Ubisoft has been sending out mixed signals regarding Nintendo’s beleaguered home console over the last few months. Despite a renewed momentum in sales thanks to the likes of Mario Kart 8 and the release of Hyrule Warriors in Japan, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot announced that Watch Dogs would be the last mature game published on the Wii U. Guillemot pointed to the fact that the Wii U accounted for a mere three percent of the company’s sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. The Xbox One doubled the Wii U’s total with 6%, and the PS4 tripled it with 9%. Impressive, considering they were both launched half-way through this period. The original Wii chipped in for 11%.
Nintendo’s new console has certainly been slow off the starting line, but it has been delivering quality games, both from Nintendo directly and through the company’s efforts to court excellent indie titles such as Shovel Knight and Scram Kitty and His Buddy On Rails. The fact that Ubisoft has decided to treat it as a child’s toy is a shame. It has made a clear case, a business case, that the Wii U accounted for just three percent. Yet, if the game is multiplatform, does it cost that much to adapt it to the console? The last Assassin’s Creed title, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, shipped 10 million units in the same fiscal period Guillemot mentioned. Let’s assume that every multiplatform game released by Ubisoft sold just three percent on Wii U. That’s 300,000 copies, which isn’t great, but is not exactly a failure either. In fact, according to Ubisoft, a Wii U port costs under $1.3 million. If all the copies of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag were sold at $60, the game would have turned a tidy little profit.
Of course, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. Guillemot voiced his disappointment at the sales of Wii U exclusive ZombiU, yet Jamal Williams at Gamin Realm puts forward a strong argument based on facts and figures that even this game made a profit despite selling only 500,000 copies. The company has done no favours by delaying Watch Dogs by six months compared to other platforms.
Shortly after Guillemot’s announcement,Ubisoft’s official Twitter account made what could be misconstrued as a thinly veiled threat against Nintendo after the company released the free Mercedes-Benz DLC for Mario Kart 8. “Not sure I like the @MercedesBenz cars in #MarioKart8. Kinda breaks the magic. Be careful #Nintendo #NintendoAmerica.” It was soon deleted, but whether you liked the DLC or not, it was free to download, and not mandatory to play the game. Not wishing to break the magic, Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Unity will have microtransactions to unlock items, or, as Venture Beat so aptly put it, “you can pay more money to play less of Assassin’s Creed: Unity.” In complete contradiction to both the mysterious tweeter and Ubisoft’s CEO, the company’s EU boss Alain Corre commented that he believes Super Smash Bros. For Wii U will drive a surge in Wii U sales.
What is the point of highlighting all this? In part, to show the many faces Ubisoft wears these days, and to show that perhaps the company is not as sure of its strategy as Guillemot suggests. However, the company has risen to the height of its success by making a string of great games and enjoyable franchises, Assassin’s Creed included. It is, in fact, one of my favourite game series, and I was desperately looking forward to playing Assassin’s Creed: Rogue on my Wii U. Why that console? The answer is its controller. The GamePad is great for this series, but especially for the naval sections. Using the radar on the second screen to navigate makes it so much easier to find treasure, enemy ships, and Animus fragments by glancing down, rather than peering at the tiny on-screen map or pausing the game. I’m torn as to whether I will bother buying it on my PS3; I am not sure I can go back from the GamePad.
So, in light of my love for both Assassin’s Creed and my Wii U, I have set up a Change.org petition asking Ubisoft to change its mind regarding publishing Assassin’s Creed: Rogue on the Wii U. I understand that the console may not have the power to have Assassin’s Creed: Unity ported over from the PS4, but the Wii U has great potential. The GamePad is my favourite controller to date, and when one head of business is guessing the console will sell well, why give it up?
