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Yves Guillemot: ZombiU Wasn't Profitable, not even close, no sequel planned

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
guys... just a little observation; no tinfoil conspiracy or anything; just an observation:

in the article cited on the OP... there isn't a DIRECT QUOTE of Yves Guillemot saying that the game wasn't profitable; or that the Rayman situation was derived of that.

I studied journalism in college, and there's a rule that says that everytime you paraphrase something, you put the corresponding quote afterwards to back it up. you can see that they use that rule with the Activision and EA guys, but in the case of Ubisoft, there isn't a real quote, just the paraphrasis of the journalist. The only Ubisoft quote there is the one that it says that they are gonna wait for the holidays to evaluate the situation. There's nothing there about ZombiU or Rayman, except the journalist assumptions.

I'm not saying he's lying or something, but I find it pretty weird that he has direct quotes from the other two guys, and not the Ubisoft guy.

What exactly did you think the bolded was referring to in this context then, if not ZombiU and then Rayman going multiplatform?

Yves Guillemot, Chairman and CEO of Ubisoft, is typically one of the biggest proponents of new systems, but betting big on the Wii U didn't work out well for the company. ZombiU, one of the most popular launch titles for the system with players, was not profitable, he says. Not even close. As such, he says, there are no plans (or even desire) for a sequel.

It was, in fact, because of that game's performance that Ubisoft decided to make Rayman Legends a multiplatform game.

"We must find a way to ensure the creativity of those games could have a big enough audience," he says. "We hope it will take off. At the moment, we've said 'let's do through Christmas and see where we are from there.'"
 

SparkTR

Member
As long as Nintendo doesn't abandon their system, I'll be happy with one. I've never bought multiplats on a Nintendo system since the N64, and their exclusive output is usually worth the price of admittance.
 
guys... just a little observation; no tinfoil conspiracy or anything; just an observation:

in the article cited on the OP... there isn't a DIRECT QUOTE of Yves Guillemot saying that the game wasn't profitable; or that the Rayman situation was derived of that.

I studied journalism in college, and there's a rule that says that everytime you paraphrase something, you put the corresponding quote afterwards to back it up. you can see that they use that rule with the Activision and EA guys, but in the case of Ubisoft, there isn't a real quote, just the paraphrasis of the journalist. The only Ubisoft quote there is the one that it says that they are gonna wait for the holidays to evaluate the situation. There's nothing there about ZombiU or Rayman, except the journalist assumptions.

I'm not saying he's lying or something, but I find it pretty weird that he has direct quotes from the other two guys, and not the Ubisoft guy.

This does seem quite important.
 

N2NOther

Banned
At this point, does anyone have any hard data on which Wii U third-party game actually turned a profit? And if so, how much?

Sad to hear this happening once again for Nintendo. It's like they can't get a break when it comes to third-party support...the curse of Square at work?
It's all Nintendo. Their desire to innovate on controls first and on power second has never and will never benefit them in the long run. Any game designed to be used with their controllers first can't be ported successfully to the other platforms. As proven last gen, hardcore 3rd party Wii titles didn't sell as well as they could have.

This is going to continue to be the case as long as Nintendo does their own thing. Which is fine for Nintendo games but fans shouldn't be surprised or angry that 3rd parties don't support the platform.
 
Well...you might want to wait and see if that's even going to be released. :p

I had to hold my nose to put that on the list, but some people still love the Live name for some reason and it will sell decently as long as it's at least moderately playable.

But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it doesn't make it. They never even showed a full 5-on-5 game being played, did they?
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Edit:
There weren't many Wii U buyers, the console doesn't sell, remember? No, It didn't sell because the Wii U was not attractive enough for the people who would be otherwise interested in Zombi U and other 'mature' games.

I would be curious how much a late port of ZombiU would sell now on other consoles.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Umm wtf are you going on about?

Someone insinuated that ZombiU pioneered not being able to pause in a game when in inventory by stating that ND copied it from ZombiU. It was pointed out to him that other games did before and he doubled down stating that ZombiU is more tense than TLoU because you manage inventory on a second screen and I said a lot of people would argue otherwise. Tension and overall gameplay are not mutually exclusive, overall presentation and gameplay can add to the tension in a game and nobody is comparing ZombiU to TLoU except for me pointing out that a lot of people would argue the contrary when it comes to tension in both games. people seem to love ZombiU in this thread and it would have been my first game for WiiU if i had bought it when i wanted to.

Calm down. I wasn't directing everything at you, just at the general mindset people have about ZombiU when most people haven't even played it. If you think my conclusions are off then you're missing the signs about what has been going on in the games industry this last gen. A game like ZombiU would have most likely done well on the original Xbox, ps2 or GCN. The stigma associated around games that aren't considered AAA is nauseating and it's one of the main reasons lots of good, mid-tier games are neglected. In this case, the WiiU not being strong in the market didn't help but still, my mid-tier rant still stands.
 
As long as Nintendo doesn't abandon their system, I'll be happy with one. I've never bought multiplats on a Nintendo system since the N64, and their exclusive output is usually worth the price of admittance.

It was in previous gens. I'm not shitting more than $200 for a Nintendo System.
 

GetemMa

Member
First, I have no idea what was the budget for ZU. If you know something, spill the beans.

Second, Zombie games are popular and they tend to make money, it is a generally accepted as a safe bet. Didn't work on WiiU, and largely, it is the install base that affected the sale.

Third. Launching games, usually that have crappy quality, tend to sell well because there are not many games on launch. If launch game that feature zombie doesn't sell well -or not even close to break even-, then well, that's not the third party's fault. Platform holder has this responsibility to lead the platform.

What are you basing the "crappy games sell at launch" theory on?

ZombiU got horrendous reviews from IGN, Gamespot, and Gameinformer, also known as the top 3 most popular videogame publications in the United States. All of which made for a sub 80 metacritic score which pretty much means death for new franchises.

It didn't have much hope from the start. I don't know how it is logical to blame poor press for ZombiU on Nintendo.
 

kuroshiki

Member
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGHUS5S/?tag=neogaf0e-20

wow. 3 dollars in savings. SO CHEAP!

Or are you talking about waiting 6 to 12 months after launch for a Steam sale?

Nope. WiiU version it is. I hope PS4 fails. Xbone too. Would make my day.

you are in for some quite wake up call, bro.

But it's ok to have a dream, man. Sky is the limit!

What are you basing the "crappy games sell at launch" theory on?

ZombiU got horrendous reviews from IGN, Gamespot, and Gameinformer, also known as the top 3 most popular videogame publications in the United States. All of which made for a sub 80 metacritic score which pretty much means death for new franchises.

It didn't have much hope from the start. I don't know how it is logical to blame poor press for ZombiU on Nintendo.

Uh. Let's see.

Remember Resistance?

Remember Perfect Dark Zero?

Both sold over a million copies despite their 'lack of quality'.
 

guek

Banned
First and foremost it's nintendo's responsibility to sell the console so don't think I'm trying to say anything otherwise.

With that in mind though, 3rd parties didn't really do much to ensure their launch titles succeeded.

- Terrible ZombiU boxart, next to zero marketing
- Previous year's versions of Madden and Fifa, no marketing
- Full priced ME3 with the trilogy available on other platforms
- Late announcements for CoD, no DLC
- Poorly optimized ports in general

I'm of the opinion though that marketing makes or breaks 99% of products in this industry. You can have great reviews and a great product but with no marketing? Good luck. Word of mouth occasionally gets stuff out there but it's just not reliable at all. While price and lineup are definitely big issues with the wii u, the marketing was so atrocious it was destined to fail. I'm not even talking about that dubstep commercial everyone was annoyed about. The amount of exposure the console got was terrible. Nintendo did so little to intelligently promote the platform. They spent peanuts on the marketing. Back in 2006, you couldn't flip through 10 channels without seeing a Wii advert or turn on the radio without hearing about the latest craze.

People say Reggie is just a figurehead, that he's just a puppet, and while that's true, he plays a major role in allocating marketing dollars and approving adverts for his territories. If there's any reason for him to be fired, it's the botched marketing of the wii u. If PS4 has the same caliber of marketing as the wii u, it'd do terribly too. I really believe that.
 
What the fuck is going on at Nintendo HQ? You would think they would've given the only 3rd party that is willing to support them some assurances that they'll do whatever possible to make sure that their games will be successful. Nintendo should be co marketing Ubisoft's games like they're 1st party. But Nintendo is not even willing to market the damn system not to talk of the games.

This is extreme but I'm kinda now expecting no 3rd party games to be released on the Wii U after COD: Ghosts and that's even if that version exists. Are there any 3rd party games that are announced for 2014?
 
Such colossal stupidity from the market leader of last generation regarding its future console.

It's almost like the PS3 all over again.
 
I would hope that anyone with a Wii U went in with eyes wide open, but I also realize that's probably unrealistic. I'm happy with my Wii U so far, but I never expected it to be my only console, at any point. Like recent Nintendo consoles, Wii U looks like it will have a solid lineup of exclusive titles (mostly 1st Party with the occassional 3rd Party Exclusive) that are must plays for me. It also looks like it will miss out on a lot of 3rd Party Titles. This has come to be expected unfortunately and until there is proof this has changed, I will be expecting this from Nintendo moving forward and would suggest others do the same.

Yeah, after looking at the Wii's output, this was pretty much what I was expecting.

Bolded is pretty much the same reason I impulse bought on Friday whilest perusing a gamestop. Plus, their multiplayer games are great for when I have friends over and we can play some vidya games. NSMB2 was fun for a hour or so. I was fully planning on purchasing a wiiu come a price drop, but figured what the hey. I was certainly glad to see how cheap the games are for the system on amazon and at gamestop.
 
Why didnt they use a direct quote? I dunno, smells like gaming journalism summarizing to me. Especially considering there has been teasing of Zombi U 2
 

Verendus

Banned
Copying the PS4 and Xbone would be equally moronic. Nintendo should have continued the direction of the Wii. A cheap console that pleases Nintendo fans and casuals.

There are already 2 (big) dogs fighting over the same bone and losing truckloads of money while doing so. Why would Nintendo join in?
I disagree. There is a lot of money to be made in that direction. With the increased focus on online, there'll be a lot of revenue flowing in. The direction Nintendo is going is where there is nothing. It's better to fight for something than be left in that corner with nothing.

Casuals aren't so easy to bring in right now. Wii was fortunate enough to be releasing before the smartphone explosion and the the success of the iPhone changing everything. Targeting casuals and Nintendo fans at the expense of everything is a short-sighted move. It won't work as your core audience. Nintendo fans are a minority. They're pointless in the grand scheme of things. Trying to gain the casual market is a much harder task now than it was back in 2007 too. There have been huge changes since then. It's easy to say 'you should target the casual market' as if there are a tremendous amount of ideas but it's much harder to do well than anything else. Making another cheap console to target the casuals is a short sighted move, just like it was relying on this gimmick where they've managed to isolate themselves even further.

They had seven years and an early release. They should've launched a comparable console with similar architecture, focused on their online service more, and tried to eat into the potential marketshare of the future Xbox One and PS4. It's not like Microsoft and Sony are so powerful that people are going to wait just for them. Had Nintendo created a generational jump themselves, with more involved support from third parties, plenty of people would have jumped in.

They're trying hard to differentiate themselves and making the Nintendo brand even less relevant in the process.

It's not a difficult concept to grasp, or shouldn't be for a business. The industry is moving in one direction. Move with them, and tweak things to change your brand image if you like. That, at least, ensures some things for you and makes it less of a gamble. Don't bloody jump off a cliff on the other side.

The Wii was understandable. It was necessary and it worked out fantastic. It put them in a strong position. But, somehow, they managed to mess that up by trying another cheap gimmick.

Forget the PS4. If a console like the Xbox One launched in 2012, there'd be a lot of interested people. It's a whole year where there is nothing like it. There is a clear distinction to be made too between it and existing consoles like the PS3/360. Third parties who are already moving in that direction can also create cross-generation titles too at a lesser expense, whilst also getting ready for the upcoming Microsoft/Sony consoles. It's an easy move to gain market share and build a new brand image upon your existing one.

Nintendo just goes out there with another gimmick, a stupid name, no multi-media functionality, poor online/accounts system, and isolates itself further from the general gaming industry. It's no surprise the Wii U is struggling because they made every mistake possible with it.
 

casmith07

Member
The reasonable inference to be drawn is that Rayman went multi platform in order to become profitable, based on this news.

Whether that is true or not is not relevant to the fact at hand, which is that the Wii U's support outside of Kyoto is in a tailspin.
 

prag16

Banned
Really? What the hell was the budget? By all appearances it seemed relatively low budget-ish.

Out of all the retail games on Wii U, It should be assumed that only NSMBU has turned a profit so far.

Nah, ubi claimed multiplat ports only cost them €1 million.
 

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.
What survival horror games featuring zombies have been top ten titles recently?

The Last of Us.
Minecraft ( :D )
State of Decay
Walking Dead
Dead Island (and its expansion pack sequel)

even something as super niche as Lollipop Chainsaw shipped 700k units. Dunno how many sold, but any argument the market doesnt want zombie games is going to meet with hysterical laughter.
 
greaaat...
LLShC.gif


Probably the best Wii U game right now.

I completely agree with this sentiment. Best non-Nintendo console exclusive, and honestly, probably best Wii U game period given NintendoLand is a fancy tech demo, and NSMBU is good but a rehash. Lego is Lego and MH3U is.... well, a port of a portable game that still looks and feels like a port of a portable game. :(
 

Cbajd5

Member
What the fuck is going on at Nintendo HQ? You would think they would've given the only 3rd party that is willing to support them some assurances that they'll do whatever possible to make sure that their games will be successful. Nintendo should be co marketing Ubisoft's games like they're 1st party. But Nintendo is not even willing to market the damn system not to talk of the games.

That worked out so well for them with Rayman Legends after all...
 
"The lack of online engagement that we see on Wii U [is troubling]," says Moore. "It's so integral to what we do. They're so small it's hardly worth running the servers. It seems like a box that's out of sync with the future of EA

Jesus, Nintendo......
 

casmith07

Member
I disagree. There is a lot of money to be made in that direction. With the increased focus on online, there'll be a lot of revenue flowing in. The direction Nintendo is going is where there is nothing. It's better to fight for something than be left in that corner with nothing.

Casuals aren't so easy to bring in right now. Wii was fortunate enough to be releasing before the smartphone explosion and the the success of the iPhone changing everything. Targeting casuals and Nintendo fans at the expense of everything is a short-sighted move. It won't work as your core audience. Nintendo fans are a minority. They're pointless in the grand scheme of things. Trying to gain the casual market is a much harder task now than it was back in 2007 too. There have been huge changes since then. It's easy to say 'you should target the casual market' as if there are a tremendous amount of ideas but it's much harder to do well than anything else. Making another cheap console to target the casuals is a short sighted move, just like it was relying on this gimmick where they've managed to isolate themselves even further.

They had seven years and an early release. They should've launched a comparable console with similar architecture, focused on their online service more, and tried to eat into the potential marketshare of the future Xbox One and PS4. It's not like Microsoft and Sony are so powerful that people are going to wait just for them. Had Nintendo created a generational jump themselves, with more involved support from third parties, plenty of people would have jumped in.

They're trying hard to differentiate themselves and making the Nintendo brand even less relevant in the process.

It's not a difficult concept to grasp, or shouldn't be for a business. The industry is moving in one direction. Move with them, and tweak things to change your brand image if you like. That, at least, ensures some things for you and makes it less of a gamble. Don't bloody jump off a cliff on the other side.

The Wii was understandable. It was necessary and it worked out fantastic. It put them in a strong position. But, somehow, they managed to mess that up by trying another cheap gimmick.

Forget the PS4. If a console like the Xbox One launched in 2012, there'd be a lot of interested people. It's a whole year where there is nothing like it. There is a clear distinction to be made too between it and existing consoles like the PS3/360. Third parties who are already moving in that direction can also create cross-generation titles too at a lesser expense, whilst also getting ready for the upcoming Microsoft/Sony consoles. It's an easy move to gain market share and build a new brand image upon your existing one.

Nintendo just goes out there with another gimmick, a stupid name, no multi-media functionality, poor online/accounts system, and isolates itself further from the general gaming industry. It's no surprise the Wii U is struggling because they made every mistake possible with it.

Someone hire this man.
 

kswiston

Member
Such colossal stupidity from the market leader of last generation regarding its future console.

It's almost like the PS3 all over again.

At least the PS2 was firmly in first place during the last generational transition. Despite being ahead overall thanks to amazing early sales, the Wii had been in third place for monthly hardware sales for quite some time before the Wii U launched. They had even less reason than Sony did in 2006 to think that they were unassailable.
 

zruben

Banned
What exactly did you think the bolded was referring to in this context then, if not ZombiU and then Rayman going multiplatform?

that's the thing, without the entire quote, we don't know, and the writer of the article can use the quote however he wants...

based on the structure of the ARTICLE, I'd say ZombiU and Rayman... but again, the journalist is the one that decided the order of the paragraphs and how to use the quotes. We don't know if Guillemot was talking about AC4 and SC before that quote. We just have to trust him.

again, I'm not acusing the guy of anything, and I'm not saying there's a big conspiracy or something... I'm saying the article is bad written and inconsistent (considering the other two guys are perfectly paraphrased and quoted), and we shouldn't be building all this drama around it... specially if we don't have concise sales numbers and the game isn't exactly AAA material in terms of development cost.
 

GetemMa

Member
you are in for some quite wake up call, bro.

But it's ok to have a dream, man. Sky is the limit!



Uh. Let's see.

Remember Resistance?

Remember Perfect Dark Zero?

Both sold over a million copies despite their 'lack of quality'.

I do remember Perfect Dark Zero

Gamespot - 9.0
IGN - 8.4
Gameiformer - 7.0

and Resistence

Gamespot - 9.0
IGN - 9.1
Gameinformer - 9.5

thanks for proving my point.

Zombie game or not, if you think reviews don't directly and drastically influence sales, you are delusional. Devs are having Metacritic averages as a part of their bonuses when contracts are drawn up. That is fact.
 
The only game I was looking forward to playing on WiiU. Still haven't bought one, been waiting for more good games, now I might never buy one.

Nintendo's own games are not enough.
 

Tripon

Member
The Last of Us.
Minecraft ( :D )
State of Decay
Walking Dead
Dead Island (and its expansion pack sequel)

even something as super niche as Lollipop Chainsaw shipped 700k units. Dunno how many sold, but any argument the market doesnt want zombie games is going to meet with hysterical laughter.

3 indie games that don't sell at $60, and The Last of Us is a Sony exclusive with a deep, rich story that has been in development for 4 years developed by a studio with a great history of making games. It may be the best game this year as well, and I'm including GTA 5 in that discussion.

I think it says that to justify a full $60 price tag for a Horror game, you have to be something pretty special, and while ZombiU is a different type of game, it was also rough around the ages, charged $60, and lacked online multiplayer(which I'm not sure why can't be patched in), and is 'boxed' in as a horror title.

I'm a Wii U owner, and I don't play horror titles in general, so I didn't pick this up despite hearing some good things about it. Guess I'm to blame for not doing my small part.

As for Nintendo and 3rd Parties, its a bit of a catch-22. 3rd parties claim they don't sell well on Nintendo systems, so people who buy Nintendo consoles in turn look at it as a Nintendo box, and typically only buy Nintendo games on it. Both Nintendo and 3rd Parties publishers need to convince people that buying 3rd party games is viable on the Wii U.

...And on the 3DS for that matter. The fact that that Western 3rd Party publishers aren't taking advantage of a 30 million+ userbase is amazing.
 

kswiston

Member
I do remember Perfect Dark Zero

Gamespot - 9.0
IGN - 8.4
Gameiformer - 7.0

and Resistence

Gamespot - 9.0
IGN - 9.1
Gameinformer - 9.5

thanks for proving my point.

Zombie game or not, if you think reviews don't directly and drastically influence sales, you are delusional. Devs are having Metacritic averages as a part of their bonuses when contracts are drawn up. That is fact.

Red Steel

Gamespot - 5.5
IGN - 6.0
Gameinformer - 7.5

At least 1 million sales worldwide.

Reviews matter, but less so at launch if your game has a decent hook and some advertising.
 

Tripolygon

Banned
Calm down. I wasn't directing everything at you, just at the general mindset people have about ZombiU when most people haven't even played it. If you think my conclusions are off then you're missing the signs about what has been going on in the games industry this last gen. A game like ZombiU would have most likely done well on the original Xbox, ps2 or GCN. The stigma associated around games that aren't considered AAA is nauseating and it's one of the main reasons lots of good, mid-tier games are neglected. In this case, the WiiU not being strong in the market didn't help but still, my mid-tier rant still stands.
I did not claim your conclusions were off, I'm merely putting my comment in context. Its rather presuming and a bit insolent of you to assume i'm not paying attention to what is going on in the industry isn't it? Here on GAF you often come across people who claim indie games are not games or rather cannot be as good or better than multi million dollar budget AAA games and others would claim point and click adventure games or whatever david cage does is not a game and yes it is nauseating reading such comments. I often just shake my head and move on but sometimes i can't help but reply.
 

Shiggy

Member
I do remember Perfect Dark Zero

Gamespot - 9.0
IGN - 8.4
Gameiformer - 7.0

and Resistence

Gamespot - 9.0
IGN - 9.1
Gameinformer - 9.5

thanks for proving my point.

Zombie game or not, if you think reviews don't directly and drastically influence sales, you are delusional. Devs are having Metacritic averages as a part of their bonuses when contracts are drawn up. That is fact.

And then we have Red Steel

Gamespot - 5.5
IGN - 6.0
GameInformer - 7.5

Marketing is much more important than reviews. The most recent example is Aliens: Colonial Marines.
 

tolkir

Member
Judging by the hilarious avatar and the brainless statement its safe to say you've never played The Last of Us. It's a much better survival game than ZombiU.

auunp3.jpg


The Last of Us will be a better game, but "a much better survival"?

If you've played ZombiU, you need play it again and finish it.
 
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