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News Ubisoft holding back completed Wii U titles

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 10 Jun 2014.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. schmidtbag

    schmidtbag What's a Dremel?

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    I don't get it - if the game is already done, how is releasing the game now a problem? The only problem I understand is they'd be obligated to lower the price after a few months, so if there aren't enough WiiU owners then that wouldn't be very cost effective. But, what if the console never reaches the amount they expect? Then they're not getting any money at all.

    If CD Projekt Red thought releasing Witcher 2 for linux was worth the time and effort, I'm pretty sure Ubisoft will still make some decent cash releasing a game for Wii U. People don't want the console specifically because it lacks games. Ubisoft might not be digging their own grave but they're still walking straight toward it.
     
  3. fix-the-spade

    fix-the-spade Multimodder

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    This makes a degree of sense. There aren't very many Wii U's around now, but Nintendo is bringing a bunch of titles along this year that should drive sales. Sitting on those releases for six months waiting for Christmas and hopefully a larger install base (as well as sharing the market with Nintendo only) makes more sense than releasing now, then having your expensive game in the bargain bins by the time Wii U sales number are (hopefully) better at the year's end.
     
  4. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    It would also cost them to publish the game in terms of advertising, packaging, shipping, and royalties.
     
  5. Porkins' Wingman

    Porkins' Wingman Can't touch this

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    Presumably Ubisoft are taking the same approach to Xbone games too, seeing as the install base for that is even smaller than the Wii U's...
     
  6. dstarr3

    dstarr3 What's a Dremel?

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    I suppose the game is made, so it's not going to cost them any more money until they begin marketing and distributing. So I guess it makes sense to wait to invest further money until the returns are likely to be higher. They're not making money until then, but they're also not spending money. At least on that project.
     
  7. Woodspoon

    Woodspoon What's a Dremel?

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    Kind of circular reasoning isn't it?

    1) "we wont release it because there's not enough people using the WiiU"
    2) "why aren't there more people using the WiiU?"
    3) "because there aren't enough big/good games for it"
    4) go to 1
     
  8. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    Initial sales are the big hitters. Then they drop off quickly. They are an important part of recouping the investment. Someone has run the numbers on this. They know where they need to be in order to be maximise profit

    It would be, if this was the only factor influencing unit sales of the wii. But you have other developers, other content, Nintendo marketing, etc. They are just waiting for all of that to take effect
     
    Last edited: 11 Jun 2014
  9. Vallachia

    Vallachia What's a Dremel?

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    Hehe. Noooo.

    MS will just throw money at them to ensure a timely release.
     
  10. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    It's a mix of of what Corky & theshadow said & them wanting it to pay off rather than a weak amount of sales & them all ending up circulated 2nd hand, makes sense to me.
     

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