Nintendo Told Ubisoft It Should Have Released Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope on Its Next Console

wccftech.com:

Nintendo surprised everyone when it partnered with Ubisoft to make Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, an XCOM-like turn-based game that united the two mascots in an exceedingly fun game.

Kingdom Battle launched in late 2017 to positive reviews and sold well, eventually reaching 10 million unique players as of August 2022. Ubisoft prepared a sequel, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, and launched it in October 2022. The reviews were even better than the original. In Wccftech's analysis, Kai Powell rated the game 8.5 out of 10:

Whether you saved the world together in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle or this is your first test of both the crossover spinoff and a tactical RPG, Sparks of Hope is an ingenious use of both IPs to create something unlike any other RPG out there. Filled with charm, explosions, and the incessant 'Bwahh'ing of Rabbid NPCs, there's a certain charm to this unlikely fusion. The smart changes to how combat plays out and capturing our sense of nostalgia once more make Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope one Ubisoft adventure that you don't want to miss.

However, the game sold poorly on Nintendo Switch, as revealed by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in January 2023. At the time, the executive expressed the company's surprise at the underperformance.

On the other hand, in a fresh interview conducted at last week's Ubisoft Forward by GamesIndustry.biz, Guillemot offered an interesting insight: Nintendo told Ubisoft it should have released the game on its next console.

We had already released a Mario Rabbids game on Switch, so by doing another we had two similar experiences on one machine. On Nintendo, games like this never die. There are 25 Mario games on Switch. Nintendo has advised that it's better to do one iteration on