‘It was a bit hurtful’: Mario + Rabbids creator says Ubisoft’s sequel comments were ‘harsh on the team’
Being told Sparks of Hope had underperformed wasn’t great for morale, Davide Soliani says
The creator of Mario + Rabbids says it was a “bit hurtful” for his team’s morale when Ubisoft said the sequel had underperformed.
In a financial update back in January 2023, Ubisoft cited Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 as two games which had failed to meet expectations, saying sales had been “markedly and surprisingly slower than expected”.
“Despite excellent ratings and players’ reception as well as an ambitious marketing plan, we were surprised by Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope underperformance in the final weeks of 2022 and early January,” it said at the time.
Although Ubisoft’s comments acknowledged the sequel’s critical acclaim, co-creator Davide Soliani says the feedback still affected the morale of its development team at Ubisoft Milan.
“The message that we received about how the game was faring was a bit hurtful for the morale of the team,” Soliani told VGC in a new interview, “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.”
Despite not getting the positive messaging his team may have hoped for, however, Soliani said the team were able to get over it through their own internal discussions.
“It was a bit hurtful, but nothing crazy,” he recalled. “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.”
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Soliani also told us that developing Sparks of Hope was a tougher experience than developing the first game, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, because there were more eyes on it from higher up.
“With the first game, nobody was really trying to stop me,” he exaplained. “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.”
Last year Soliani founded a new studio called Day 4 Night, along with other former leaders of Ubisoft Milan, including Mario Rabbids producers Cristina Nava and Gian Marco Zanna.
