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Michel Ancel and Rayman dev team show up at fan(?) protest RE: Rayman Legends delay

Gummb

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about Rayman Legends Wii U.
Honestly I'm mind-boggled anyone thought different. It's clearly Ancel and some fans, and then Ancel and some dev team members and some fans. I actually thought the whole thread was proceeding on that basis, but now that I re-read you appear to be correct and people think this is just the dev team.

This is precisely why this is so powerful. Whatever you "think" this is or not, it is not being recorded as fan reaction, but rather open protest against Ubisoft executives from the development team. Until we have a metapicture of the event, we will not understand it. For now, it has become representative of Ubisoft Montpilliar asking for more support in order to release Rayman from his prison.

I think it's silly to assume one version is correct and another is incorrect until we have a metapicture. If it is a PR event to stop the protest, it's completely ineffective. If it is a PR event to support the game come September, the image suggests otherwise (based on the imprisonment status of Rayman). "Release Rayman. Show Support For Ubisoft Montpillar" - this can be taken in any manner of ways. We do not know the truth behind it.

I wish people would stop assuming what this image is about and start paying attention to how it's being popularly received: DEV TEAM PROTESTS DELAY -

http://m.gamespot.com/news/michel-ancel-dev-team-protesting-rayman-legends-delay-6403768/
http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a458307/rayman-legends-creator-staff-protest-wii-u-delay.html
http://www.el33tonline.com/past/2013/2/12/michel_ancel_and_ubisoft_developers/
http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/12/39...evelopment-team-protest-rayman-legends-launch
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02...legends-delay?abthid=511a9884b929485a1200005b

etc, etc.

IGN said:
We have to admit, it's quite the ballsy career move, but we can't think of a decent reason for delaying the Wii U version if it's ready to go. IGN has reached out to Ubisoft for comment and will update the story as soon as we hear anything back.

This has spurred the most open debate against Ubisoft executives so far. It's very powerful and it makes sense that it is acting this way.
 

TimmiT

Member
The race is already a lost cause by competing with GTA V when it comes to marketing. Sales numbers is one thing, competing with ad space is another. No way is Legends going to succeed battling that.

I'm sure that Rayman Legends, an E10+ rated game, is targeting the same audience as GTA V, an M rated game.
 

Nairume

Banned
EDIT: And for the record I don't think many Wii U owners would've been SERIOUSLY upset if this got ported to 360/PS3 later on, maybe they'd be upset they got the system for Rayman Legends only for it to be pointless, but it's naive to think Ubisoft wouldn't eagerly port if an opportunity arose. It's delaying the whole damn thing that's offputting, and makes me wonder if Microsoft's got a stricter policy than Sony (as in "even with extra content we won't accept it"). If Microsoft IS to blame for their policies it'd just be another reason I'd want them chased out, but it seems possible they would rather not make the new content to justify ports to those two anyway.

The weird thing is that it sounds like they could have easily gotten by Microsoft being weird about having to have the game at the same time by just waiting until after the WiiU version was out to negotiate a PS3/360 release with new content to replace Murfy.

Ubisoft most likely made a very panicked decision, and the game is going to suffer for it.
 
Should have never been a WiiU exclusive to begin with if Nintendo never gave them money to make it exclusive. No stupider move in the publishing biz than releasing a sequel exclusively for an unestablished platform.

Agree. It's just one of many blunders that Ubisoft made handling this situation. The entire ordeal was handled poorly from the beginning and it's still being handled poorly, IMO.
 

evangd007

Member
I'm sure that Rayman Legends, an E10+ rated game, is targeting the same audience as GTA V, an M rated game.

Pokemon X and Y is also releasing in the same timeframe. It quite frankly doesn't matter which fall release you choose: Rayman will still be competing for marketing, shelf-space, and in-store displays, and it will lose. Hard.
 

NotLiquid

Member
I'm sure that Rayman Legends, an E10+ rated game, is targeting the same audience as GTA V, an M rated game.

Hence why I said "marketing is another". Ad space is going to be completely hogged by GTA V for pretty much the entire month, and Legends is going to be a mere blip in the radar because of it.

Never mind the fact that Legends is targeting a group of "everyone". That and claiming that high profile games with different age ratings can't neuter a game's sales is short minded when it's one of the few reasons Rayman Origins completely tanked in sales.
 

Linkhero1

Member
I'm sure that Rayman Legends, an E10+ rated game, is targeting the same audience as GTA V, an M rated game.

Not necessarily but you can't deny that there are cross-over audiences for those games. The problem is that it's not only GTA V releasing at that time, but potentially other games. Their marketing campaigns will overshadow this and most of the little jimmies out there will want GTA V (or insert X game) and not Rayman.
 

BHK3

Banned
The race is already a lost cause by competing with GTA V when it comes to marketing. Sales numbers is one thing, competing with ad space is another. No way is Legends going to succeed battling that.

Rayman Legends is competing with GTA V...?
 

Nairume

Banned
I'm sure that Rayman Legends, an E10+ rated game, is targeting the same audience as GTA V, an M rated game.
Given this forum has shown that there are adult fans of Rayman, they may not be the same audience but there is definitely going to be enough of an overlap to impact the game's sales.

And beyond that, GTA5 might be an M rated game, but Zelda sure as hell won't be.
 
Why can't employees do this? Or should employers (i.e. big corporation in this cause) control everything while their workers have no say?

Big corporations shouldn't be able to control everything its employees have to say, obviously. But when the team signs on to do the game, they agree to certain realities. One of those is that Ubisoft will decide when to release the game. I don't want to harp on the devs too badly because what they did seems to be partially done in good fun as well, but I do think employees are responsible for keeping quiet in the public eye about certain things. Complaining publicly about release dates is kind of an issue - it negatively impacts company image as we can see here. Employees can say what they want - however, if what they say publicly is detrimental to their company, there may be consequences.
 
About DAMN FUCKING time a protest regarding a third-party game on a Nintendo system happened!

This decision from Ubisoft was an absurd and just fueled up arguments for anti-Nintendo fanboys and Nintendo grudge-holder developers to not support Wii U.

This should have happened with many other third-party titles in the past Nintendo history.
 
I understand them getting upset because they presumably worked overtime to get the game finished in time - but then again, they get paid anyway, right? No matter when the game releases?
 

Neiteio

Member
About DAMN FUCKING time a protest regarding a third-party game on a Nintendo system happened!

This decision from Ubisoft was an absurd and just fueled up arguments for anti-Nintendo fanboys and Nintendo grudge-holder developers to not support Wii U.

This should have happened with many other third-party titles in the past Nintendo history.
o_O
 

bryehn

Member
Next Rayman game to be funded via Kickstarter. There's no way this is going to go over well with Ubisoft execs.
 

Gummb

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about Rayman Legends Wii U.
In my own opinion, while we do not know what precisely this is, it looks like a staged media event based on the quality of the picture. I think it's foolish to look into the facial expressions of the individuals - these are people in front of a camera, in a social context, with a representative from Ubisoft Montpillar - Michel Ancel. For me, the message is in the static image - the poster on display. Whether it was made by a fan or the development studio is unclear, but staging next to it is powerful.

If this is PR for Ubisoft Montpillar, it's bad PR for Ubisoft HQ.


People are clearly angry.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
It's not only about GTA V. Wii U will finally get some games by September. Some people that would buy it today because of having nothing else to play will have then other options.
 

Eusis

Member
When it comes to a customer's time and money. People can't buy everything and some games are seen as more worthwhile when money is a limiting factor as it always is.
Admittedly I'd usually value the smaller game in this case as the big AAA games I can comfortably wait on (GTAIV took until it hit $30 for me), but some people have the opposite mentality where they only care about the small releases if there's nothing bigger, and sometimes the big games may simply be closer to one's own tastes, I would most likely pick some Atlus/Xseed release over either of those two and just wait it out.
 

btkadams

Member
Speaking as someone who was really stoked to play this on his Wii-U, why is everyone pissed about this but nobody cared when Sly Cooper was delayed for months despite being finished last fall? Seems odd.

I welcome an earlier release if this protest works though!!
 

Madouu

Member
Props to Michel Ancel and his team. My respect for their team has gone up even more. They wanted to prove once and for all they had nothing to do with the delay decision, and it seems to have worked well.

The few people in this thread hoping for them to get fired or looking at it from a company's point of view before even considering the consumer/developer? I ... don't know what to say.

I'm surprised mods didn't photoshop Gummb's avatar on Michel Ancel's face.
 
Speaking as someone who was really stoked to play this on his Wii-U, why is everyone pissed about this but nobody cared when Sly Cooper was delayed for months despite being finished last fall? Seems odd.

I welcome an earlier release if this protest works though!!

How fast do you think a 10,000 person poll would fill up if this happened to Halo? Different games are cared about more or less for different reasons.
 

Gahiggidy

My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
Speaking as someone who was really stoked to play this on his Wii-U, why is everyone pissed about this but nobody cared when Sly Cooper was delayed for months despite being finished last fall? Seems odd.

I welcome an earlier release if this protest works though!!

Was Sly Cooper delayed on a system that happened to be going through an awful drought of new content?
 
Speaking as someone who was really stoked to play this on his Wii-U, why is everyone pissed about this but nobody cared when Sly Cooper was delayed for months despite being finished last fall? Seems odd.

I welcome an earlier release if this protest works though!!

Why was it delayed?
 
Speaking as someone who was really stoked to play this on his Wii-U, why is everyone pissed about this but nobody cared when Sly Cooper was delayed for months despite being finished last fall? Seems odd.

I welcome an earlier release if this protest works though!!

you really think Sly would have had any sort of better sales potential during the fall and the height of high-profile releases? as good as Sly will ever do at this point, it will do it in Feb. same goes for Rayman
 

JDSN

Banned
Speaking as someone who was really stoked to play this on his Wii-U, why is everyone pissed about this but nobody cared when Sly Cooper was delayed for months despite being finished last fall? Seems odd.

I welcome an earlier release if this protest works though!!

Cos some people care about certain thinks at some dont, you will probably see me and a bunch of Obsidian fans bitching in a couple of months after Ubisoft delays South Park TSoT despite the game being essentially done.
 

Madouu

Member
In my own opinion, while we do not know what precisely this is, it looks like a staged media event based on the quality of the picture. I think it's foolish to look into the facial expressions of the individuals - these are people in front of a camera, in a social context, with a representative from Ubisoft Montpillar - Michel Ancel. For me, the message is in the static image - the poster on display. Whether it was made by a fan or the development studio is unclear, but staging next to it is powerful.

If this is PR for Ubisoft Montpillar, it's bad PR for Ubisoft HQ.



People are clearly angry.

It would be conterproductive for Ubi as a whole. Like you said, good publicity for Rayman Legends but it would discourage a few people from buying other Ubisoft products as a whole.
 

Eusis

Member
Speaking as someone who was really stoked to play this on his Wii-U, why is everyone pissed about this but nobody cared when Sly Cooper was delayed for months despite being finished last fall? Seems odd.

I welcome an earlier release if this protest works though!!
While I don't like those kinds of situations period (especially when they come off as insane, why the shit did Luigi's Mansion skip Halloween if it was done in time for it?) lot of it had to do with how Ubisoft botched this I think. If they delayed it to fall back in December or November only to finish the game in February or March anyway it'd be a minor annoyance, or if they never gave a firm release date then delayed it, well, ok. But no, they had a firm date, then about two weeks before that date go and delay it. What the fuck?
 

Larsen B

Member
The talk of GTA V cannibalising Rayman sales is true but not for the reasons most think.

Kids are far more interested in GTA V. Rayman Legends will be selling to adults.
 
Yeah, the delay is uncalled for. There's no point to it. Many games have gone to other platforms after a timed-exclusitivity for its intended platform. I really don't think it would effect sales one bit. Bringing the game out for the Wii U will more likely sell more because of the early Wii U adopters craving for a great game. It's not like 360/ps3 owners will go out and get a Wii U for that game because if they set in their minds that they won't buy a Wii U, they won't. I'd get a Wii U for that game, but that's because I'm like that and secondly because I know the Wii U would have a lot to offer in the future.

Delaying it is just hurting it for everybody.
 
I love how many people are trying to act like they're "above" the frustration of a finished game being delayed 7 months without a good reason.
I don't think anyone should be above it because whatever your preferred gaming platforms are, you will eventually be fucked in this way some day and there's nothing more annoying than other people going to lengths to explain to you how much they don't care.

I'm on the receiving end of these rationalizations whenever some asshole needs to defend why I can't play X game because of region locks so obviously, I sympathize very much with WiiU owners who were looking forward to it.
 

HylianTom

Banned
The talk of GTA V cannibalising Rayman sales is true but not for the reasons most think.

Kids are far more interested in GTA V. Rayman Legends will be selling to adults.

Daaaamn. That is solid.

MadelineSizzle.gif
 

ohlawd

Member
Ha, look who´s talking. How about be happy that many more people will play the game instead of being bitter that it went multiplatform. If WiiU owners wanted to buy the game because it´s exclusive and not because it´s a great game then that´s their problem. People who want to buy the game they buy it regardless.

lolol damn bro you still have your head in the sand. Almost no one gives a fuck Rayman Legends is multiplatform. You got eyes; I suggest you start using them and read one of these threads properly.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
sly 4 was delayed to take it out of the busy holidays.

Pretty different situation between that and this.

It was delayed as a business decision to sell at a better time for Sony/to a potentially larger install base? Sounds... pretty bang on to me!

The GTA timing is unfortunate really, but I can only assume July/August just wasnt feasible without an INSANE rolling crunch, and beyond September is the true dangerzone.
 
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