Ubisoft CEO Admits The Mario + Rabbids Sequel Should Have Released On The New Switch Console To Escape Failure

Despite Mario being arguably the most known face in the video game industry, not all of his titles are equally successful in the market. While Nintendo is the primary developer of Mario titles, there are numerous outside inputs into the franchise as well. Mario + Rabbids is one such franchise developed by Ubisoft. Post-release of the second installment of the series, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope was massive approval from critics. With an ambitious game design and free camera movement, the game stood out from many others.

A tweet revealed that in a recent interview, Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, admitted such a rather upsetting market performance of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope may be attributed to the publishers’ own wrong decision-making.

Mario + Rabbid Sparks of Hope failed to ignite the sparks

Despite its great reviews, the game failed to make a significant impact in terms of generating a profit margin for the devs. Its predecessor, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was fairly well received in the market and thus plans for the sequel were always on the horizon. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope was released in 2022, by Ubisoft with the aim to take forward a unique storyline.

However, the dynamic new change in the gameplay of the sequel did not seem to make any ripples in the market as Sparks of Hope even failed to meet the sales targets of the devs. While the results may be amazing for many, a flop Mario title is relatively unheard of.

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In a recent interview, the Ubisoft CEO hinted that such a result may be because both the two Mario+Rabbid titles were released on the same Nintendo Switch platform.

Ignoring Nintendo’s advice proved to be troublesome

Ubisoft accepted being surprised by “Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope’s “underperformance in the final weeks of 2022 and early January.” Guillemot previously had thought this was because of the consumers’ choice for mega-brands over smaller titles.

However, he recently revealed that Ubisoft ignored Nintendo’s advice of making one game for each console and decided to publish the sequel Mario + Rabbids title before waiting for the next Switch console.

Guillemot now admits that such a move was foolish on Ubisoft’s part that resulted in disappointing sales for a rather good game. He also admitted Nintendo’s “only do one iteration [of Mario] on each machine” suggestion should’ve been paid greater heed. He said, “We had already released a Mario Rabbids game [on Switch], so by doing another we had two similar experiences on one machine.”

By doing so, players were spoilt for choices, and ultimately unable to make a decision.

With two more Mario + Rabbids titles in the development stages, it waits to be seen if Ubisoft can become a more dominant publisher on Nintendo’s platform.

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