more hardcore than a survival horror) and now a lot seem to be saying they should have made a cheaper game which should have made a profit by now. I mean realistically speaking most retail games nowdays ( and Im not talking AAA) generally need around 1M sales to make a profit so the fact that isnt profitable on the back of weak sales due to weak Wii U sales isnt surprising. I just find it strange that a number of fans seem to be blaming this on the fact that it is a AAA title (in fact I suspect its high sales compared with nintendo IPs is due to its exposure as an exclusive high value 3rd party title) rather than blaming the main culprit - low Wii U sales!!

Budgeting a launch title at the same 1 million sales benchmark as a title five years into the console cycle is ridiculous. Xbox1/PS4 games are going to cost even more to develop. Are we going to hear more stories about games not turning a profit when there aren't 200-plus million consoles sold to support such lofty sales benchmarks?

Launch game exclusives like this should be built to sell sequels - the first game is going to take a loss. Just not enough consoles owned to support good production values (I agree, ZombiU wasn't shoddily programmed, and if it were people would complain about that instead). In a couple years, the sequel will have all the hype from the first one, plus a much greater audience to profit from. Third game even more.

I disagree. I dont see why devs need to take greater risks then they already do and expect a loss in their 1st game particularly if the consoles sells well. I mean sure a number of new IPs dont sell well at launch but some do (Resistance 1 comes to mind). If the game does well critically and is innovative I have no doubt it will sell well. In fact I expect all the sony sequels (KZ:SF and I:SS) to sell more thantheir predecessors (dont know or care about XBO).