Beyond Good, Evil, Sales, As UbiSoft Ponders Popularity

Thanks to GameSpot for reprinting news of UbiSoft's improved financials, but disappointing specifics, as the company noted in particular: "In a very competitive year-end market, sales of new brands such as Beyond Good and Evil and XIII, products which had been heavily marketed, were lower than the early-December forecasts... this had an impact of 10 million euros ($12.5 million)." Coincidentally, GameSpy has an editorial discussing the allegedly disappointing sales of UbiSoft titles, and notes: "Many of my peers felt that BG&E's style was too eccentric and didn't convey what type of game it was." Although Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has "sold 2 million units worldwide", UbiSoft's welcome announcement of a Prince Of Persia sequel with reference to "improved marketing positioning" implies some dissatisfaction with the initial sales, and GameSpy argue "the [U.S.] advertisements for both [BG&E and PoP] were horrendous", but overall, this didn't stop UbiSoft becoming "the second largest publisher in France, the third largest in Germany, and the sixth largest in the UK" over the holiday period.

Comments

Re:marketing sucks my ass

[j450n]

The people making the game, in almost all cases, have pretty much nothing at all to do with advertising. Advertising comes from the realm of the publisher, not the developer.

Can't argue with you that big budget advertising raises the cost, but they do it because it does sell games. Ideally, games would sell entirely on their merit, but fifty boxes on a shelf versus two behind the counter probably makes more of a difference than anything. It's just like any other form of entertainment: the vast majority of people like what is marketed best, not necessarily what constitutes "good art". It's easy to forget that online communities like /. are from representative of the general public.

Heaven forbid anyone be /creative/ these days...

[TwistedGreen]

"Many of my peers felt that BG&E's style was too eccentric and didn't convey what type of game it was."

Is it such a crime that a game not fit neaty into one genre? Aren't people getting sick of the same old "shooting game" or "jumping game"?

Re:marketing sucks my ass

[erasmus_]

Did you happen to read the article? Because I read your post, and I can tell that you didn't. The Gamespy editorial talks about exactly the opposite, that good games sometimes don't sell well, for a variety of factors such as marketing. I don't understand why you are calling shitty or average two of the best games of last year, as judged by many editors and lists. I can't personally vouch for Prince of Persia, as I haven't gotten around to picking that one up yet, but Beyond Good & Evil is definitely great - I'm making my way through it now.

And "increases purchase price of games"? That is so ... trollish. Games have been at $50 for as long as I can remember, and Ubisoft actualy dropped the price for BG&E to $20 after poor sales. I ended up getting it for $15 with a coupon from Best Buy. For those of you considering getting it, $20 is a very good value for this game.