Ubisoft Talks Lessons Learned From the Failure of Starlink

Starlink: Battle for Atlas came out just around this time last year to relative intrigue from most Nintendo Switch owners. A year later, the game might not have been successful as Ubisoft would have hoped, but now the company says they have learned from where Starlink fell short. Ubisoft is looking to take those lessons forward into new IPs and talked to MCV about how they're adjusting.

Gods & Monsters is the newest Ubisoft IP from the team behind Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The game is targeting a March 2020 release and the company is hoping for another franchise to add to its portfolio with Gods & Monsters. Ubisoft's EMEA executive director Alain Corre told MCV about just how straightforward they're being with their approach to new IPs.

"That's the dream of every publisher. We are going to feed this game with new things along the way. Ideally, if the fans respond positively, it can have a long life in the future," Corre elaborated.

Fans were mostly positive to Starlink as the trailer generated some buzz after rumors of the title involving Star Fox circled before the game's announcement. Gods & Monsters is trying to court the same demographic of families and younger players with the game aimed at an audience of players 12 and up. The toys-to-life aspects of Starlink made it perfect to slot into a similar role.

Unfortunately for Ubisoft, as sales sagged, they had to stop manufacturing the variety of ships and weapons that went along with the game. One wonders if the game itself was to blame for lower than expected adoption rate, or if the game's slow sales were due to an already weakened market for toys-to-life based games. Whatever the case, Ubisoft has learned for Starlink's failings and is going to try their hand at a family franchise again.

Corre began when asked about Starlink, "I think we gain a lot of experience working on this franchise, also for the family. And it helps us shape plans for family games that are coming for us. We always capitalise on everything we have done in the past. We have a lot of fans still playing Starlink and that are happy playing Starlink, and that's what's most important for us."

"We were expecting more out of Starlink but it's a step in our creation process and, again, all the experience we have garnered out of creating and marketing this game, we are very rich in this experience to market, and well placed to create better products for this type of consumer in the future," He added.

No one will ever be able to isolate exactly what was to blame for the underwhelming performance. But, understanding what went wrong and adjusting strategy is something that successful companies must do when faced with tough decisions. It sounds like Ubisoft took a moment to regroup and they are back to work with Gods & Monsters.

Here's an excerpt from our Starlink review:

"What an adventure it is. I'm glad that Starlink has shaped up to be much more than the sum of its parts, literally. It's an all-ages space adventure that packs a punch in the story department, fleshing out its characters and even providing little bits of humor as you attempt to save the galaxy from a dreaded force."