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Ubisoft wanted Splinter Cell: Blacklist to sell 5 million copies (only sold 2 mil)

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Via superannuation: https://twitter.com/supererogatory/status/420020154857435136

To note, 5 million probably wasn't the profit point given most publishers set expectations based on opportunity cost. For example, Tomb Raider only sold 4 million copies, but was profitable despite expectations of 5-6+ million. I think they might have even announced profitability back when it only did 3.4 million.

CBCNews said:
Raymond says Ubisoft aims to sell about five million copies of Blacklist.
Click to expand...
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/blacklist-the-test-for-ubisoft-toronto-game-developers-1.1388627

Ubisoft already warned investors that Splinter Cell Blacklist and Rayman Legends failed to meet the publisher's initial sales expectations. In a post-earnings conference call yesterday, the company shed a little more light on their performance to date.

Splinter Cell Blacklist has sold close to 2 million copies, Ubisoft revealed
Click to expand...
Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-11-13-splinter-cell-blacklist-sells-2-million
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
It's nice to want things.

It's becoming clearer and clearer that sales expectations at these big publishers are more a result of wishful thinking than any sort of carefully considered measurement of the market.
 
B

brandonh83

Banned
MO2V4Wd.gif
 
N

neptunes

Member
that sucks, and this was Ubisoft Toronto's first game wasn't it? Would this have sold better if it was cross-gen?
 
V

ViewtifulJC

Banned
That's about as much as Conviction, right? Don't know where the huge increase in expectations came from

RIP Splinter Cell franchise
until the gritty next-gen reboot simply titled "Splinter Cell"
 
S

Shinta

Banned
Probably in my top 2 for GOTY in 2013. Very, very underrated game.

I hope they keep the series going. They're getting better at making the games. I'm still playing this game all the time and I got it on day 1.
 
K

Kyoufu

Member
She looked very smug and confident about the game selling 5 million and boasted about pre-orders but I wasn't convinced. So yeah, not surprised that it failed to meet those lofty expectations.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Has Splinter Cell ever been that big of a franchise? That's MGS territory (5m sales), and i've always thought that despite all the praise Splinter Cell was nowhere near as popular. It was sorta like when Capcom was tossing around the idea of DMC selling like a God of War game.
 
Acrylic7

Acrylic7

Member
You have to work for things.

When you half ass games you get half ass sales..... most of the time....some of the time?
 
J

Jazzkokehead

Member
I don't know why they'd expect this. Splinter Cell isn't nearly as popular of a series as it once was. I think the last time I remember hearing anyone get excited about a new Splinter Cell game was around the time Chaos Theory came out... and that was in 2005.
 
P

Phatmac

Member
5 million is pretty big considering the state of the Splinter Cell franchise at the moment. It's a shame considering that this one is apparently good.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Conviction sold roughly the same in the middle of the summer of 2010 on two platforms.

The series has a dedicated fanbase, no point in changing it drastically trying to chase MGS or COD numbers. No need to lie to investors with ridiculous sales expectations either.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
2M that's a lot, congratulations.
In other news, publishers gonna publishers. Incredibly 2M copies is not enough in this age. For shame.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Forced Uplay DRM on the PC side always pushes me off buying Ubisoft products. I still haven't bought Far Cry 3, Blood Dragon, or Splinter Cell to this date despite being interested.

I honestly would have bought those titles at full price or a slight discount, I wonder how many PC players think similarly? I remember Gabe releasing some data showing that titles without DRM performing significantly better than those that did.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
SolidSnakex said:
Has Splinter Cell ever been that big of a franchise? That's MGS territory (5m sales), and i've always thought that despite all the praise Splinter Cell was nowhere near as popular. It was sorta like when Capcom was tossing around the idea of DMC selling like a God of War game.
Click to expand...

Not to my knowledge, but they spent 3-3.5 years with a 200 person team on this for much of that, so I imagine that's why expectations were high.
 
V

ViewtifulJC

Banned
Splinter Cell Xbox - 2.9 million units
Splinter Cell PS2 - 2.4 million units

Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Xbox - 1.5 million units
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Ps2 - 1 million units

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Xbox - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory PS2 - 0.8 million units

Splinter Cell Double Agent Xbox 360 - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Double Agent PS3 - 0.2 million units

Splinter Cell Conviction Xbox 360 - 1.8 million units

Am I'm missing something here? Why the hell did they suddenly expect 5 million?
 
D

Dryk

Member
This is only going to get worse. The number of games with money being poured into them in the hopes of them being a magical ROI machine is growing faster than the market can bear it.

Htown said:
It's nice to want things.

It's becoming clearer and clearer that sales expectations at these big publishers are more a result of wishful thinking than any sort of carefully considered measurement of the market.
Click to expand...
I've always figured they have a checklist of "50 Things What Are in CoD" and then a chart at the bottom that says:

< 20 - 1 million sales
20-29 - 3 milltion sales
30-39 - 5 million sales
40-44 - 7.5 million sales
45+ - 9 million sales
 
M

Mechazawa

Member
Ubisoft, if you fuck over your Toronto studio for making a good game that sold 2 million, I will kick your shit in so hard.
 
D

Dahbomb

Member
ViewtifulJC said:
Splinter Cell Xbox - 2.9 million units
Splinter Cell PS2 - 2.4 million units

Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Xbox - 1.5 million units
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Ps2 - 1 million units

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Xbox - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory PS2 - 0.8 million units

Splinter Cell Double Agent Xbox 360 - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Double Agent PS3 - 0.2 million units

Splinter Cell Conviction Xbox 360 - 1.8 million units

Am I'm missing something here? Why the hell did they suddenly expect 5 million?
Click to expand...
The same school of thought as the people who thought DmC could be a 5 million seller.
 
D

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
ViewtifulJC said:
Splinter Cell Xbox - 2.9 million units
Splinter Cell PS2 - 2.4 million units

Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Xbox - 1.5 million units
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Ps2 - 1 million units

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Xbox - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory PS2 - 0.8 million units

Splinter Cell Double Agent Xbox 360 - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Double Agent PS3 - 0.2 million units

Splinter Cell Conviction Xbox 360 - 1.8 million units

Am I'm missing something here? Why the hell did they suddenly expect 5 million?
Click to expand...

Yeah its just crazy.

Still don't get how they expected Rayman Legends to somehow sell better than Origins. Or better than basically every other Rayman game.
 
O

oxalicwave

Banned
I'm curious as to why they thought it would sell 5 million copies. Their recent efforts haven't been anywhere near that close...
 
S

Shaanyboi

Banned
Publishers really need to stop thinking that dumping money into production values is just going to magically spur CoD numbers. Manage reasonable budgetary expectations, and selling 2 million can be a reasonable success.

Fuck, the HD generation has put publishers into the worst habits with such a fucking awful mentality...
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
graywolf323 said:
what is with publishers having crazy sales expectations for games of late?
Click to expand...

Well when you spend a ton of money chasing a huge ROI, and only release 2-4 games a year, you generally set expectations very high if you want to keep increasing your company's revenue/profit (which as public companies they all do).
 
N

neptunes

Member
ViewtifulJC said:
Splinter Cell Xbox - 2.9 million units
Splinter Cell PS2 - 2.4 million units

Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Xbox - 1.5 million units
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Ps2 - 1 million units

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Xbox - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory PS2 - 0.8 million units

Splinter Cell Double Agent Xbox 360 - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Double Agent PS3 - 0.2 million units

Splinter Cell Conviction Xbox 360 - 1.8 million units

Am I'm missing something here? Why the hell did they suddenly expect 5 million?
Click to expand...

I guess they assumed More time & resources = better product = better sales?
 
T

Tablo

Member
:( I wish it sold more, I bought it recently and Blacklist's singleplayer is incredibly good, graphics are amazing and it brings glory to the Tom Clancy name XD

2 Million isn't bad, but more would be better, hopefully this doesn't harm future Splinter Cell games, if Blacklist is anything to go by I feel they are doing good for the franchise.
 
P

PowderedToast

Junior Member
a very good game (despite the jingoistic pandering and crappy fisher). but apart from the first game the series has never been at that sales level, and considering the amount of facelifts it went through in a single gen, its no surprise it didnt resonate with everyone. blacklist dev time also went on a lot longer than I expected it to so it can't have been cheap.

I suspect we won't see fisher again for a while. from ubis perspective, they've pretty much tried everything.
 
V

ViewtifulJC

Banned
darkside31337 said:
Still don't get how they expected Rayman Legends to somehow sell better than Origins. Or better than basically every other Rayman game.
Click to expand...

My conspiracy theory is they just don't want to do these old franchises anymore, so they set unrealistic expectations and now have a reason to never make them

No tears, only UbiSoft collect-a-thons and The Division now
 
A

Azih

Member
oxalicwave said:
I'm curious as to why they thought it would sell 5 million copies. Their recent efforts haven't been anywhere near that close...
Click to expand...

They spent as much on it as an AssCreed and so want to sell as much as AssCreed? IS THIS THE END OF JADE RAYMOND?
 
J

James93

Member
These companies need to stop doing lines of coke before pulling numbers out their ass. If you aren't one of the major 5 or so games your not breaking the 5 million mark. You aren't cod nor spent 100 million marketing your game.
 
N

Nairume

Banned
Glorious PC Gamer said:
Well, that's a shame.

Blacklist was a really good game.

To all you trolls saying 'make a better game' - don't you mean make a shitty game?

Just Dance 3 sold 7 million copies:
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/13/just-dance-3-shimmies-into-7-million-households-25-million-fran/

I guess Ubisoft just needs to make Just Dance Cell.
Click to expand...
To be fair, Just Dance has actually evolved into something more than the barebones package it used to be in the same way that Blacklist ended up being something more than people thought it'd be.
 
G

Glorious PC Gamer

Banned
Grief.exe said:
Forced Uplay DRM on the PC side always pushes me off buying Ubisoft products. I still haven't bought Far Cry 3, Blood Dragon, or Splinter Cell to this date despite being interested.

I honestly would have bought those titles at full price or a slight discount, I wonder how many PC players think similarly? I remember Gabe releasing some data showing that titles without DRM performing significantly better than those that did.
Click to expand...

Nobody gives a shit about this but you. You are in the '1%' of PC gamers that will actually refuse to buy a game they desire just because it doesn't have their favorite form of DRM. Steam is DRM too. There is literally zero difference between opening up the Uplay client and launching a game and opening up the Steam client and launching a game other than the company that's behind said DRM platform.

Uplay has matured just like Origin and it is no more obtrusive than Steam is. At least Ubisoft sells their games on Valve's competing service. I don't see Valve selling their games on Uplay. If anything Valve is being more anti-competitive than Ubisoft is.

It's good to have competition.

Besides, you and I both know that our market is still in the minority when it comes to sales of these types of games. It's the console gamers who have failed at picking up the slack on this one. This game didn't sell another 3 million copies just because it uses Uplay. Suuuuure...

Spaghetti said:
no sir i am pretty sure i meant make a better game

ubisoft has a case of capcom syndrome with these lofty sales expectations for their uninspiring titles
Click to expand...

There is a common trend in the industry. Quality, original titles sell like garbage. Endless sequels sell well. Just Dance and Ass Creed are Ubisoft's biggest franchises. If you wanted this most recent Splinter Cell to sell more copies then what you are saying is that Ubisoft should have made it even more uninspired and more like CoD.
 
legacyzero

legacyzero

Banned
Sorry Ubisoft.

I actually liked Blacklist at least for it's Spies Vs Mercs. They still did it WAY wrong, but it was nice that it was still in the game in some form. And for that I'm grateful.

And if you weren't going to use Ironside, at least use another character all together.
 
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