In a recent interview with VGC, Mario + Rabbids director Davide Soliani recalled the moment when the team received word from Ubisoft regarding the sales performance of 2022’s Sparks of Hope.
In short, the game didn’t meet Ubisoft’s internal expectations, with CEO Yves Guillemot even mentioning that Ubisoft should have waited for the Switch 2. But given the passion from its development team and the positive critical reception from players, Soliani and the rest of the staff felt somewhat demoralised by the announcement.
“The message that we received about how the game was faring was a bit hurtful for the morale of the team. 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.”
It’s one of those situations where we can’t really blame Ubisoft for simply stating facts; the game underperformed, and that’s it. But then this raises a wider conversation around why this occurred and what Ubisoft’s expectations were to begin with.
Soliani also commented on the perceived pressure on Sparks of Hope following the success of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. He felt that because the first entry was such a new idea, there were no expectations around how it might be received upon launch:
“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 always will.”
Soliani now heads up a brand new indie studio called Day 4 Night with revered composer Grant Kirkhope also joining as a full-fledged employee. Naturally, the team is keen to work with Nintendo on a future project, stating that “If one day Nintendo wants to knock on our door, I think that me and Christian (Cantamessa) are going to answer”.