
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope may have been the swan song for the Ubisoft-developed Mario spinoff series, as allegedly another game was pitched by Ubisoft Milan, but was turned down.
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was the first major third-party exclusive to hit the original Nintendo Switch, and ended up with 10 million players by its fifth anniversary. Naturally this led to a sequel being developed with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, which was branded as a bit of a sales disappointment by Ubisoft (with its CEO saying it should've waited for the Switch 2).