“The debut E3 trailer set the graphical bar high for the Ubisoft developers, as far as current gen is concerned they get a pass but the 360 and PS3 ports have come under a lot of criticism.”

The initial sales figures suggest that Ubisoft hopes of a new franchise to add to their development rooster might come to fruition. Over 4 million copies sold in its first week, making the game the best-selling new IP at launch. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot commented last month that they hoped to sell as much as the first Assassin’s Creed title which sold more than 6 million copies. At the current rate of 4 million in a week Watch_Dogs should easily surpass any of Ubisoft’s predictions and with a WiiU release still to come in September. With such impressive sales and generally positive reviews there is no doubt that the Ubisoft heads will be cracking the whip for their Montréal development team to get back to work on a sequel. In fact last year the Head of Sales and Marketing at the company Tony Key made the comment “That’s what all our games are about; we won’t even start if we don’t think we can build a franchise out of it. There’s no more fire and forget – it’s too expensive.” in reference to the then in development Watch_Dogs. A statement that reflects Ubisoft’s current catalogue of games that are mostly made up of sequels or games based on existing properties. Nobody can really blame the publisher from taking a conservative approach when faced with new IP, video game budgets have increased tenfold in the last decade. The likes of GTA V costing Rockstar over $250 million, with the company relying on the games accumulated reputation to shift copies and recoup the costs. Even if Ubisoft have to take a hit financially on the first release with planned sequels the can account for the initial loses in the franchise.

“A small hitch in the games release as arisen over a bug that causes players to get stuck on the games loading screen. Uplay, Ubisoft’s digital distribution service is suspected to be at fault.”

In an interesting move the publisher has also tasked their film division Ubisoft Motion Pictures to start drafting up a film script for Watch_Dogs. It seems a little earlier to planning a movie adaptation for a series that is so new but then again they are already thinking of the long term plan for this would be franchise. Ubisoft have already made plans for all their other major franchises to get the silver screen treatment, the Assassin’s Creed movie gathering steam with a late 2015 release date announced and Michael Fassbender attached as the lead. The video game industry in fact is beginning to mirror their Hollywood counterparts in some respects. At the top end of the industry the big players favour content that will be able to offer them significant return over a long period of time as opposed to a quick flash in the pan. It would be hard to envisage the pitch session for Goat Simulator with the executives at EA or Activision and the publisher drawing out plans for the game as a franchise. Disney planning out a road map for their highly successful Marvel series of films right through to 2021. The big movie producers favour adaptions over original screenplay, the video game industry taking a similar stance.  At the other end of the scale the indie scene has exploded in popularity with new IP finding great success in what can be sometimes a swing and miss sector of the industry. For as many triumphs like Minecraft and DayZ there are there are ten times as many failures among them. The indie movie scene following a similar failure success rate among the films released over the last few years.  However the more important issue surrounding Ubisoft’s movie studio is will we finally see a decent video game adaption in the cinemas, the video game community doesn’t needs another Prince of Persia movie.

“The film is still in early pre-production with no indication of what role Michael Fassbender might be taking on; Altair, Ezio or Connor?”

Taking a look at some of the other major publishers, paints a similar picture with already establish IP getting the go ahead and financial backing. EA like Ubisoft seemed to have taken a gamble with new IP Titanfall, but then again is it much of a gamble when working with Vince Zampella a proven hit driven developer. No doubt EA have plans for Titanfall to be what Call of Duty has become to Activision with Zampella the man behind that particular franchise. The same could be said of Take-Two interactive and their new IP Evolve that is set to release later this year. Not so much a gamble with Turtle Rock at the helm, the same team that was behind the highly successful Left4Dead franchise. These games also seem to be perfectly suited for a host of DLC releases and eventually sequels. It is becoming rarer and rarer that a game will be made with a definitive end point. Modern video games are developed with the sequel in the back of the developers mind or at least at the top end of the industry. When a publisher is given a hit by one of their studios they always want more. The video game fans also playing a part in this, the community endless speculating on sequels and follow ups. With E3 just around the corner the rumour mill is in full effect and rampant speculation abounds.

“E3 could have seen the big revel of the next Assassin’s Creed game if it wasn’t for those pesky internet sleuths leaking the news early. No doubt they will still have a few tricks up their sleeves for the event”

Watch_Dogs wowed fans at E3 2012 and the anticipation for the game only intensified over the following two years. The game has amassed encouraging sales in its first week of release and is surely on its way to recouping the development costs. Ubisoft might have been criticized for making such bold claims about the games future over a year prior to its launch. Most developers and publisher have future vision for their new IP but to come out and state those claims so boldly is not so common. If the games follow up can build upon the original and maintain the fans attention than their maybe hope for the future of the franchise. If not certain Ubisoft executives might have to back track on their previous statements.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Watch Dogs Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Nintendo have relied on countless revisions of the Mario games to help boost console sales, but how long can this tend continue?”

However Nintendo’s policies where formed in an era when the video game industry was in its infancy and companies were viewed a kin to toy manufactures. Nintendo having a long and successful history in the toy manufacturing business prior to their switch to the video game industry. The problem they face now is that the video game industry has moved on from its kid orientated origins and matured alongside its aging gamers. Gamers who want something a little more than Mario in a cat suit, a game like The Last of Us dealing with adult subject matter raking in a host of awards over the last year. It is a sign of the times that as far as the console market is concerned games are generally aimed towards an adult audience. Nintendo over the last decade has managed to sell record amount of devices with their Wii console hitting the 100 million mark. In spite of this sizeable market lead many AAA titles that are ported over to the console failed to sell anywhere near those numbers expected for such a popular console. A fact that has led publishing giant EA to become increasingly hesitant to publish any of its titles to Nintendo’s latest WiiU console. Former EA CEO John Riccitiello stating in March of last year, that no future titles were in the works for the WiiU platform.

 “Nintendo’s flagging console sales saw a sharp increase with the launch of the Wii, its successor the WiiU has come nowhere close in comparison.”

This is the fundamental root of Nintendo’s problems is that despite the falling out between the company and major publishers like EA they ultimately seem unconcerned. Nintendo long ago became the kingpins of the video game industry and it’s a state of mind that they haven’t lost even in the face of their impending failure. Nintendo’s failure is not something that can be predicted by diving into the future but instead taking a look back at the past and a company in a similar situation Nintendo is in today. Sega were Nintendo biggest rivals with the two consistently going head to head with their console platforms throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Like Nintendo they often favoured first party development over licencing deals with third party companies, relying on iconic video game characters like Sonic The Hedgehog to sell their consoles. The 1998 release of the revolutionary but ultimately poorly selling Dreamcast is the device that spelled an end to Sega’s days as a console manufacturer. Sega announcing its intention to become solely a video game publisher only three years later, this has allowed them to remain reasonable profitable within the video game industry. Even going as far as to swallow their pride and negotiate an exclusivity deal for the Sonic franchise with their old rivals Nintendo.

 “Nintendo might take heed for their former rivals Sega. Whose consoles failure to gain a sizable percentage forced the company out of the console market for good.”

Pride is something that would be a bitter pill for the Nintendo executives to swallow if they ever came to approach Sony or Microsoft about licencing Mario to rival platforms. It is also the fact that despite poor sales for their WiiU console they have managed to retain a decent share of the handheld market in the face of stiff competition from mobile devices. Since the launch of the GameBoy back in 1989, Nintendo have managed to rack up impressive unit sales in that sector of the market. The games developed for the handheld market are generally of a more casual nature and aimed at a younger audience. Something that Nintendo excels at with franchises like Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Kirby, etc. Many analysts have stated that one way for Nintendo to re-establish itself in the industry would be to port many of its handheld titles over to mobile platforms. The latest version of their handheld devices the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS have sold over 42 million units combined, double that of their preceding device. Although something has be said for the fact that there are over 250 million iPhones and over 1 billion Android devices. Just looking at the numbers it might seem like an obvious move for Nintendo to port its games to mobile, but it is unlikely Nintendo will want to enter into a market where they would have to relinquish a certain level of control. More importantly they would have to share in the profits with Apple and Goggle, one reason why Nintendo are so guarded over they own IP’s.

 “Nintendo have hinted that they are doing some research into smart phone technology, but seeing any of their games on iPhone or Android will be a long way off yet.”

Nintendo is somewhat stuck at a crossroad with it obvious to see that their latest console is a failure but on the other hand they seen positive sales of handheld titles. The latest games in the Pokémon franchise accumulating over 11 million in sales in the last 12 months. Boosts to profits like these will only help Nintendo in a small way with its general loss of market share in the console sector not looking good on their financial reports. Should Nintendo follow Sega’s path and give up on the manufacturing side of things and primary focus on software development. That question will become clearer based on the sales of Nintendo’s next console; the company cannot afford to have another console launch fail to generate sales. Another WiiU would surely spell the end for Nintendo’s console days. However many would have said the same around the time of the GameCube, that like the WiiU lost Nintendo a sizeable share of the market. However they were able to bounce back with the highly successful Wii console so a lot rides on the success of their next console launch. In essence Nintendo needs to remove itself form its self-imposed ideology formed in the early 80’s and join the rest of its competitors in the 21^st Century.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: The Fall of Nintendo appeared first on Game Design Ireland.