image

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was a big hit for Ubisoft on the Switch, selling over 10 million units. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the follow-up to the debut outing, was every bit as good as the first game quality-wise. Unfortunately, it didn’t measure up in the sales department.

Sparks of Hope has fallen considerably short of its predecessor in terms of units sold, and many have been wondering why. Now we have some insight from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, and he think he’s got the answer.

“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. We were a bit too early, we should have waited for [the next console]. “Because you could play a great game. And we think it will last for ten years, because we will update it for the new machine that will come in the future. Because you could play a great game. 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 CEO Yves Guillemot]

It’s certainly true that Nintendo shies away from direct sequels on their hardware unless there’s a considerable amount of time between releases. We’ve just seen that with Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. That said, numerous fans have said they had no reason to buy Sparks of Hope at launch because Ubisoft is always offering insane discounts on their games shortly after release. It seemed many banked on that and aimed to pick the game up after a heavy discount.

I’m sure the truth is a mix of both answers, but the end result is the same either way. Hopefully this doesn’t prevent the series from moving forward on whatever Nintendo’s next system is.

Add Comment

Comments (5)

wiired

9M ago

How many copies has the game sold worldwide?


thedestructo94

9M ago

Crazy coming from Nintendo. The same company that released Splatoon 2 and 3 on the same console, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Super Mario Party and Mario Party Superstars. Kirbys Return to Dreamland Deluxe and Kirby Star Allies. Fire Emblem Engage and Fire Emblem Three Houses. Fire Emblem Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity. 1-2 Switch and Everybody's 1-2 Switch. Pikmin 3 Deluxe and Pikmin 4. Every mainline Pokemon game that's on Switch.

I'd argue Sparks of Hope plays different enough from Kingdom Battle to justify its existence on Switch. Certainly more than Splatoon 3 does compared to 2 from a creative perspective..


hawk

9M ago

I don't see how it's THAT similar to the previous game, to the point where people wouldn't buy it. If they liked the first game, they'd want more from the second, which showed a lot of new features and differences.

Here's what I think it is instead: People bought the first one because it was a Mario crossover, which is not very common. But I don't think the Mario-Rabbid chemistry is as fun and enduring as Ubisoft presumed. The Sparks of Hope trailers actually showed a lot of new gameplay changes and concepts, but as far as story and characters go it was just more "BWAAAAAAAAH!"

I got tired of that before I finished the first one.


ngamer01

9M ago

It's not fatigue unless you were anti-Rabbid or the first game drove you anti-Rabbid. No Ubi, your company is corrupt and people haven't forgotten it. The only way Ubi can start recouping their lost mindshare is if they sell to new management that will clean house and change the culture of corruption at Ubisoft (includes predatory microtransactions). That means Yves will need to step down along with his management staff.


nekotaku

9M ago

@rawmeatcowboy

the quote repeats itself