Ubisoft's sales numbers for the Nintendo DS platform are down this year compared to 2008, as part of the global slowdown following the economic collapse.

According to the publisher's UK Games For Everyone boss, Mark Slaughter, Ubisoft's aim this year is to defend the market share established by the Imagine range of games for girls as the company builds up to another busy Christmas period.

In an interview looking at the success of the Imagine range, and the challenges of bringing it to market, Slaughter explained that the company's big marketing spend, combined with strong retailer relationships, were two factors that helped the games to cut through a crowded DS marketplace last Christmas.

"But I think we face similar challenges again this year, because of the way the DS market is declining - and things change over the period of a year," he explained to GamesIndustry.biz. "What we did last year was set out our stall quite early, we shared with retailers exactly what we were going to do and showed them our level of investment, and our plan.

"They got behind it, and the momentum then - from advertising through to retail support - really delivered strong sales in the last five or six weeks of the year. I think we sold 300,000 units in the last four weeks of 2008, and I think that was the evolution of all of the different factors - strong selling, a strong retail team, strong backing and significant marketing spends with Fearne, Holly and the X-Factor.

And when questioned further on his comments regarding the DS market's decline, Slaughter added some more details.

"I mean the DS market from last year to this year, in terms of software sales," he said. "Overall, for everybody... there is a decline in the DS market in its entirety. So instead of that being a growing market, within Ubisoft we have to find out how much of that pie we can actually defend.

"It's our objective this year to actually maintain market share," he continued, going on to explain some of the reason for the downturn. "Pricing is very important, and where people may have been buying two or three games last year, this year they may only be buying one. The average purchasing is going down.

"There is still a massive installed base, so the market is still there - but I think you've got to be clever about what part of that market you're taking. We're still forecasting big numbers this year for Imagine."

There is no way in hell. There is a new Pokeman game coming out next year. There is also a new Zelda being released in the Winter. Oh, and don't forget about Golden Sun DS. Maybe if Ubisoft made something worth buying they'd have more faith in the little handheld monster. It's pretty obvious that the DS is going to have another awesome year.

Whaaaa, Ubisoft bad? But this is the same company that's brought us such hits as Imagine Babyz, 
My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr and Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the movie DS?! Preposterous!
 
.....Yeah, I'm quite sure they think the DS market is in decline...

Come on.  Surely someone can tell me a good game that Ubisoft has made for the DS this year ............ or last year ........... whenever. 
 
They have milked the DS cow dry and the audience must be getting bored with it.  It isn't like they are incapable.  Ubisoft has some history of good games.  How about Beyond Good & Evil DS?  That could be good.

" @oldschool:  That's probably not a viable business option in their eyes. Why risk putting a quality game out on the market that doesn't sell when you can easily produce 10 shitty games, cover your eyes, and hope the shit sticks to the wall? I mean losing the confidence of the market is a smart business move, right? RIGHT? "

Well, they did release Grey's Anatomy DS in  2009.  I guess that redeems them  ^-^

I seriously doubt that the majority of DS owners have suddenly smarted up to Ubisoft's tactics.  When a platform gets lots of shovelware it lasts year after year.  Those people never get too smart for it.  We had shovelware decades ago and still do.
 
It's more likely it's decreasing sales in a certain market demographic.  Little kids whose parents are buying less games for them.  Extremely casual gamers for whom gaming isn't their main entertainment vector.  This is supported by other sales data such as sharply dropping Wii system sales.

I wouldn't call the Wii sales sharply dropping. 
 
  

26/09	163,156	161,073	234,895	402,597	99,468
19/09	193,170	140,799	255,272	388,624	109,203
12/09	181,624	146,914	306,793	375,472	108,581
05/09	182,200	162,462	551,206	368,592	123,920
29/08	194,905	139,484	128,026	379,800	136,282
22/08	201,249	108,784	74,697	408,884	115,186
15/08	238,783	115,153	77,470	435,482	131,798
08/08	254,510	103,525	79,260	426,381	130,343
01/08	337,736	105,600	86,422	421,282	135,694
25/07	231,890	105,943	89,734	420,576	127,301

" I wouldn't call the Wii sales sharply dropping. 
 
  

26/09	163,156	161,073	234,895	402,597	99,468
19/09	193,170	140,799	255,272	388,624	109,203
12/09	181,624	146,914	306,793	375,472	108,581
05/09	182,200	162,462	551,206	368,592	123,920
29/08	194,905	139,484	128,026	379,800	136,282
22/08	201,249	108,784	74,697	408,884	115,186
15/08	238,783	115,153	77,470	435,482	131,798
08/08	254,510	103,525	79,260	426,381	130,343
01/08	337,736	105,600	86,422	421,282	135,694
25/07	231,890	105,943	89,734	420,576	127,301

  With the release of the PS3 Slim and the 360 price drop, there was a shift, but there is no overall pattern emerging.  Notice that the PS3 sales are settling down to where the Wii sales were before the new PS3 release.  Not exactly sharp.  I think the global recession is a big factor in the number of games being bought, but I still think the repetitive nature of these games does mean parents are likely to question "why am I buying this again?"  They will get their Christmas surge though, I am sure. "

Maybe Ubisoft will actually spend some resources on the DS now? No? Oh well, one can dream. 

" Maybe Ubisoft will actually spend some resources on the DS now? No? Oh well, one can dream.  "

" Where'd you get that chart, because it's not at all accurate.  I'm talking US & Japanese numbers, not UK or other EU regions.  Wii is down 50% year over year.  edit : Oh VGChartz.  Dude, that site is completely fake, not one bit of actual good info there.  Look to NPD and Media Create charts for real data.  Wii is plummeting, at least before the price drop, we'll soon see how that turned out.  edit 2 : I might add, Wii is down 50% year over year for over 6 months now. "

Where'd you get that chart, because it's not at all accurate.  I'm talking US & Japanese numbers, not UK or other EU regions.  Wii is down 50% year over year.  edit : Oh VGChartz.  Dude, that site is completely fake, not one bit of actual good info there.  Look to NPD and Media Create charts for real data.  Wii is plummeting, at least before the price drop, we'll soon see how that turned out.  edit 2 : I might add, Wii is down 50% year over year for over 6 months now. "

That is worldwide.  It still an exaggeration to call it plummeting.  It still sells more than the 360 and time will tell what happens to the PS3 sales.

I really think there are just to many games out there. While I admittedly don't keep track of all the "z" games I know they just have quite a few series on the DS for that younger audience and as many people have said in tough economic times those aren't the kind of people that will keep buying games. Those games not selling doesn't surprise me in the least.

It's not that the market is in decline. It's that people are wising up and have stopped buying crap whose name begins with an organism and ends with a "z". And within a recession, people who are relatively new at playing games (especially those brought in by the Wii and DS) are going to cool it on the game buying because they don't have the interest and investment in it like the people who have been playing games.

" @oldschool said:

Where'd you get that chart, because it's not at all accurate.  I'm talking US & Japanese numbers, not UK or other EU regions.  Wii is down 50% year over year.  edit : Oh VGChartz.  Dude, that site is completely fake, not one bit of actual good info there.  Look to NPD and Media Create charts for real data.  Wii is plummeting, at least before the price drop, we'll soon see how that turned out.  edit 2 : I might add, Wii is down 50% year over year for over 6 months now. "

That is worldwide.  It still an exaggeration to call it plummeting.  It still sells more than the 360 and time will tell what happens to the PS3 sales.

Those numbers aren't worldwide or anything though.  They're VGChartz fabrications.  Maybe a 50% drop with no bounce back isn't plummeting, they plummeted and then have been pretty steady for a while now.  Still the point is it reflects a change in market demographics, probably because of the recession. "

" I really think there are just to many games out there. While I admittedly don't keep track of all the "z" games I know they just have quite a few series on the DS for that younger audience and as many people have said in tough economic times those aren't the kind of people that will keep buying games. Those games not selling doesn't surprise me in the least. "

" It's not that the market is in decline. It's that people are wising up and have stopped buying crap whose name begins with an organism and ends with a "z". And within a recession, people who are relatively new at playing games (especially those brought in by the Wii and DS) are going to cool it on the game buying because they don't have the interest and investment in it like the people who have been playing games. "

VGChartz is a complete fabrication, it was made a person who believed he could estimate how much a game sold better than official trackers. 

" VGChartz is a complete fabrication, it was made a person who believed he could estimate how much a game sold better than official trackers.  "