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Ubisoft is “surprised” by the poor performance of the new Mario + Rabbids game
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Ubisoft said it was very surprised by the poor commercial performance of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, which it presented in cooperation with Nintendo.
The French publisher said it faces major challenges due to limited consumer spending by citizens. While it pointed out that sales during the current holiday season were significantly and surprisingly lower than usual.
Ubisoft has confirmed that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 failed to meet the company's commercial expectations. The following statement from the company read:
Despite excellent ratings and player reception, as well as an ambitious marketing plan, we were surprised to see how Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope underperformed in the final weeks of 2022 and early January.
And during a conference call with investors that took place after publishing its financial update, which also saw Ubisoft cancel three unannounced games and delay Skull and Bones again, the company said, however, that it believes recent releases have been negatively impacted by a consumer shift toward blockbuster titles.
Sparks of Hope is set to release in October 2022, a few weeks ahead of the release of some of the biggest games of that year led by God of War Ragnarök and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The CEO said Yves Guillemot That when there is more pressure on the player due to the large number of titles released, he turns to big-budget titles while not going to small-brand titles.
Guillemot said that despite the poor performance of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, he expects it to achieve good sales in the long run. Noting that the previous installment managed to garner more than 10 million players, according to statistics revealed by Ubisoft.
Ubisoft has recently announced several titles in the Assassin's Creed series, which it plans to release during the current year and in the coming years. However, we do not know to what extent these titles will be affected by the company's new steps, which depend mainly on financial returns.
