Ubisoft wants a Wii U price cut
Alain Corre says, "when less machines sell, less games sell"
Ubisoft's European boss Alain Corre has stated his support for a price-cut on Nintendo's struggling Wii U console.
Speaking to Edge Online, Corre, executive director of EMEA territories, claimed that Ubisoft will "always" welcome a price-cut for a console in the Wii U's position.
"We always want the hardware to be at a low price because we want as many fans as possible to afford to buy our games, so that's for sure," he said. "We think that Wii U will find its public at some point. Some were expecting sales to be quicker but we are optimistic."
Ubisoft recently delayed the Wii U version of Rayman Legends, preferring to wait until its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 counterparts are released later this year. Corre's comments further support the notion that publishers will need to see a higher installed base for the Wii U before they offer their full support.
"I think Nintendo has said that the Wii U sales in general were below expectations originally and the software tie-in ratio is also stable," Corre added, "so I think that when less machines sell, less games sell."
More over, "We always want the hardware to be at a low price because we want as many fans as possible to afford to buy our games"
I think should be read "We always want the hardware to be at a low price because we want to make as much money as possible even if the games are shit or rushed".
If Ubisoft hadn't postponed Rayman, I'd say what he says would be legitimate, but with this all thing about Rayman, whatever he says is void
Alain Corre, Ubisoft, here is your lesson: when no new games are available, far fewer games are bought.
"If you build it, nerds will come."
Knowing Ubisoft deluded suits managing it, it's probably far from what they wanted, they were probably aiming for 1M copies or something.
Issue is, it seems on internet, that many people got the Wii U for Rayman or were planning to get it for Rayman. UIbisoft will have the same amount of sale for this Rayman than the previous one and will blame Nintendo for the price..although I wonder what excuse will come up with for not being able to compete against GTA V.
Some people say it's not the same public who buy GTA and Rayman, I disagree, I got Zombi U, Batman and I was going to get Rayman, but now Ubisoft can go to hell with their Rayman.
The new mario, mario kart, or yoshi will be out probably in the last quarter of this year and my money will go to those titles...and I bet most of the people who got the Wii U will do the same, if you add a new Xeno game, and the other RPG I can't recall the name of, + the titles they haven't announced yet but metionned existed, then Rayman is already definitely a failure.
I agree with you about the sales, etc...people say it's a failure, considering the price, economic climate, it's actually regular sales and nothing alarming. It's not the Vita :-)
They're the perfect example of a company driven by money and suits.
As for a price drop, not going to happen until AFTER they release a Zelda, Metroid, another Mario and some other first party game. Nintendo isn't dumb. They know for a fact that the reason theres not much interest in their system right now is because the first party games haven't been rolling out as quickly as everyone would like. Sure a price drop would help but then people would still want games to play for the system. So once those big first party Nintendo games start to roll out Nintendo will look at the sales figures for those months and a few months afterwards. If sales are still down across the board after a new Zelda/Mario release then they will have no choice but to drop the price.
I don't think they are that concerned about the other systems launching later this year either. Atleast not unless they get outsold thru out the entire holiday. Then they will start to care.
hold it right there! that doesn't exactly sound right ! :)
if they want as many fans as possible to afford to buy their games, then i would think it is ubisoft who should be selling at a lower price point! :)
I think nintendo should update their system with a new firmware, one that would allow indies to develop and test directly on the commercial console. That would solve a lot of problems and nintendo wouldn't have to take such cr...p from 3rd parties anymore!
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Yiannis Koumoutzelis on 8th March 2013 2:49pm
It's far more successful than the wii's launch, although whether it will be consistant in good sales is another matter.
Firstly it's too early and such a move would cause an outcry for the consumers.
People seem to be so blindfolded when it comes to companies and price drops, Wii U acheives both 1080p graphics and a £90 controller, the combination of the two are extremely expensive.
Therefore it's blatantly obvious that none of ubisoft's opinion makes any buisiness sense let alone commen sense.
Nintendo struggle to make as much profit as they desire on the wii u's current price, so it's narrow minded for people to expect a price cut so extremely early.
It's like running before you can walk except you're got no limbs to walk on.