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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Ubisoft wanted Splinter Cell: Blacklist to sell 5 million copies - only sold 2 million

S.Peelman on 06 January 2014

Then I don't want to know what they expect Watch_Dogs to sell. Sure, it's probably going to sell a lot better than Splinter Cell and Rayman, but I hope they're not thinking GTA numbers...



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LemonSlice on 06 January 2014

I wanted a lot of things too.



Lawlight on 06 January 2014
DarkFury said:

5 Million target sounds very much the reality, I'm afraid.

The THQ bankruptcy papers give us a glimpse on the cost of AAA development and how many copies games need to be profitable. This is some of the best info I've ever seen on what it costs to make games nowadays:

http://www.consulgamer.com/platforming/thqs-recovery-sales-targets-and-development-budget-timing/787/attachment/thq-sales-targets/

So the total cost of making some AAA games (including marketing, corporate overhead etc. I am sure):

Saint's Row 4: 123 Million
Homefront 2: c. 100 Million
Darksiders 2: c. 80 million

and so on... (fascinating read, btw) So if the SC:BL had a typical AAA budget, 4-5 million sales are indeed required to put the game in black. :(

This also shows how most of these games have not been profitable, btw -check their sales against these targets.

I don't worry about Ubi Toronto though: Ontario government has supported Ubisoft with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, so I don't think Ubi can easily pull the plug on that that Studio.

That's very interesting. You mentioned 1 thing - corporate overhead. I wonder how many millions of that budget was spent on execs.



Stefan.De.Machtige on 06 January 2014

As others noted, the game had little hype so i'm not surprised.

Companies should plan to make some profits at 2 million sales. Surely they have no excuses for not knowing how few games sell 5 millions units.



In the wilderness we go alone with our new knowledge and strength.

Rychussnik on 06 January 2014
S.Peelman said:

Then I don't want to know what they expect Watch_Dogs to sell. Sure, it's probably going to sell a lot better than Splinter Cell and Rayman, but I hope they're not thinking GTA numbers...


If Watch Dogs under performs, Ubisoft's stock will drop like a rock. I really hope they don't overestimate how many copies they can sell.



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LiquorandGunFun on 06 January 2014

They changed it so much, its not like what it started out to be, and damn did those games look good even for the original xbox.


Its like they bastardized it like SE did to the FF series, I understand that!



 

softcoregamer82 on 06 January 2014

The only game I played in the franchise was the original for the PS2, and that was back in the early 00's. It's been on the decline since then and is no longer really relevant.



NintendoSupporter<3 on 06 January 2014

The Splinter Cell series isn't even that popular to sell 5 million copies in 4 months.

Rayman Legends should have been release on WiiU back in February when there was no competition and no games for the system back then. It would have sold at least 350-400k on WiiU.....then went multiplatform. I didn't even buy Rayman Legends because, well, there are games right now I prefer than Rayman.



IsawYoshi on 06 January 2014

So... did they hire a former Square Enix President or something?



selnor1983 on 06 January 2014

I would have bought this game were it for Xbox One.

I will get if it releases as a HD pack or something.

I am buying Tomb Raider Xbox One for example.