Ubisoft Moving Focus Away From Licensed Products
Avatar: The GameOne would think that after so many years of lackluster sales for mediocre games based on movies or TV shows, publishers would shift their focus.
Well, it has taken a while but Ubisoft has finally seen the light. Last year's Avatar: The Game actually sold pretty well despite a barely lukewarm reception by the critics. However, the 2.5 million copies is only half of Ubisoft's initial expectations and when a game falls that far short, a publisher is bound to make some changes. Now, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the company has decided to produce fewer licensed products and pursue more of their own IPs. Said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot:
"Our plan is to take more care of our high end franchises, we will leave less place for licensed games. ...it doesn't mean we will stop but we're going to spend less in licenses in the future."
That's probably a good idea. We've seen a steady increase in quality in games based on films over the past few years but in general, they still fall short of expectations. Ubisoft has plenty of great franchises in their stable already, all of which are capable of raking in big numbers with each new installment. Therefore, they'll just focus on those. Oh, and it seems GI.biz has gone subscription-based; i.e., you gotta sign up to read the full articles. Maybe PSXE should do that...sounds like a good idea, huh?
...oh, calm down. Just kidding. ;)
Related Game(s): Avatar: The Game
1/20/2010 12:22:11 PM Ben Dutka
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Comments (41 posts)
yak4life85
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 12:40:14 PM
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I would pay to access full articles on PSXE. If you guys need the money then why not. Just keep the quality the same, keep the same authors and we'll be good.
$10 max per year just saying but I know Ben was just kidding.
2 up, 6 down
LimitedVertigo
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 4:34:39 PM
3 up, 0 down
Deleted User
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 12:43:32 PM
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Films are for watching, games are for playing. Games based on movies always have that uneasy combination working against them.
5 up, 0 down
lMephisto
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 12:46:46 PM
1 up, 0 down
B-RadGfromOV
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 2:28:27 PM
2 up, 0 down
Buckeyestar
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 12:47:55 PM
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0 up, 0 down
Silent_J
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 12:47:55 PM
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0 up, 0 down
SvenMD
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 1:15:30 PM
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Still, I'm glad that they are sticking to their own franchises - WHICH ROCK!
4 up, 0 down
maxpontiac
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 7:01:53 PM
Way to high of expectations.
3 up, 0 down
lMephisto
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 1:35:33 PM
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0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 4:10:00 PM
0 up, 0 down
LimitedVertigo
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 4:38:31 PM
4 up, 0 down
tridon
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 1:35:59 PM
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Maybe instead of wasting time and money on crappy film-to-game adaptations, you can actually put some people on BEYOND GOOD & EVIL 2. You know... a game fans are actually asking for!
4 up, 0 down
Alienange
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 1:42:21 PM
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3 up, 0 down
darxed
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 2:08:18 PM
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2 up, 0 down
D1g1tal5torm
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 2:40:04 PM
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Maybe Ubi have wised-up to the fact that the gaming fraternity are no longer swayed by sales figures in a different media genre.
0 up, 0 down
Kowhoho
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 3:02:51 PM
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1 up, 0 down
maxpontiac
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 3:22:18 PM
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Hopefully this is the beginning of gaming companies will quit trying to cash in on movies with sub-par games.
0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 4:08:18 PM
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Though I suppose still doing licensed products with less money and focus on them will only make them worse.
1 up, 0 down
LimitedVertigo
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 4:37:16 PM
0 up, 0 down
piratedrunk
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 7:51:22 PM
0 up, 0 down
Alienange
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 4:08:27 PM
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2 up, 1 down
LimitedVertigo
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 4:36:38 PM
:)
0 up, 2 down
Alienange
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 5:49:43 PM
0 up, 0 down
darxed
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 9:31:21 PM
0 up, 0 down
LimitedVertigo
Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 11:18:09 AM
0 up, 1 down
geovanwitdakick
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 5:01:41 PM
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0 up, 0 down
Banky A
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 6:46:51 PM
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0 up, 0 down
booze925
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 7:25:19 PM
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0 up, 1 down
CH1N00K
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 8:36:09 PM
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Between AC and having their hand in the Tom Clancy franchise..plus opening a new office in Toronto, I don't think Ubisoft needs to worry about movie based games.
Although I have to admit, While I was watching Avatar, the whole time I was thinking this would have made a great video game, I would really like to play something like this. Then when I saw the colorful dragons, the glowing trees and an ex-soldier..I thought, wait a second, I have played something like this, except it was called Final Fantasy when I played it...
1 up, 0 down
Robochic
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 11:30:55 PM
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I just hope the Prince of Persia movie just kill the game franchise, still floored that they would use Jake Gyllenhaal for the main character, we'll see how this turns out.
0 up, 0 down
___________
Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 12:31:44 AM
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you make a crappy game like this of course its going to sell poorly.
well i would hardly call 2.5M poor, thats fu**ing fantastic! its a bloody miracle it got that far.
they should know to have a shitty game sell 5M+ you need to hype the sh*t out of it.
you need to get it out there as the second coming of christ so every man and his dog knows about it.
ala GTAIV, MW, MW2, halo 3 and halo ODST.
0 up, 0 down
Snaaaake
Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 3:33:11 AM
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My rocket.......what is wrong with the world.
How can a crap game sell 2.5M when some AAA games(looking at some PS3 exclusives) doesn't even reach 2M???
1 up, 0 down
mbg77
Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 4:08:28 AM
Take care.
1 up, 0 down
mbg77
Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 4:01:42 AM
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After all the developers like Ubisoft have plenty of experience with making great multiplatform titles (i'm looking at you ACII). So they have the tools (the engine and the gameplay mechanics). Why can't they incorporate the story into this mix.
I think there would be more people enjoying ACII style game with Avatar story than what we have been offered. Why do they invent the wheel over and over again. They have the winning formula jet they are not satisfied with it or what.
Imagine Naughty Dog doing Avatar - from what I've seen of Avatar on YouTube they could just use the environments from Uncharted Drake's Fortune and put this blue guy in Nathan's place.
Why do they frak these games on so many levels?
Is it just because of the time pressure. Maybe Ben could answer - how much time was Avatar The Game in development? Or maybe there are other factors - like J.Cameron's vision of the game and the experience.
Take care.
1 up, 0 down
Snaaaake
Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 4:07:19 AM
They had to finish it before the film release.
2 up, 0 down
___________
Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 6:14:24 AM
that and licensing restrictions.
coincidence that the 2 best movie based games actually came out after the movie.
xmen origins wolverine, and batman AA.
i know batman AA has nothing to do with AA but thats what inspired rocksteady to do a batman game.
time is a fickle thing, most licensed games need to be released as the movie thus they dont have enough time to polish the games.
most movie games are not bad because of the gameplay or what not, there normally bad because they lack polish.
the avatar just plain sucked full stop, in fact i think we have a new contender for worst video game ever created.
yes worse than rouge warrior.
0 up, 0 down
Richy
Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 9:33:08 AM
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movie-based games could be great if ONLY they did take their time & release a real addon to one or the other.
why can't they treat them just as any other games, i'll certainly go for it if worth it.
some mistakes again are the fact that movie-based games doesn't always imply the main characters. when you go to the movies, you do put yourself in the main character's skin, then you feel like & for them .. when you go for a game or a movie & you have some new faces, it changes the vision & acceptance.
Game developers have to be aware of the psychological aspects of things. Never kill a main character that didn't die in a movie or vice versa & never give alternate endings too. Either stick to same story, except this time it's interactive with better option or create side stories that are great but with same base characters.
well i guess this won't be possible, i don't buy any movie-based games unless they get a rating of 8+ on most sites, i.e. almost never!
cheers!
1 up, 0 down
fluffer nutter
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010 @ 12:38:56 PM
Oh! I almost forgot. Do NOT ever go subscription based. You guys are too good here to do that. That's a reason I don't go to many other sites for news. Paid subscriptions to read articles that I can find elsewhere on the net? Really? No thank you. And I wouldn't suspect this site to ever do that to the loyalists. ;)
Last edited by fluffer nutter on 1/20/2010 12:40:42 PM