Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has told us that, while the global price cut gave the 3DS price cut "a big boost," its chance of success ultimately depends on the availability, and quality, of software.
Speaking to us at last week's Montreal International Game Summit, Guillemot - whose company had five 3DS games on shelves on the day the system was released in March - said: "I think it's a question of coming with enough games [more] than the price. For sure the price was too high and it was a big boost when they changed it, it really was a good idea.
"Now we will see. When you look at the DS everybody was saying: "This machine is never going to sell," and after a year it took off rapidly. For sure there are competitors - iPhone and all the other machines - but it will depend eventually on software. If the software is good, it should do well."
Guillemot was more positive about Wii U's prospects. "I think it's a great machine," he said. "What it brings, again, is ease of play. The new players that have came [to gaming] in the last eight years came because it was easy to play. Some came with the stylus, from Nintendo, some with the Wii remote, then the touchscreen then Microsoft with [Kinect].
"I think we will see with the Wii U another step where it's easy to play, to access, and it's really well adapted to socialisation. There are lots of possibilities linked to the machine."
Ubisoft was among the first publishers to express their support for Wii U, revealing its "revolutionary" FPS Killer Freaks From Outer Space just days after the console was announced at E3 in June.
Comments
12This is not the first time Nintendo has trouble selling non-piratable consoles. The same applied to Sega: Dreamcast's sales picked up only when the boot disc surfaced.
Back to Nintendo: SNES, GBA, NDS sold a lot more than N64 and NGC, and game quality had NOTHING to do with that.
Personally, I knew this would have happened the moment I read about the supposedly impregnable piracy protection: a great idea if you are a game company, not so much if you're an end user. But it's users who buy hardware (and occasionally software as well), not game developers.
Please note that I'm not condoning piracy, I'm merely stating that if you want to sell 80 million consoles, piracy MUST be considered as it is -free, effective, if illegal, marketing.
It is good marketing, but it really isn't necessary.
I'd say the 3DS is selling well. It's not beating the DS' record but there are very few consoles that have.
Piracy is the reason we probably won't see another GTA game on the DS/3DS and likely why we no longer have region free games so I'll live with a portable that may only be second in popularity to the DS with no piracy
@okami
I disagree on one of your points. Although piracy always helps system sales (particularly in non-key markets - and we all know which ones they are) depth of quality games was most definitely a major factor in the SNES, GBA and NDS's sales successes over N64 and GC. The former systems enjoyed extensive third party support from top developers right the way through their lifespan, whereas both the N64 and GC (the former particularly) suffered a dearth of quality 3rd party support from beginning to end.
Owning an N64 was like being fed dried grass for 3-6 months and then being taken to a Michelin star restaurant for one night and then the cycle repeating. The top games were of the same quality or arguably superior, but the vastly reduced volume of games that were worth a purchase on N64 and GC was a major driving factor in Nintendo slipping well behind Sony in system sales.
Ironically, the Wii sold barrowloads more than its two predecessors despite no better volume output of quality titles (that I can think of anyway), but of course the new casual market was largely dormant in those days (save maybe a few bouts of Mario Kart).
@kirinnokoshin
developers invest on a platform when it reaches a "critical mass", and hardware sales are driven by software, so theoretically a good platform would inevitably tend to have success overtime.
if you consider how videogames became mainstream, (a big) part of the original PS's success was due to the criminally simple protection system
Piracy is intrinsic to any context where items are priced much above their cost (music, video, games, etc).
I always buy good games (and by chance most of those come from Nintendo and Polyphony), but would certainly NOT pretend to be outraged by piracy, or think that a platform may flourish in the total absence of it. Just look at how much longer it took to PS3 to reach X360's sales, and it did so only AFTER it was cracked.
In other words: if developers want to erase piracy from the face of the earth, they should embrace the digital distribution model. That is the ONLY possible way to discourage illegal content. Nobody in his right mind (or at least not a relevant number of people) would waste time to crack a console or download a $5 game, but if the same game costs $65, well, that's another story altogether...
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@okami
developers invest on a platform when it reaches a "critical mass", and hardware sales are driven by software, so theoretically a good platform would inevitably tend to have success overtime.
There's no doubt that meeting a certain install base greatly increases the support from quality 3rd party developers. As per my previous post I'm not denying that ease of software piracy helps to sell a system, I just think it's far too simplistic to label it as the overwhelming reason for any platforms' success. A number of platforms have secured extensive 3rd party support well before they were released and an educated assumption would be whether the 3rd party has confidence that the system will reach a critical mass. For example, the SNES already had Capcom, Konami, Hudson Soft, Enix, Square (in fact all the top Japanese developers and a few Western) at work on software well before its release because Nintendo were the market leader at the time. Exactly the same was true of PS2, Sony's dominant position as market leaders after PS1 ensuring all the 3rd party support they could ask for, while the developers suffering dimishied confidence in the GC post Nintendo's rapid slide into a very far away 2nd place (and those little discs didn't help).
if you consider how videogames became mainstream, (a big) part of the original PS's success was due to the criminally simple protection system
Once again I'm sure weak copy protection played a part, but surely a far bigger factor was when Nintendo announced their decision to opt for a cartridge based format for N64. Gone were Capcom, Konami, Square, Namco and all their best games with them as CD was the only workable format to realise their Resident Evils/MGSs/Final Fantasys etc. Nintendo's move basically ensured that they'd have to support the platform themselves for the N64's early phase, and left the PS with the lions' share of the best 3rd party titles ensuring it reached critical mass a lot quicker. And let's not forget, Sony's marketing utterly obliterated Nintendos'.
Piracy is intrinsic to any context where items are priced much above their cost (music, video, games, etc).
And surely even more endemic to any product that can be pirated easily with next to no degradation in quality, games music and video being sitting ducks. Try pirating a diamond ring or a Rolex (priced well above their cost), and the beneficiary will not enjoy the same experience, unless they are about the bling only of course :-)
I always buy good games (and by chance most of those come from Nintendo and Polyphony), but would certainly NOT pretend to be outraged by piracy, or think that a platform may flourish in the total absence of it. Just look at how much longer it took to PS3 to reach X360's sales, and it did so only AFTER it was cracked.
Like yourself I'm not one for pirating video games, I am a happy consumer but am not going to enter into hypocrisy by criticising the act. To be honest I don't think we can measure any platforms success without piracy as I can't imagine there's a single example of one that hasn't been cracked (is there?), but I also don't buy the notion that a system can't succeed without piracy as there are far too many influencing factors such as the number of quality games, availability, marketing, economics etc etc.
In other words: if developers want to erase piracy from the face of the earth, they should embrace the digital distribution model. That is the ONLY possible way to discourage illegal content. Nobody in his right mind (or at least not a relevant number of people) would waste time to crack a console or download a $5 game, but if the same game costs $65, well, that's another story altogether...
Well that's not a bad shout, and frankly I don't see any insurmountable obstacle to prevent digital only sales other than increasing bandwidth/storage requirements. I would hope however that a pure DD model doesn't result in publishers taking the piss with pricing and further drives the development of flashy but ultimately shallow games that won't be going back to the shop for a trade-in after a week because you got bored so quickly. On the other hand.....it might do the opposite :-)
Personally, I've always found it hard to work out what it is that shifts systems. For almost every console it has been for a different reason, so for us and Mr. Guillemot to generalise like that is a little presumptuous.
Well quite, as per my earlier posts to Okami there a many determining factors, but surely the number of quality games, correct pricing and good marketing matter far more than anything else. Piracy is well down the list, and frankly shouldn't be on the list at all.
@Okami
You are condoning piracy, you just don't want to admit it. Piracy has killed the pc market & the ds market. I also totally disagree with the rationalization that 'games are overpriced so i'm going to steal it'. Firstly games are not actually overpriced, you can pick up any title new for £35 max which is pretty dam good if the game will give you 25 hours+ of entertainment. Secondly if you cannot afford something then you have no moral right to steal it (lets leave the starving family / loaf of bread argument alone, this is not the same).
You're kidding yourself if you think developers are crying our to work on the platform that is riddled with piracy. To be honest I couldn't care less if you want to pirate all your titles, just don't try to justify it to me.
The truth of the matter is, selling consoles is 60% marketing and 40% games. Everything else is a side issue, especially piracy.
It would fail if it was up to Ubisoft, that's for sure. With the crap they put on Nintendo machines...lets see what kind of Assassins Creed will end up on Wii U...
@jb1
I tend to mistrust people churning out numbers (quote:"selling consoles is 60% marketing and 40% games")
I don't know if you've watched the market as long as I have, but I'm pretty confident that you're either misinformed or naive, or have some interest in game development.
Piracy has been the driving force of many hardware products (VHS, walkman, CD-DA and of course countless consoles). Users are incredibly attracted to piratable platforms (C64, Amiga, PSX, PS2) because of the possibility to obtain software cheaply. And given that a digital copy is (generally) an EXACT copy of the original, save from some piracy-prevention measure, the experience is exactly the same.
Hardware manufacturers prospered because of piracy: Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony never shied from selling hardware to pirates and legitimate users alike, and for a reason: there is no such thing as a clear distinction. There might be a handful of zealots who will without doubt immediately proclaim their absolute abstinence from piracy, but the average guy could not care less.
Since you want to discus my case, well, in 25+ years of gaming I've spent quite a lot on software (sometimes more than I should have), and believe me, many of those purchases I still regret. I would have left quite a few games on the shelves if I could've tried those same games in pirated form, hence I firmly believe developers deserve a measure of punishment for their greed (yearly installments of fifa, nba, assassin's creed are totally unnecessary) and for the average quality of games.
When I read comments like yours, I can't stop thinking that nobody in his right mind can condemn piracy tout-court, unless he's a developer, of course...