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Forums - Sales - Ubisoft Reports $117M Loss On Sales Drops, Catalog Discounting

NJ5 on 30 November 2009
Yakuzaice said:
libellule said:
Wii market instability ...

it is like saying that blockbuster game ala AC2 are supported by their own sales and not, as a lot have said, by the massive amount of casual games on Wii that allowed the developpement of HD project for the PS3-360

what do you think ?

You might have a point for something like Wheelman or Call of Juarez, but do you really think AC/AC2 won't make money on their own?  They really haven't put out many big budget HD games, or that many HD games in general.

Ubisoft has claimed that there were 450 people working on Assassin's Creed 2... Add advertising costs and stuff like that, I could see how they would make little or no profit.

If you use the (often correct, apparently) estimate of $100,000 per dev/year (all costs not just salary), that's $45 million per year in development alone.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

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letsdance on 30 November 2009

lol... why is it that 3rd parties are mostly talking about poor wii performances yet its the HD games that people say make no profit... its really ridiculous way to look at things.



Yakuzaice on 30 November 2009
NJ5 said:
Yakuzaice said:
libellule said:
Wii market instability ...

it is like saying that blockbuster game ala AC2 are supported by their own sales and not, as a lot have said, by the massive amount of casual games on Wii that allowed the developpement of HD project for the PS3-360

what do you think ?

You might have a point for something like Wheelman or Call of Juarez, but do you really think AC/AC2 won't make money on their own?  They really haven't put out many big budget HD games, or that many HD games in general.

Ubisoft has claimed that there were 450 people working on Assassin's Creed 2... Add advertising costs and stuff like that, I could see how they would make little or no profit.

 

Well that 450 is three times the staff on the original game, and that sold over 8 million.  So if anything it was the first games success that is supporting the second, not Wii/DS shovelware.  Despite the team size I can see AC2 making money.  It was a relatively short dev time, they had an established engine, and dev teams balloon in size in the last part of the cycle, so it isn't like those 450 people were there from day 1.



NJ5 on 30 November 2009
Yakuzaice said:
NJ5 said:
Yakuzaice said:
libellule said:
Wii market instability ...

it is like saying that blockbuster game ala AC2 are supported by their own sales and not, as a lot have said, by the massive amount of casual games on Wii that allowed the developpement of HD project for the PS3-360

what do you think ?

You might have a point for something like Wheelman or Call of Juarez, but do you really think AC/AC2 won't make money on their own?  They really haven't put out many big budget HD games, or that many HD games in general.

Ubisoft has claimed that there were 450 people working on Assassin's Creed 2... Add advertising costs and stuff like that, I could see how they would make little or no profit.

 

Well that 450 is three times the staff on the original game, and that sold over 8 million.  So if anything it was the first games success that is supporting the second, not Wii/DS shovelware.  Despite the team size I can see AC2 making money.  It was a relatively short dev time, they had an established engine, and dev teams balloon in size in the last part of the cycle, so it isn't like those 450 people were there from day 1.

That's not always how projects work. The news was from May.

The engine is the least part of the costs. It has been stated time and again by official sources that most of the cost is in creating art and related stuff.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

famousringo on 30 November 2009

This financial period only accounts for one week of TMNT Smash-up sales. Granted, it didn't sell very well at all despite TV promotion.

Ubisoft releases for the quarter ending Sept. 30:

03rd Jul 09 Summer Sports Party
17th Jul 09 My Fitness Coach: Cardio Workout
04th Sep 09 Academy of Champions: Football
11th Sep 09 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
22nd Sep 09 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up
The Price Is Right 2010 Edition
Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey
29th Sep 09 Family Feud 2010

I guess you could throw in these two from June:

19th Jun 09 Fun Park Party
23rd Jun 09 Dawn of Discovery


Perhaps Ubisoft needs to release games on the Wii before they can sell Wii games?



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

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Yakuzaice on 30 November 2009
NJ5 said:
Yakuzaice said:
NJ5 said:
Yakuzaice said:
libellule said:
Wii market instability ...

it is like saying that blockbuster game ala AC2 are supported by their own sales and not, as a lot have said, by the massive amount of casual games on Wii that allowed the developpement of HD project for the PS3-360

what do you think ?

You might have a point for something like Wheelman or Call of Juarez, but do you really think AC/AC2 won't make money on their own?  They really haven't put out many big budget HD games, or that many HD games in general.

Ubisoft has claimed that there were 450 people working on Assassin's Creed 2... Add advertising costs and stuff like that, I could see how they would make little or no profit.

 

Well that 450 is three times the staff on the original game, and that sold over 8 million.  So if anything it was the first games success that is supporting the second, not Wii/DS shovelware.  Despite the team size I can see AC2 making money.  It was a relatively short dev time, they had an established engine, and dev teams balloon in size in the last part of the cycle, so it isn't like those 450 people were there from day 1.

That's not always how projects work. The news was from May.

The engine is the least part of the costs. It has been stated time and again by official sources that most of the cost is in creating art and related stuff.

 

May is pretty late in the cycle.  Less than six months before the game released.  Big games to to go gold around a month before they release, so that is only ~5 months most likely with 450 employees.



vic_viper on 30 November 2009

Serves them right for releasing unending streams of crap for so long.



NJ5 on 30 November 2009
Yakuzaice said:

May is pretty late in the cycle.  Less than six months before the game released.  Big games to to go gold around a month before they release, so that is only ~5 months most likely with 450 employees.


That is the best possible case, of course. In reality I have a hard time believing that there were much fewer than 450 people working on the game before that.

Also, they did say that the team was three times as big as the team that made Assassin's Creed 1:

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/513/assassins-creed-ii-triples-size-of-dev-team

So about triple the costs of an already expensive project... and probably with more advertising.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

jammy2211 on 30 November 2009

Assassin's Creed 2 is exceeding expectations, why are people doubting it's profitability? Unless Ubisoft expected it to lose money 0_o.



NJ5 on 30 November 2009
jammy2211 said:

Assassin's Creed 2 is exceeding expectations, why are people doubting it's profitability? Unless Ubisoft expected it to lose money 0_o.

To be clear, my point is that it could not make a great profit depending on how sales end up. Sequels often sell less than their predecessors despite being more frontloaded.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957