In this Edge interview, Red Steel 2 creative director Jason VandenBerghe talks at length about the underlying problems behind Red Steel 2's lacklustre sales figures – the game only managed 270,000 worldwide, he claims.
During a financial conference call earlier this week, Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot fielded a question on sales expectations for Red Steel 2 with the following response: "On Red Steel we decided, in our expectations, to divide the quantity by two and previously we had around a million."
Ubisoft has delayed the planned holiday release of the Wii MotionPlus-exclusive Red Steel 2 to early next year for undeclared reasons.
Although the sword-and-gun FPS is probably the most anticipated of the company's forthcoming Wii lineup, the list of incoming 2009 games still includes the likes of Rabbids Go Home, Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage, Academy of Champions and TMNT Smash-Up.
I am pretty sure that MotionPlus peneteration will be high or very high. We predicted almost 20 Million MotionPlus devise sold, as part of Wii Sports Resort bundle.
According to the latest issue of Nintendo Power, Ubisoft has confirmed MotionPlus only. "It's a huge risk," said Red Steel 2 creative director Jason Vandenberghe. "We have no idea what the penetration rate for Wii MotionPlus will be. We assume high. We would like it to be high."
Ubisoft discussing the lack of multiplayer: "We would love to create a multiplayer engine, but not right now. Its single player because we want to really focus on the core mechanic and as much as we all want to kill each other with swords, its not going to happen this time."
"May" happen as DLC
I think this article will be better titled as "Red Steel 2 Release dates announced", even though the original title from IGN is "Ubisoft announces Red Steel 2".
Important text : "Red Steel 2 is a revolution in the action-fighting genre, taking full advantage of the capabilities of the Wii MotionPlus(TM) accessory. Your movements are faithfully replicated on-screen, putting the emphasis on swinging, shooting and fun! With the ability of the Wii MotionPlus to sense the strength of a swing, you will literally be able to make an impact on your adversaries through power and precision."
Today Ubisoft announced Red Steel 2, exclusively for the Wii(TM) system from Nintendo. Red Steel remains one of the most successful Wii titles and the only brand created specifically for the launch of the platform. Red Steel 2 is being developed by Ubisoft Paris and will be available for the 2009 holiday season.
Ubisoft is one of the first publishers to confirm the use of the Wii MotionPlus peripheral to improve the execution of its core Wii titles. "Red Steel 2 has been in development for many months now, and this new device will help us be even more precise in what we do with the product," said Corre, speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz.
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