Mario + Rabbids sequel should have been on next Nintendo console, says Ubisoft boss

Yves Guillemot says Nintendo advised Ubisoft to hold off on releasing Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope until there was a new machine.

In a wide-ranging interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ubisoft head Yves Guillemot has addressed the lower than expected sales of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.

The sequel to 2017’s Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle came out last October to positive reviews, but lacklustre sales. Guillemot partly blamed the low sales on the current economic situation, with high inflation causing people to be more selective about what they buy, and naturally gravitating towards bigger brands like Pokémon and God of War.

However, he also said questioned the wisdom of making a follow-up game on the same console, and said Nintendo had advised Ubisoft to wait for the release of the next Nintendo machine.

“We had already released a Mario Rabbids game [on Switch], so by doing another we had two similar experiences on one machine,” said Guillemot. “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].”

This advice from Nintendo is interesting, as it provides a little insight into the Japanese company’s thinking. If they hold true to the idea of only doing one iteration of a franchise per console, then it certainly points to the idea that we won’t be getting a sequel to Super Mario Odyssey on the Switch. Perhaps you could argue that Nintendo broke their own rule by releasing a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch – but then again, Breath of the Wild was originally meant to be a Wii U game, and indeed came out on the Wii U on the same day as it was released on Switch.

Ubisoft has had a tough time of it of late, reporting a huge loss earlier this year, which has prompted the company to double down on trusted franchises like Assassin’s Creed. The next Assassin’s Creed game, Mirage, will be released in October and promises a less sprawling adventure with more focus on stealth.