The crossover between Ubisoft's Rabbids and Nintendo's Mario resulted in two fun installments that met the expectations of fans of both franchises. Unfortunately, the second title had poor commercial performance. Why was it a sales failure?

At the beginning of 2023, Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, revealed that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope received excellent ratings and was well-received by players. However, he confirmed that despite an ambitious marketing plan, it had low commercial performance since its release in October 2022.

Ubisoft acknowledges that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope should have been launched on the successor to the Switch

Why was a game that received almost universal praise a sales failure? While Yves Guillemot indicates that the market suffers a bit from inflation, he reveals that this case is different. Specifically, he confesses that they should have been more patient and wait for the successor to the Switch to launch the sequel to the strategy title.

In a chat with GamesIndustry.biz (via VGC), the executive assured that Nintendo advised Ubisoft that it is better to release a new installment on each console. Thus, he acknowledges that they should have waited until the big N released its new hardware to launch Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.

"We had already released a Mario and Rabbids game on Switch, so by making another one, we had two similar experiences on one console. At Nintendo, games like this never die. There are 25 Mario titles on Switch. Nintendo advised that it's better to do an iteration on each platform. We arrived too early, and we should have waited [for the next console]," said the director of the French company.

However, Yves Guillemot won't give up, ensuring that they will update the video game to last 10 years and reach the new Nintendo console.

We must remember that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope debuted five years after Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which was launched for Nintendo Switch in 2017 and managed to reach over 7.5 million players.

But tell us, do you think Ubisoft should have waited? Do you believe that the failure is due to other factors? Let us know in the comments.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is now available exclusively for Nintendo Switch. Click here to read more news related to it.