Casual Wii games cost Ubisoft serious dollarz
by Chris Greenhough 
{ May 21st 2008 at 6:00PM }
"The margins on these games are good when you look at development, but it takes a lot of marketing dollars," revealed Detoc to Gamasutra, instantly endearing himself to all of us hardcore gamers who can't stand a lot of the casual tat on the Wii. "It's like packaged goods. You have to think about marketing, retail space, branding." My, isn't it nice to see that the creative flame still burns bright in the industry?
Anyway, Ubisoft is especially struggling with its Wii line-up of casual fare, with Detoc admitting that much work is to be done if Ubi's games are to "sell as well as Nintendo's own Wii titles." Needless to say, our hearts bleed.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
igorponweed @ May 21st 2008 8:01PM
No Rainbow Six Vegaz Wii, I unfortunatley believe.
Mike @ May 21st 2008 6:22PM
Yes, it costs more money to market crap than to market something worth buying.
jello00 @ May 21st 2008 6:31PM
That pretty much sums it up --- and Ubisoft sure does have a lot of crap out on the market.
hvnlysoldr @ May 21st 2008 6:40PM
It wouldn't be as bad if they only limited a few shovels at a time rather than sending up a mass graveyard.
enbob89 @ May 21st 2008 7:18PM
fuck you, ubisoft
Ray @ May 21st 2008 6:57PM
Hey Ubi, ever think about making some good games?
This is just a theory...but maybe if you make some quality games for the Wii, they'll sell.
Just a thought.
Mr Khan @ May 21st 2008 7:05PM
But then it costs a lot to make :(
CJLopez @ May 22nd 2008 5:02PM
ShovelWare
Development - Low Cost
Marketing - Low Cost
Profits - None
Good Game
Development - High Cost
Marketing - Low/Medium Cost (it doesn't have to be something ala GTAIV, just look at NMH or MKWii, also SSBB)
Profits - Medium/High; or if its pretty good, Pretty High
lobotomies4free @ May 21st 2008 7:08PM
I still haven't seen any marketing for No More Heroes
Mario @ May 21st 2008 7:48PM
great games (same as good franchises) do have greater developing costs, but require less marketing efforts, and at the same time, good games sell a lot more than half-baked casual games
in conclusion, damn you ubisoft, you just cant get it, do you?
(01) @ May 21st 2008 9:43PM
Hmmm, maybe pump that money into quality products? Oh wait, that would be a little bit too much like right...
nintendo1889 @ May 21st 2008 10:35PM
オメエ等皆は裏切り者だ! (You're all sick, twisted back-stabbers!)
Tristan @ May 21st 2008 11:07PM
lol I love the tags you gave this article, does ubisoft also do Imagine Babys, and Imagine Fashion Designer and such!?
Varun @ May 22nd 2008 12:00AM
Hey Ubi umm... What happend to nintendo like quality becasue if your going to complain to us about your games costing too much money make a good one
padgon @ May 22nd 2008 12:47AM
I haven’t seen any advertising for the Wii titles coming from Ubisoft, with the exception of “Rayman: Raving Rabbids” but only thru the internet.
Funny Rabbids.
Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ May 22nd 2008 7:40AM
Hopefully demos are coming.
All Nintendo would need to do then to help the 3rd parties is to introduce a channel where they would advertise games.
I wouldn't mind such channel sitting on main screen and showing me in its icon "game of the day" or "game of the hour."
As with packaged good, there is no particular place for people to find about games - there is nothing comparable to internet ads and link exchange services. And recalling the early times of Internet, the ads played very important role telling people where/what they can find.
N needs to do something about it. First party titles sell big because many people familiar with them - N saves a huge buck on their advertisement. That's not the case for new/original 3rd party titles - and few of casual gamers would ever bother to go to 1up or ign or gamespy to check what's new.
Darksyntax @ May 22nd 2008 9:35AM
Ugh they have a channel like that! its called the Nintendo channel. I am tired of people whine about Nintendo being the uber developer gods.
Adam @ May 23rd 2008 1:30PM
why is it always nintendos fault no one buys shit games? I wonder if it plays out like this sometimes . . . . .
3rd party developer -- "Nintendo!! We have this awesome idea for a game and we would like to know how to make the game great that would make your system sell more and our profits to raise and the land of milk and honey to return!! Tell us about your console and how it works, tell us about WiFi and how to get that in our game!"
Nintendo -- "No! you must figure all this out on your own!!"
3pd -- "Please nintendo! please!!"
Nintendo -- "Nope! We will keep the secrets to making good games for the Wii so that we may see all the profit to ourselves!!"
3pd -- "Ah well, lets push this game out with a bunch more game modes and say "Mini games included!" we can also throw together this game after many drinks and in only a week!!"
.... I like that story. BUT, case in point, I wanna know. Also, how are these development houses in business if they mainly make shit games? Are they just pulling anyone fresh out of some ITT tech school to write code and do artwork? sad sad. For indie developers we need to have a few well known games out (along wtih 25K) before getting the Nintendo license. Guess if you where established you can let yourself go haha.
PS3 @ May 23rd 2008 12:45PM
Ubisoft must be doing something right, they were producing games when I first got interested 15 years ago (I think, my memory has faded from too much time in front of the screen).
http://www.gadgets4nowt.co.uk
Spideyman @ May 27th 2008 12:00AM
Seems Ubisoft pumps out a lot of crap games in an attempt to make a quick buck. Farcry on the Wii is a piece of s*it!! The PC version was great and I had hoped with the Wiimote it would be nearly as good. WRONG!!! Poor graphics, poor gameplay...poor game. And they keep making more games.