Davide Soliani has been with the French publisher for 25 years, so he’s definitely a loyal guy when it comes to his job.

The Italian game designer is best known for Mario + Rabbids, but there’s more to his name than that. The creative director has announced on social media that he’s embarking on a brand new adventure, but he hasn’t given any details yet: “Hello everyone. After 25 years, 11 of which have been spent working with Nintendo on Mario+Rabbids alongside our incredible community of players, I have decided to leave Ubisoft to embark on a new adventure. There’s nothing more I can say now. Thank you for everything, truly”.

Hi all folks. After 25 years, 11 of which beautifully spent working with Nintendo on Mario+Rabbids along the company of our incredible community of players, I have decided to leave Ubisoft to embark on a new adventure. I can’t say more now. Thanks a lot for everything, truly 🙏❤️ pic.twitter.com/nafgBC2bu8

— Davide Soliani (@DavideSoliani) July 24, 2024

As for the franchise, Ubisoft said that the first of the two games has already sold more than 10 million copies since its launch in 2017, and VGC sources say that the sequel, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, due out in 2022, has already sold more than 3 million copies. While Sparks of Hope received fairly good test results, it was a commercial failure during its October 2022 release period, and the French publisher was surprised by how poorly the game featuring Mario’s team and the Rabbids performed in stores in the final weeks of the year.

“The first Mario + Rabbids had more than 10 million players. Even though it’s Mario, it’s also a genre game: turn-based tactical adventure. So we cannot expect to sell a lot of copies at the beginning, because a game like this is a slow burner. Even though Sparks of Hope didn’t seem to live up to expectations in the beginning, we’re confident that it will grow over the years. Because it’s been very, very well received by both the press and the public. It’s just a matter of giving it time, with word of mouth and so on,” Mario + Rabbids producer Cristina Nava told VGC last summer.

Ubisoft Milan is currently helping Massive Entertainment develop Star Wars: Outlaws, and then (according to Nava) they’ll move on to a big, compelling game as lead developers.

Source: VGC