Ubisoft CEO: “Nintendo has to perform this year, otherwise they will have less games”

[Zod95]

padib said:

Zod95 said:

Things are not that simple. First of all, Nintendo games sell well on WiiU comparatively to other publishers but poorly when compared to other consoles, specially Wii.

Second, they do so because they are first party titles and Nintendo has always a great driving force inside their ecosystem due to the familiar environment they create around their systems. Therefore, comparing Nintendo games with Ubisoft games on a Nintendo console is like comparing oranges with apples. Why don't they give the same juice? Of course they don't, and it's not because an apple is a bad orange but because it's an apple.

Third, a game can have very different sales on different platforms. Is it really just their work? If it was, sales on different platforms should be similar for any game. To give you a few examples: football games sell better on PlayStation ; Call Of Duty games sell better on Xbox ; Watch Dogs is selling far better on PS4 than on XOne ; Assassin's Creed and Batman Arkham sell almost nothing on WiiU when compared to other platforms.

Fourth, even if the game is not the same, sometimes the franchise is and the title is actually very tailored to the platform. I'm thinking of GTA and how it sold so well on PS1 and Xbox and PSP, extremely well on PS2, PS3 and X360 and so poorly on DS. On Nintendo's handheld, they developed a new kind of GTA, not requiring good graphics, being more accessible and brilliantly taking advantage of the touch feature of the system. In the end, it only sold 1.3M (a small fraction of the average GTA title). To offset the losses, they launched the very same title (tailored for DS) on PSP and it sold almost as much, even not being the kind of GTA gamers were used to on PSP and not having the mini-games using the touch feature.

 

I agree that Ubisoft has every right to be unsatisfied with WiiU and demand more from Nintendo.

None of these points contradict what I've said throughout the thread, and I agree with you.

But your conclusion doesn't follow. Ubisoft have not been able to sell games though Nintendo have. That tells you that Ubisoft just don't know how to sell on Nintendo consoles (except Just Dance and MJ the Experience).

It's up to Ubisoft to step it up.

They contradict what I had quoted:

"And no they don't, as I've already showed Nintendo is very well capable of selling on the U, Ubisoft's low sales are their work."

I've told you why Nintendo is well capable of selling on WiiU and why it's not fair to compare it to 3rd parties like Ubisoft.

I've also explained why Ubisoft's low sales are not just their work.

 

My conclusion follows because Ubisoft did their part, Nintendo hasn't.

Ubisoft knows how to make games. And maybe you're right. Maybe they don't know how to sell on Nintendo consoles. Like most 3rd parties didn't know how to sell on PS3 when it was at 600€ and all of a sudden they learned to sell a lot of games when the console became at 300€.

Now Ubisoft is rather on a "wait and see" strategy. WiiU is just another channel. If it fails, more focus on PlayStation and Xbox. Nintendo has much more to lose so they better start doing something about their system.