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“Nintendo [has advised] that it’s better to do one iteration on each machine.”
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has admitted the financial underperformance of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope was likely down to the publisher’s decision to release a sequel on Switch, ignoring Nintendo’s advice to “only do one iteration [of Mario] on each machine”.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope received an extremely positive critical reception when it launched last October, with many praising the smart refinements it bought its predecessor’s already wonderfully engaging strategic core.
Its commercial reception was far more muted, however; in an emergency investor call held at the start of the year to share news of its considerably lower-than- expected earnings, Ubisoft admitted it had been “surprised” by Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope’s “underperformance in the final weeks of 2022 and early January”.
At the time, Guillemot suggested the publisher’s disappointing financial results reflected a consumer “shift towards mega-brands and long-lasting titles”, but the CEO has now acknowledged Sparks of Hope’s commercial failure was likely down to a “different issue”.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Guillemot explained, “We had already released a Mario Rabbids game [on Switch], so by doing another we had two similar experiences on one machine. On Nintendo, games like this never die. There are 25 Mario games on Switch.”
“Nintendo [has advised] that it’s better to do one iteration on each machine,” Guillemot continued. “We were a bit too early, we should have waited for [the next console].”
“Because you could play a great game,” he added. “And we think it will last for ten years, because we will update it for the new machine that will come in the future.”
Ubisoft still has two more Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope expansions to release before development on the title comes to an end. Its second Season Pass DLC, The Last Spark Hunter, is due to arrive “mid-2023” and a third, featuring the publisher’s beloved limb-flinging mascot Rayman, launches toward the end of the year.
