On Ubisoft, Watch_Dogs and Bayonetta 2
There has been a lot of discussion on one of my articles (for the first time ever). This article in particular. I'd like to address some things.
First of all, Watch_Dogs isn't the first mature game (or mature third party game) on the Wii U, and it wont be the last. The obvious example, and one that I referred to in the article, is Bayonetta 2. However, that's not the only one, it was just the immediate example as it is a recent game, and it features a scantily clad female protag.
Obviously the word mature is failing as a qualifier here. Games like Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Hyrule Warriors can all easily be qualified as mature, since they appeal to adults. Mario Kart 8 has a cartoony art style, and is accessible, and therefore can be seen as a "childish" game, even when it is obviously anything but.
Using "mature" to refer to a game really only works when the game features sexual content, and shouldn't be an important qualifier in games at all. As an adult, I find Mario Kart 8 fun, and I've been replaying Rayman Legends (another Ubioft Wii U game which didn't fail as Watch Dogs did). "Games that appeal to everybody" is not the same thing as "Games that dont appeal to adults" or "Games that are bad".
Finally, Bayonetta sales figures. It obviously isn't a system seller, and has had modest sales performance since it was released. Despite receiving almost universal high scores, it isn't selling as many games as first party titles. Duh. Its hard to find exact numbers for the game that are more recent than around 3 weeks ago, but according to the sources I used in the article, Bayonetta was the 11th highest selling game on the WiiU last week. Specifically, it placed 1st in its launch week, falling to 2nd, 4th and 8th in the following weeks. That's not bad. Some commentators on the article are saying that its sales could pick up around christmas, and I guess we'll have to see if that's true. Either way, it's obviously not a commercial failure, and definitely not on par with Watch Dogs.
One final thing to say is that the idea of the article wasn't pointing out that it failed. It was pointing out that it failed because Ubisoft treated the game's release poorly. The wii U version of the game is incomplete when compared to the other versions, is missing DLC, is 6 months late, is still at full retail price, and has had 0 advertising. While the Wii U doesn't have as big of a user base as other consoles, the fact that it couldn't even make it into the top 10 games sold in its launch week is a reflection on Ubisoft, not on Nintendo or Wii U owners in general.
If you have any further questions, send them to me on here or on twitter @Xorglord.
