Rayman Legends and Splinter Cell Blacklist Sales Below Expectations

Ubisoft have announced that two of their biggest games of 2013 – Rayman Legends and Splinter Cell Blacklist – sold below expectations. In a call to investors today, they revealed that both games had had low sales, although as far as we can tell, they gave little explanation as to why that might have happened.

It’s not too difficult to theorize, although how close to the mark we are is anybody’s guess. The six month delay of Rayman Legends, for instance, caused quite a PR problem on the Wii U, and it being released alongside the likes of Grand Theft Auto V did little to help things either. Legends was set up to be a quietly successful Wii U launch window title, and Ubisoft threw it away for a chance at bigger sales. It didn’t work out.

Blacklist is, from all reports, a decent game, and far better in terms of stealth than its predecessor. Despite that, the way it was marketed and the fact that Conviction put off many of the fans of the original. Some are even saying the lack of Michael Ironside might have caused some negative attention, or at least a certain amount of people wanting to hold off until the price comes down. 

Hear that, Kojima? 

It’s too early to tell whether this will affect future entries in either franchise, but it’s always a shame when above average games end up not performing as well as they should at retail.