‘If Nintendo call, we’ll answer’: Mario Rabbids’ creator talks life after Ubisoft at his new studio

To outsiders, Davide Soliani looked as content as could be. The Mario + Rabbids creator’s online stardom was born following a tearful appearance at E3 2017: his heartfelt reaction to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto appearing on stage to announce his game.

A lifelong Nintendo fan and a 20-year Ubisoft veteran, Soliani was enjoying the best years of his career collaborating on Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and, later, its sequel Sparks of Hope. Then, last year, he and several other high-profile Ubisoft Milan employees announced they were leaving to try something new.

So why did Soliani quit his dream job?

“The reason I left is not because I was trying to get away from Ubisoft for any specific reason, but because I was searching for something that I couldn’t find there… something that we’re now creating together here,” he told VGC over video call. “So I have no grudge or disappointment with Ubisoft. I still have a lot of people there in Paris, Milan, Chengdu, and all the people that I know are very dear to me and that I love.”

Late last year, Soliani founded a new studio, Day 4 Night, along with other former leaders of Ubisoft Milan, including Mario Rabbids producers Cristina Nava and Gian Marco Zanna. He’s also joined by a partner outside of Italy in Christian Cantamessa, an experienced writer based in California, whose credits include Red Dead Redemption, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot.

“Davide and I have known each other since the late nineties. We were working together at Ubisoft Milan very early in our careers, so the desire was always there to do something together one day,” Cantamessa explained. “And then sometime towards the end of 2023, Davide reached out and started chatting about what his dream project was, what my dream project would be, and we were pretty much aligned.

“We’ve always wanted to work together because I’m more geared towards narrative and telling a story through games, and Davide is interested in creating like the perfect game mechanics and the most engaging, player-first game experiences,” he added. “So it felt like a good fit also in terms of skills and just talking about ideas. This project that we’re working on kind of started evolving from there. And once you start talking about something tangible, it becomes more and more exciting. You just want to start making it, which is what we resolved to do.”

Day 4 Night currently has 26 employees, the vast majority of whom previously worked on the Mario + Rabbids team, according to an analysis of their LinkedIn profiles, across animation, art, programming, and design. However, Soliani stresses that the new studio is open to working with creators outside of Italy, like Cantamessa and their composer Grant Kirkhope.

“The reason I left is not because I was trying to get away from Ubisoft for any specific reason, but because I was searching for something that I couldn’t find there”

Soliani and Cantamessa are co-directing Day 4 Night’s debut game together, which is based on an original IP,  boldly described in their announcement by investor (and co-creator of Xbox) Ed Fries as “easily the most creative thing we have seen in quite some time”. The pair told VGC it was too early to share more details, or even a genre, but alluded to a production that they believe will benefit from their complementary skillsets, and deliver a story that is personal to them.

“All will be revealed, but it’s also frankly a franchise that we hope to grow, and so whatever we do, we see it as something that will grow in scope and grow in content. Revealing more right now without explaining the bigger plan might be reductive,” Cantamessa said. “Davide leaving Ubisoft and me leaving my collaboration with Microsoft [on Perfect Dark] was because we were thinking that this game wouldn’t be something that would incubate very well inside a studio, or at least not in a big studio.”

“For me, it’s a personal project, and it’s a passion project,” Soliani added. “And I believe that most of the time, having a few selected people around you that share the same vision and commitment is way better than having a multitude of people where the vision is watering down a little bit.

“It’s a new IP. It’s something that we invented from scratch. Gameplay is first for us, but we’re also merging with the storytelling in a meaningful way. The storytelling is not something that you can take out without ruining what we are building… in our game, I believe there is a perfect balance between storytelling and gameplay. It’s a personal project because there is also a strong message in what we are doing, and we believe that this message will hopefully resonate with many people.

“We decided to leave very good jobs behind us to start pursuing something completely new for the sake of being able to express our creativity in the way we wanted, with no compromises. Well, apart from budget compromises, of course! But those problems can be fixed with creativity.”

A good time to build a game studio?

To most external watchers, now doesn’t seem like a great time to establish a brand-new video game studio. Since the pandemic funding boom, the resulting turmoil in the games market has led to many startups failing to even make it to their first project. Just this month, the news cycle has delivered more dire closure news from the likes of Warner Bros. Interactive, while NetEase is also reportedly pulling funding from many of its recently established studios.

“I think stupidity made us,” Cantamessa joked, on his decision to start a game studio in 2025. “This industry is really at a crossroads right now. We’ve reached the point where you have massive overheads, you need to recoup those massive investments, and it becomes really hard to sustain.”

The co-founder said he believes that Day 4 Night is in a stronger position than most startups, since its first round of financing – from publisher Krafton, and Ed Fries’ 1Up Ventures – involves purely stock, rather than any other greater powers over its future.

“Looking at the situation that we’re in, we incorporated with venture capital, so we’re not subjected to any sort of rights pulling because the company is funded”

“Looking at the situation that we’re in, we incorporated with venture capital, so we’re not subjected to any sort of rights pulling because the company is funded, and it’s funded on the sale of stock of this company to private investors,” he explained. “We’re deeply grateful for the trust and creative freedom our investors have shown us, which allows us to focus fully on our vision. So no, we’re not at the whims of anything other than our way of handling the development of the game… ”

Cantamessa and Soliani also believe that the game they’re building will appeal to video game players craving more unique independent games.

“On one end, you have a situation where everyone is a bit more careful at investing money,” Soliani said. “At the same time, there is a growing interest from the player towards games that are a bit, let’s say, out of the chorus. They are a bit different. They are willing to tell different stories… that’s what we are observing as developers and as players.”

Cantamessa added: “Different companies are going about adjusting their accounting in different ways right now. There are companies that are very successful and are doubling down on making big AAA games because probably they have the franchises that provide the returns. There are also companies that have tried that and it didn’t work out, and so they are culling.

“We saw that in Hollywood happen when the studio system started falling apart. You made a hit, you survived, you made The Sound of Music, and that took you out of business. So that’s what’s happening to us as well. And out of the ashes of the Hollywood studio system came independent filmmaking and the same is happening to games. There’s a huge independent movement right now, which is not just of the makers, because the independent movement has been there since the birth of video games.

“I think now there is a market, and there is a big demand. What you see now is the audience is aligning away from the more studio fare and towards the indie fare. So I think maybe we’re in the late 60s, 70s of cinema, and we’re starting to see the Bonnie and Clyde of the video game world.”

What happened with Mario + Rabbids’ sequel?

Soliani insists he chose to end his 25-year Ubisoft career due to his desire to work on a more personal game project. But to outside onlookers, it’s impossible not to feel that the romance between the pair imediately soured following Sparks of Hope’s 2022 release.

Despite the game earning critical praise from fans and media outlets, just weeks after its release Ubisoft’s CEO made the decision to brand Sparks of Hope a sales disappointment in a public earnings release. Shortly after, Guillemot gave an interview in which he said the game should’ve been held back for Switch 2. According to VGC’s sources, Sparks of Hope had racked up nearly three million sales as of a year after its release, which is in line with the historical performance of the first game, which went on to reach 10 million players.

Ubisoft would likely have still expected more, given Switch’s significant growth since the original game was released in August 2017, but it’s still surprising that the mood around the title was so negative. Commenting on Sparks of Hope’s reception, Soliani said the broader development of the sequel was full of challenges.

“Because the first one was a big success, Sparks of Hope was way harder to develop than Kingdom Battle. There was too much overthinking about it all around me.”

“For me, Kingdom Battle was a personal project, like the one that we are doing now at Day 4 Night,” he said. “It was really a love letter to Nintendo. It’s not a surprise that I’m a Nintendo lover. In my office, I currently have a huge Mario plushie that my friend sent me from Tokyo.

“But Sparks of Hope was a surprise. With the first game, nobody was really trying to stop me. Because nobody was expecting anything from Kingdom Battle, I had a lot of freedom. But because the first one was a big success, Sparks of Hope was way harder to develop than Kingdom Battle. There was too much overthinking about it all around me. So to me it was a bit… it was still a joy, it was a wonderful experience because I always loved working with Nintendo and I will always will.

“It was also critically well received. I cannot share the sales number, but it’s still growing, it’s still selling. It’s following a similar path to what Kingdom Battle did, minus Covid. Because let’s not forget, during Covid all games were like plus 30% more just because people were stuck in their home playing games.”

Though Soliani insists his decision to leave and found Day 4 Night was “100% based” on his belief in the project they’re now building, it’s clear Ubisoft’s comments around Sparks of Hope’s launch performance were painful for the game’s development team.

“The message that we received about how the game was faring was a bit hurtful for the morale of the team,” Soliani said. “Because we just finished working for three and a half years and were super committed to creating a very good game. So, of course, it was not the kind of message that we wanted to receive back in those days.

“It was a bit hurtful, but nothing crazy. I think that’s normal… every development team is proud of what they are doing and always searching for encouraging words, which in that situation, was maybe needed. It was a bit harsh on the team, but nothing that we didn’t solve by talking internally back when we were in the company.”

Soliani says he still has a good relationship with Ubisoft, and that he wishes the company well during its current turbulent period, where a string of flops has forced it into an existential crisis.

“I think that every time there is a challenge in every company, there is also a huge opportunity. So I believe that they will find the right recipe to come out stronger than before. Normally, games are the answer. Good games are the answer to every problem,” he said. “I still have a very good relationship with the people at Ubisoft. I spent so many years with them that, of course, it was like a family. And it still is. But part of that family is now working with us on Day 4 Night.”

According to the Mario + Rabbids director, Ubisoft bosses had, unsurprisingly, attempted to convince him to stay at the company, without success. However, I wondered, as the creator of a 10 million+ selling new franchise, why Nintendo hadn’t swooped in for Soliani instead.

“You should ask Nintendo that question!” he laughed. “Of course, I was an Ubisoft employee, but what I can say is that in 26 years of game development, the 11 years that I spent with Nintendo were the most important for me. The most important emotionally, but also in terms of learning experience and collaborating experience. It was absolutely fantastic.

“My new company is an indie studio, so if one day Nintendo wants to knock on our door, I think that me and Christian are going to answer.”