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

[Zod95]

padib said:

Zod95 said:

1 - Then I presume you mean that, unless Ubisoft Montreal makes an exclusive for WiiU, Ubisoft has no right to criticize the system. I disagree. I believe things can (and should) start by baby steps (like it happened with the Wii as Ubisoft launched initially low-budget party, fitness and dance games) and then, only if successful, the publisher should increase the attention to the console, placing more and more resources on it. To create an AAA exclusive is the ultimate stage and very few large companies do such these days without a technological reason or a very strong motive. And the few who do most probably regret it. Last generation I remember Bioshock, Mass Effect, Tekken, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, among others, going multiplatform. This generation, Insomniac, Platinum Games and Respawn Entertainment must be regreting their choice of making exclusives for XOne and WiiU, as the PS4 is leading the market.

2 - It's not just about building a market on a console. The console itself has to be fertile ground to sell 3rd party software. More than a market built on PS3 and X360, Ubisoft had a friendly environment there, powerful machines (at their time) and a userbase very receptive to AAA titles. The same scenario was drawn to PS4 and XOne, so there was almost no risk on developing for those new platforms (although there was no market yet). The WiiU is different as it hasn't regarded 3rd parties. It was poorly designed for AAA games and wrongly priced for casual titles. Some things just can't be changed now (it's already too late) but others can. Nintendo must focus on the latter and this message from Ubisoft should serve as motivation, once it means they haven't given up on WiiU yet.

@bold. No, I just meant that if it were to happen then I'd have absolutely no excuse to give.

@AAA exclusive being the ultimate stage. Sure, that's true. However that is how you build a market. EA built a market for themselves on X1 with Titanfall, but I agree that a few others will regret it. I understand it is a business risk, and I agree. All I'm saying is that that is how the market is build. No risk, no reward.

And certainly not on the U. The trouble with a multiplat AAA on the U is that at this point it does nothing for the console because the console is not fertile ground (as you well said it). The 3rd parties have not tilled it in their favor during the post-SNES history. During the Wii era, many of their games were cash-ins, which are now leaving them high and dry.

@2. You're very right. However the U was not poorly designed for AAA, it was (intentionally) poorly designed for AAA that sell on MicroSony consoles. Other than that I agree with you. However, looking at the Wii and the DS, and all of Nintendo's successful consoles, there is room for AAA that is successful on consoles other than MicroSony's. That's how Ubi would need to look at it on the U.

As the best example, Sega made games that were unique to them for the Dreamcast. Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Jet Grind Radio. The Dreamcast had a market that was very different from either Nintendo's or SonyMS'. Closer to Nintendo's sure, but still different. That market existed, was AAA, and was not a SonyMS market.

If I were Ubi and serious about paving a different AAA market on the U, that's how I would approach it.

I don't think this is common thinking though.

@ 1st underlined: They didn't engage into that kind of risk with Watch Dogs and the reward is being huge.

@ 2nd underlined: It was the other way around. Nintendo consoles were not designed for 3rd party success or even freedom. The console defines the support rather than the opposite. Regarding Wii, you may be right, but then I can tell the same thing about Wii Fit or even the entire Nintendo (blaming WiiU's lack of success on Wii's greedy short-term gains).

@rest: Then, bad decision from Nintendo and poor choice from you picking Sega as an example. Those are the kind of familiar environments that ruled the first generations of consoles. Things have changed since PlayStation 1 into a mainstream environment capturing almost all of the market. Wii was the exception of the rule and Nintendo should have understood that. Now they're paying the price. I hope they finally learn and release a powerful console dev friendly next time because they're shrinking and Sega has gone long ago.