The creator of Mario + Rabbids Davide Soliani believes that players are looking for unique independent games that are “willing to tell different stories.”
Soliani left Ubisoft last year after 25 years in Ubisoft and has now joined the writer Christian Cantamessa (Red Dead Redemption, Middle-Tteth: Shadow of War, the next Reinicio Dark Perfect) to form a new study, day 4 night.
Together with other Ubisoft Milan employees, the couple is working on a new “passion project”, although it admitted that it is a risky moment in the Games industry to found a new study.
“I think stupidity made us,” Cantamessa told VGC, discussing the risk of a new study. “This industry is really at a crossroads at this time. We have reached the point where you have massive general expenses, you need to recover those mass investments and become really difficult to maintain.”
He explained that the financing of the study, of the Krafton editor and the 1up Ventures of Ed Fries, is based exclusively on the stock, which means that the couple has a complete creative freedom.
“At one end, you have a situation in which everyone is a bit more careful to invest money,” Soliani said. “At the same time, there is a growing interest of the player towards the games that are a bit, say, outside the choir. They are a bit different. They are willing to tell different stories … That is what we are observing as developers and as players.”
Cantamessa compared the current state of the industry with the Hollywood collapse and the emergence of independent cinema. “What you see now is that the audience is being aligned with the more study rate and towards the independent rate,” he said. “So I think we are at the end of the 60s and 70s of cinema, and we are beginning to see the Bonnie and Clyde of the world of video games.”
As for the new project itself, Soliani said it is a new IP and, although the game is the first, it “merges with the narration of stories in a significant way.”
Soliani also argued to leave Ubisoft and assured that the decision was not due to the bad sales of Mario + Rabbids Kindgom’s battle, Sparks of Hope.
“The reason I left is not because I was trying to get away from Ubisoft for any specific reason, but because I was looking for something I could not find there … something we are now creating here [at Day 4 Night]”, said.
“For me, Kingdom Battle was a personal project, like the one we are doing now on day 4 at night,” he said. “It was really a love letter to Nintendo. It is not a surprise that I am a Nintendo lover. In my office, I currently have a huge Mario Plushie that my friend sent me from Tokyo.”
In addition, Kingdom Battle was a “surprise” success, but that meant that the sequel was “more difficult to develop.” “There was too much thought around me,” he said. “So for 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.”
However, Ubisoft’s comments on the reception of the game were “a bit harmful to the moral of the team,” Soliana admitted. “Because we just worked for three and a half years and we were very committed to creating a very good game. So, of course, it was not the type of message we wanted to receive in those days.
“It was a bit harmful, but nothing crazy. I think that is normal … Each development team is proud of what they are doing and always looking for encouraging words, which in that situation was perhaps necessary. It was a bit hard for the team, but nothing that we did not resolve when speaking internally when we were in the company.”
The announcement of Mario + Rabbids’s first game launched Soliani to notoriety as Ubisoft crying man.
Ubisoft itself is going through a tumultuous time at this time. While he has the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows on the horizon, he closed his study from the United Kingdom last month and fired 185 jobs throughout the business.
The company also seems to be ready to be sold or taken privately, after it was reported that the Chinese conglomerate Tencent was considering a purchase.
