Nintendo Okie

Ubisoft, through a press release today, announced that they reached a sales figure of 166 million Euros with an operating loss of 78 million Euros, but that their targets for 2009-10 were confirmed. 

In that same release Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemont, had a statement:

“First week sales of Assassin’s Creed II, up 32%, validates our strategy of developing bigger franchises.  Based on this initial data, Assassin’s Creed II looks well positioned to outstrip targets while our Wii games have got off to a more contrasted start in a less predictable market.  Finally, sales of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game should benefit from the launch of the movie which is expected to be the biggest blockbuster of the holiday season.”

Source: Ubisoft Press Release

Now my thoughts.  Here is the release lineup that Ubisoft had for Wii in 2009.  Rabbids Go Home, Academy of Champions Soccer, The Price is Right, Press Your Luck, Avatar: The Game, Imagine: Fashion Party, Grey’s Anatomy: the Video Game, Totally Spies Totally Party, Dawn of Discovery, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, TMNT Smash Up, Where’s Waldo, Family Fued 2010, CSI Deadly Intent, Monster 4×4: Stunt Racer, Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage, and Your Shape.   Aside from Rabbids Go Home, TMNT Smash Up, and Shaun White do you see anything in there that doesn’t cater to Ubisoft’s idea of the expanded audience?  Rabbids should perform well if word gets out it’s a good game and Shaun White has a while to go before you really see how it’s going to perform.  TMNT Smash Up was a knock off of Smash Bros and didn’t play as well as that title so it’s understandable that didn’t sell well.  If they had released games like Assassin’s Creed II or Red Steel 2 on Wii this year that might have been a different story. 

Ubisoft needs to get off their behinds and put a little bit of work into their Wii development if they want to succeed on that platform.  You can’t release crappy games based on TV shows or anything in the Imagine Series and expect to do well.  it’s not going to happen.  The three quality titles that were released this year couldn’t hope to perform well enough to outsell the crap on the system.