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

SaviorX on 30 November 2009
Ail said:
NJ5 said:
Train wreck said:
So lets recap.

Ubisoft losing money, HD titles seem to be doing fine (we dont know for sure) but Ubisoft went out of there way to highlight Wii instability as a factor in them losing money.

EA Montreal shifting focus away from Wii titles due to Wii unpredictability.

Maybe its me but I sense a theme brewing...

As famousringo well pointed out, we should add that both developers have mostly made mediocre Wii titles... to put it mildly.

 

Out of 38 third party million sellers on the Wii, Ubisoft has 6.

No other third party has more. They are actually the third party with the most Wii million sellers.

And as Avinash famously said it, if it sells, it's quality !!!!!!!!!

If that adage was true, Vanilla Ice would be the greatest rapper of all-time.

Words in blue: Well, seeing as to how they tried 75 TIMES, them not getting at least 6 million selling games would be more pathetic than it already is.



Leatherhat on July 6th, 2012 3pm. Vita sales:"3 mil for COD 2 mil for AC. Maybe more. "  thehusbo on July 6th, 2012 5pm. Vita sales:"5 mil for COD 2.2 mil for AC."

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Ail on 30 November 2009

I do love how each time a company claims weaker Wii revenue than expected the fanboy here have to question their statement.
This is a financial statement for Ubisoft investors, they have no reason to lie...



PS3-Xbox360 gap : 1.5 millions and going up in PS3 favor !

PS3-Wii gap : 20 millions and going down !

NJ5 on 30 November 2009
Ail said:
I do love how each time a company claims weaker Wii revenue than expected the fanboy here have to question their statement.
This is a financial statement for Ubisoft investors, they have no reason to lie...

Who said they're lying?

 



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

Train wreck on 30 November 2009
NJ5 said:
Train wreck said:
So lets recap.

Ubisoft losing money, HD titles seem to be doing fine (we dont know for sure) but Ubisoft went out of there way to highlight Wii instability as a factor in them losing money.

EA Montreal shifting focus away from Wii titles due to Wii unpredictability.

Maybe its me but I sense a theme brewing...

As famousringo well pointed out, we should add that both developers have mostly made mediocre Wii titles... to put it mildly.

 

 

Here is some of Ubisoft Wii ventures:

Imagine series

My Coach series

Red Steel

No more heros

Shaun White

Tenchu

TMNT smash up

Raving Rabbids

 

----------

Titles range from the ultra casual to the hardcore, these are not medicore titles, if anything its show that the company is trying to find a Wii niche, but is having a hard time.

 

Now Ubisoft knows that if they release a HD Tom Clancy, Assassin Creed or Far Cry, they can bank on them selling 2+ million.  Being consistant has its advantages



NJ5 on 30 November 2009
Train wreck said:
NJ5 said:
Train wreck said:
So lets recap.

Ubisoft losing money, HD titles seem to be doing fine (we dont know for sure) but Ubisoft went out of there way to highlight Wii instability as a factor in them losing money.

EA Montreal shifting focus away from Wii titles due to Wii unpredictability.

Maybe its me but I sense a theme brewing...

As famousringo well pointed out, we should add that both developers have mostly made mediocre Wii titles... to put it mildly.

 

 

Here is some of Ubisoft Wii ventures:

Imagine series

My Coach series

Red Steel

No more heros

Shaun White

Tenchu

TMNT smash up

Raving Rabbids

 

----------

Titles range from the ultra casual to the hardcore, these are not medicore titles, if anything its show that the company is trying to find a Wii niche, but is having a hard time.

 

Now Ubisoft knows that if they release a HD Tom Clancy, Assassin Creed or Far Cry, they can bank on them selling 2+ million.  Being consistant has its advantages

 

I am repeating myself, but Ubisoft is not complaining about the Wii in general, just the Wii titles they have released recently.

 



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

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Avinash_Tyagi on 30 November 2009
Procrastinato said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:
Procrastinato said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:
Procrastinato said:
There were only 450 people working on AC2 during its beta phase -- the vast majority of them were contracted testers. AC2's team was roughly 70-100 full-timers during most of its development.

OT: Ubisoft should drop Wii development, if it hurts them. Without it, it sounds like they'd be fine. They can come back to it after some other brave publishers have thrown exploratory money at it, and found "gold", as it were.

actually in the longer run, abandoning the Wii would likely result in a greater loss, because HD dev costs are rising, so unless they want to just focus on making a couple of big titles year after year, like AC, and hoping they keep selling enough to beat out dev costs, Wii is their best hope, right now a big flop on the HD consoles could really sink them

Actually... HD devcosts are dropping, thanks to pre-existing engines/middleware, and experienced artists/engineers now being available.

Then why did MW2 cost almost 50 million to develop?

Ask Activision why MW2 does not follow the norm.  Why did Gears 2 only take $10M to develop?


Because it was a sequel which used assets from the first game over

 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

Avinash_Tyagi on 30 November 2009
Ail said:
NJ5 said:
Train wreck said:
So lets recap.

Ubisoft losing money, HD titles seem to be doing fine (we dont know for sure) but Ubisoft went out of there way to highlight Wii instability as a factor in them losing money.

EA Montreal shifting focus away from Wii titles due to Wii unpredictability.

Maybe its me but I sense a theme brewing...

As famousringo well pointed out, we should add that both developers have mostly made mediocre Wii titles... to put it mildly.

 

Out of 38 third party million sellers on the Wii, Ubisoft has 6.

No other third party has more. They are actually the third party with the most Wii million sellers.

And as Avinash famously said it, if it sells, it's quality !!!!!!!!!

Never said that, I said if a game sells it indicates it has greater appeal and is better received by the market



 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

Demotruk on 30 November 2009

Ubisoft is a has a reputation as a shovelware developer. They released a small number of potentially good games over the last two quarters, and they churned out a load of crap alongside it. They shouldn't be surprised that came back to bite them.



A game I'm developing with some friends:

www.xnagg.com/zombieasteroids/publish.htm

It is largely a technical exercise but feedback is appreciated.

jammy2211 on 30 November 2009
Avinash_Tyagi said:
Procrastinato said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:
Procrastinato said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:
Procrastinato said:
There were only 450 people working on AC2 during its beta phase -- the vast majority of them were contracted testers. AC2's team was roughly 70-100 full-timers during most of its development.

OT: Ubisoft should drop Wii development, if it hurts them. Without it, it sounds like they'd be fine. They can come back to it after some other brave publishers have thrown exploratory money at it, and found "gold", as it were.

actually in the longer run, abandoning the Wii would likely result in a greater loss, because HD dev costs are rising, so unless they want to just focus on making a couple of big titles year after year, like AC, and hoping they keep selling enough to beat out dev costs, Wii is their best hope, right now a big flop on the HD consoles could really sink them

Actually... HD devcosts are dropping, thanks to pre-existing engines/middleware, and experienced artists/engineers now being available.

Then why did MW2 cost almost 50 million to develop?

Ask Activision why MW2 does not follow the norm.  Why did Gears 2 only take $10M to develop?

Because it was a sequel which used assets from the first game over

 MW2 is a unfair example, it's the biggest entertainment launch ever, so naturally once Activision realised they were onto a huge winner they ramped up the dev costs to ensure it had that success. It's just that western corporate attitude type thing that Activision employ, but using it as a standard industry protocol is absurb, that sort of cost will only happen with a game guarenteed to hit 8 figure sales (GTA, Call of Duty, Gran Turismo etc).

 In general HD game costs are lowering now that the engines are there and programmers understand the coding on the machines more. The costs are only upped when the company can pretty much be sure it's worth it, i.e. the sequel to a big seller.



Avinash_Tyagi on 30 November 2009

^I'd believe that, if companies weren't taking huge losses



 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)