Ubisoft has spoken out about the cash in the casual games market, which isn’t making them as much money as president, Laurent Detoc, would like. He believes that cost involved in games such as Petz goes beyond development and into large amount of marketing, after all ‘casual’ gamers aren’t going to be as informed about the latest titles as their hardcore counterparts.
Detoc states the 25% of Ubisoft’s $1.5 billion in revenue last fiscal year was due to casual games, and while the low development costs have helped to make casual games a success the level of marketing required is their downfall. "The margins on these games are good when you look at development, but it takes a lot of marketing dollars…It's like packaged goods. You have to think about marketing, retail space, branding." The Wii appears to be giving the company the most trouble as only 10% of profits were due to Wii sales. The solution to this, according to Detoc, is to create games that "sell as well as Nintendo's own Wii titles”, which is easier said than done.
Detoc has remained positive about the future of casual games, and believes that Ubisoft will be a leader in the market. "We feel that's a good opportunity for us. People want games that are more accessible and less intimidating. We have been exploring a lot in that space and we think we will have an advantage as that group gets bigger. "Nothing's ever easy, but our lineup is strong, and the industry is healthy."
Submitted by ICC_06
21/05/2008
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