Ubisoft Refuses to Publish No More Heroes Remake

Written by Philip Friday, 20 November 2009 19:30

ubisoft_thumb You may have heard that the highly-acclaimed No More Heroes will be ported to the Xbox 360 and PS3 as an HD re-release entitled No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise; unfortunately, western gamers will have a long wait ahead of them. It was confirmed today that Ubisoft will not be publishing the ported version. This doesn't necessarily mean that North American gamers will never get their hands on the ported version, but why would Ubisoft turn down the remake? While Ubisoft has yet to make any further comment regarding their decision, TeamXbox's Arthur Gies contacted Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter for his thoughts on the situation. Pachter said the following:

"They won’t publish games on consoles if they don’t think that they can earn a return on their investment. It’s pretty clear that NMH performed poorly on the Wii last go around, notwithstanding a pretty good review. I think that the company probably assessed the potential for the game on PS3 and 360, and concluded that it would not sell enough units to justify the production cost and marketing budget (likely 500,000 units on each console to get close to break even)."

TeamXbox also got to talk with EEDAR analyst Jesse Divinich. Jesse agreed with Pachter's statement and also mentioned another interesting factor as to why Ubisoft turned down publishing rights for the remake:

"What made No More Heroes entertaining was its ability to introduce mature rated content in a core genre on the Nintendo Wii, while at the same time taking advantage of the Wii’s unique motion controls. Half of the fun of No More Heroes can only be experienced on the Wii... I don’t see how an Xbox 360 or PS3 version could be more entertaining."

Both statements make a lot of sense from a financial standpoint. Ubisoft clearly doesn't want to take a risk with the remake to a game that didn't sell well to begin with, and I can't really see why any other major publisher would take that risk either. So to anyone hoping for a North American port: don't hold your breath.

Philip: Although, the remake might actually sell well if marketed properly. Honestly, the Wii isn't the best system for a developer to market mature-rated content, but a game like No More Heroes fits right in with the Xbox 360 and PS3 crowd. Hopefully, a publisher will pick this up, but as I said before, don't hold your breath.

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