Ubisoft isn't happy, and it's all your fault. The company that I've lovingly dubbed "The Activision of Europe" has posted a 50% sales drop from last year, placing sales at a figure 12% lower than expected. Ubisoft has placed the blame on DS piracy, but is working to add extra incentives for paying customers, most notably figurines.
"We are currently experiencing a very sharp slowdown in our sales for Nintendo DS as well as sales of back-catalog titles, in the context of a market that is tougher than anticipated," states Ubi prez Yves Guillemot. "This will have a significant impact on our first-half showing. Against this backdrop, the solid performance of our Wii titles combined with the successful launches of Anno and Call of Juarez are points of satisfaction and demonstrate that good products are continuing to sell well.
"Piracy is strong so we are working to put new figurines and new elements in the boxes that will change that in the future … for example in Europe we have the same market share in DS this year as last year ... We see a different attitude toward piracy in the U.S. than Europe. We did a survey that said our consumers will be more willing to buy products than pirate them. "
I have to say that I can't see piracy as a huge problem for Ubisoft. Let's face it, the vast majority of Ubisoft's target audience is the fabled "casual" market, made up of parents and children. These people aren't known for carrying R4s around with them, and I can't imagine that the net-savvy "hardcore" gamer who typically downloads DS games would rush to buy titles like Let's Quit Smoking and Imagine Babies.
I somehow doubt that Ubisoft's core customers are ripping them off, but if "hardcore" gamers are stealing titles whenever Ubisoft puts out a more "traditional" game, well I hope they're not surprised if Ubi sticks to the casual crap in future.
Contest:
2:40 PM on 07.27.2009
| 
Also I was in a Texaco garage the other day and on there wall was a A4 black and white print out advertising how you can get 500 games in one card lol.
Stand up straight, take a deep breath, and admit that you haven't put out any great games this year Ubisoft.
Though all Ubisoft has to do now is make a game that I'd actually buy haha.
of course I can't talk about their foreign markets as those might have AAA titles abound, but so far this looks to be a Red Herring. The real issue is that they over saturated the market on these types of games and aren't showing the profits they thought they could make. So they blame those darn pirates for ruining their shares when in actuality they don't have anyone willing to invest as a consumer in their products for any number of reasons (See: Recession).
I am intrigued to see what these anti-piracy methods are. they seem to have some confidence in this which lead pirates to destroy that confidence with their crafty pirate techniques.
Also, I can imagine the survey. "I'm a rep from Ubisoft. Would you much rather steal our games that people slaved to make, or would you rather be a decent human being and purchase it. Please ignore the large men in black suits."
Family Fued
Price is Right
2 imagine titles
AND 2 style titles... and that's only on the first page.
Maybe instead of releasing games directed towards a fad, they could spend a little time in the R&D department, and maybe come up with a new idea.
Splinter Cell can only carry people so far. Get of your asses and start brainstorming.
Endangered Paradise.
I'm going to "Buy" the fuck out of that bad-boy tommorow morning.
And then I'm going to play it till I'm tired of it. (1 minute 30).
Then I will die happy.
Granted, the casual gamers with flashcarts will play these games for a while, realize how shitty most of they are, and never play them again. Most pirates (even casual) that I know WILL buy games they enjoy, it's just that Ubisoft don't make those games.
That's a very good point... I have 16 DS games and none of them are ubisoft. haha
Maybe they should make some games that people will buy?
Well, that and I look forward to the epic prequel to Let's Quit Smoking: Let's Not Start Smoking in the First Place.
You can't go wrong more than that.
A lot of parents buy the R4 for their children, a lot of casual have the R4. The only persons I know to have this card are girls/children. Me & my friends, who are "real" players (don't like the words but it means "not casual"), like to buy the boxes of these rpgs that will last 30 hours+. Parents don't want to buy these silly little games their children want and that they will play for less than an hour.
Piracy on DS is a lot about casual gaming.
Also as a female gamer, fuck those "imagine" games. Fuck them hard.
Don't get me started on the Rayman DS games, as a fan of the series they make me kinda rage. TV Party is incredibly lame, they just have a static board with heads going up and down, then you play the minigames which use the same engine as RRR2 DS. I just know RGH is gonna be as bad as its Wii counterpart. The DS version of the first RRR wasn't as bad, but it still looked like a crappy Disney PS1 game like what Ubi used to make.
Lastly, there's the garbage that was Who Wants to be a Millionaire which I sadly got for Christmas. I promptly traded it in for Cooking Mama, which is much more fun.