Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot acknowledged that the financial failure of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope was likely attributable to the publisher’s decision to release a sequel on Switch despite Nintendo’s advice to “only do one iteration [of Mario] on each machine.”
When it was released in October of last year, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, with many critics applauding the strategic refinements it added to its predecessor’s already superbly engaging gameplay.
In an emergency investor call held at the beginning of the year to announce significantly lower-than-anticipated earnings, Ubisoft admitted it was “surprised” by Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope’s “underperformance in the final weeks of 2022 and early January.”
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Guillemot suggested at the time that the publisher’s dismal financial results reflected a consumer “shift towards mega-brands and long-lasting titles,” but the CEO has since acknowledged that Sparks of Hope’s commercial failure was likely due to a “different issue.”
A statement made by Guillemot to GamesIndustry.biz reads –
“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.”
Ubisoft still has two Sparks of Hope expansions for Mario + Rabbids to release before the game’s development concludes. Its second Season Pass DLC, The Last Spark Hunter, is scheduled to arrive in “mid-2023,” and a third, starring the publisher’s adored limb-flinging mascot Rayman, will be released by the end of the year.