Ubisoft's North American President, Laurent Detoc, set the record straight.
"The margins on these games are good when you look at development, but it takes a lot of marketing dollars," he said. "It's like packaged goods. You have to think about marketing, retail space, branding."
What's that sound? Is it a large hammer, forcing a nail into the coffin of hardcore gamers' greatest fears? Well, no, but Detoc's words are still rather comforting. It's nice to hear that we're actually worth catering to, and not merely the business equivalent of the kid who everyone invited to their birthday parties only to avoid hurting his feelings.
Detoc also mentioned Nintendo's milky-white harbinger of death for hardcore gaming -- again downplaying its money-fabricating capabilities. He noted that the Wii only accounted for 10 percent of Ubisoft's sales in 2007 -- a far cry from the successes Nintendo's own games have seen.