Ubisoft tried something a bit different with Child of Light, a side-scrolling fairy tale RPG with a little bit of platforming mixed in. The risk seems to have payed off.
According to creative lead Patrick Plourde, for whom the game was a very personal project, the game has turned a profit since its release back in April of this year.
“It’s not as profitable as Assassin’s Creed is profitable, but it’s profitable enough that we would have been able to fund a sequel,” Plourde explained at the GameON Finance conference this week. “Or if it had been my company, I would be driving a Ferrari and doing donuts.”
Getting to create Child of Light was something of a reward to Plourde, who had spent a lot of time on big-budget titles despite wanting to try something new. He was given a budget of around $2 million - which is actually quite a lot, obviously, but pocket change compared to Ubisoft’s big-hitting titles.
“I can’t explain everything, but the main reason why I got greenlit on the project was because I had carte blanche for making Far Cry 3,” said Plourde. “I didn’t want to make Far Cry 3, but they said, ‘Pat, if you do that and help build that brand, we’re going to give you a free shot at the game you want.’”
I was charmed by Child of Light despite my basic lack of a soul, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even the constant rhyming of every character didn’t get on my nerves. It’s good to hear that it did well. Ubisoft has already revealed that the team who worked on it have been made a core team at Ubisoft Montreal.
