Close another studio? Cancel some more games? That’s the best way to make more money, right? Lay everyone off and stop making products?
There are industries where that works. In business software, that’s incredibly common, in part because people buy the same software every year, or on a subscription. So the company makes a half decent product, hires an insane amount of people to market it while firing the vast majority of the developers, sells a ton of subscriptions, then coasts for a decade or two. Any time a competitor starts forming, buy them, lay off the staff, and coast on that too.
It’s the business model of the vast majority of business to business software/service products out there.
Cool, that sounds exactly like how people want game companies to run. Just make a subscription based game, fire a bunch of people that actually made the product, and kill any innovative competition!
Doesn’t sound fucking deplorable at all.
Any time a competitor starts forming, buy them, lay off the staff, and coast on that too.
Hey! Don’t go calling Norton out like that, man
Norton may have pioneered the technique, but Intuit perfected it.
I’m glad to say I’ve never had dealings with Intuit by that measure then.
More microtransactions into the slop they are putting out soon.
Those are good ideas, but their advisors will probably have them take out a massive loan and use it to buy another game studio, then lay off the staff at that game studio, to briefly appear profitable, before crashing into bankruptcy to be bought by Microsoft.
Only MicroSlop is out of gaming and into something else these days.
Good point. But that’s no reason they can’t still waste a few million dollars on an aquisition to reduce competition in case they change their minds under their next CEO.
Sadly it usually does result in a stock price increase, because less expenses
Could try pachinko like konami
I do think they should actually downsize. Stop pushing out a new Assassins Creed every year or 2. Reduce the magnitude of the games a bit. First few Assassins Creeds were special. Far Cry games used to be great too. Now they just feel like a grindfest. As do the AC games.
But I don’t think Ubisoft leadership would be capable of doing it right. They’d probably just lay off everyone who actually does work, and expect a similar amount of games.
This is why the reform needs to start at the top. Ubisoft is doomed until the leeches are gone.
Release a new Splinter Cell game!
Ahh ubisoft. I have known you since the 90s with classics like B.A.T. 2 The Koshan Conspiracy (a game that still looks beautiful even if i still have no fucking idea what it is about!) And… well… I dont remember what else.
Anyway, you suck now and you can die peacefully.
But this isnt what enshittification is
Its why their stock was so high and at least partially why theyve been suffering as of late. They’ve completely enshittified their portfolio and cant milk any more out of fed up users. They chose not to innovate content and instead found new ways to pump up numbers for short term shareholder returns.
Im sure they haven’t learned and will only innovate more ways to enshittify themselves as that is their MO.
I loved AC Shadows, a really fun game. I was surprised though, Mirage was shit.
What about Mirage was shit? As much as I loved Shadows, the story kind of went nowhere towards the end. On the other hand, Mirage despite having a simple story, is the best AC game I have played in ages. That said, I’ve always been a fan of the original pre-RPG AC games.
You know, it’s all taste. I don’t even remember what it was about and it was really short. I remember every other game of theirs. I paid full price, so I was salty about that because it was so short.
Love that for them ❤️
I hope Ubisoft goes belly up. Fuck them greedy dickheads. And special fuck you’s to the Trump family and the Saudis.
They need some fun original IP, so much of their work is derivative and rehashes of old stuff now.
The fact that they have shareholders means that they’re likely to keep rehashing old stuff.
Shareholders love “guaranteed” money, which is why movie studios keep making the same crap over and over again. It’s more stable.
It’s more stable, right up until it isn’t.
Indeed, but whatever they’ve been doing over the past eight years doesn’t seem to be doing the stock prices any good. They need a reevaluation of their approach.
How you gonna make Rayman legends, one of the best 2d platformers ever and then just put all your focus on Assassin’s creed after that.
Rayman Legends is absolutely incredible. We just started our (I’d estimate) 13th run. That game is flawless and timeless.
Beyond that, to GET to their rehashed derivative stuff you need a separate launcher with a separate and annoying login.
O, I forgot about that. If it isn’t in Steam or Heroic, I apparently need active reminders it even exists.
They are on steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/ubisoft
I am fairly confident they are one of the companies where when you launch the game you purchased through steam it redirects you to the ubisoft launcher like how some Microsoft games in steam prompt a xbox login. Forza Horizon 5, I’m looking at you.
You are correct. It’s the reason why I never played that anno 2070 game I bought, besides constant crashes when I tried to launch.
Not only that, but true to Ubisoft form, many Uplay DRM games still require Steam if you buy them through Steam, so you actually must have both launchers running to play, not just Ubisoft’s. If you start it from Uplay (yeah, I know, it’s “Ubisoft Connect” now), it will start Steam up. Steam doesn’t require this–lots of Steam games don’t require Steam’s DRM. It’s completely Ubisoft’s choice to force Steam DRM on top of their own DRM.
People always seem to forget stream DRM is ENTIRELY optional and a developer choice.
And beyond that 90% of the games people think use steam drm don’t actually use it. The only reason steam needs to run is because of the steam overlay. Remove the dll that hooks into steam for the overlay and the vast VASTY majority of all games on steam are entirely portable and drm free.
Protip: you can ignore all ubisoft releases on this page by clicking the gear icon
I noped out of the Outlaws demo when I was forced to create a Ubisoft account to play.
Whole point of console gaming is convenience.
They obviously don’t want my $60. I wonder how much they make selling the data to brokers that someone downloaded their demo and ditched it at the login screen.
They also need to allow games to be more focused. Not every game needs to be an open world, crafter, rpg, treasure hunt.
Maybe AI will save them.
sensible chuckle
Ubisoft will own nothing, and we will be happy…
I just hope trackmania survives
I don’t get why gamers are so obsessed on hating ubisoft while at the same time praising Steam. Both are evil capitalist business, the difference being that ubi employs thousands of dev while steam as sub 300 employees (while taking 30% of every game sold lol). This goes for all the major studios, no matter how much youn like or hate their games, the executive only care about money and the devs want to work on games while being paid.
Well, Valve funds Linux development and other than GOG, they run the only passable online game store. Idk if you remember, but you used to have to find a shop that stocked the game you wanted and then buy it from there. Steam and EGS have more or less everything, but since EGS is a Chrome instance running inside Unreal Engine 4, it’s extremely slow. Yes, they managed to invent something worse than Electron.
Ubisoft, on the other hand, went from creating some of the most iconic games ever made, to pumping out repetitive garbage. Any individual newish Assassin’s Creed game isn’t bad, but once you’ve played Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla… You no longer feel like buying Mirage and Shadows.
I may be wrong, but there’s sources saying Valve pays game and steam developers roughly 1 million dollars a year, hardware developers about 400k a year. Likely much of it in the form of profit sharing. They could hire 10x as many people and still be profitable, but what’s the point of adding bloat to something that works? Over-hiring during good times tends not to end well for the people hired, nor the company’s actual productivity.
PPL just want a good guy, steam charges the same 30% everyone does and it’s why companies want their own stores/launchers, so they don’t have to gove steam a cut, not crazy on their part. Steam fr started loot crates, paid mods, skin gambling, etc.
Ubisoft is run by sexual predators for a start
Far cry 7 better be good
Far Cry 7 is rumored to add a 24-hour time limit (similar to Dead Rising’s mechanic) and lean heavily into multiplayer
It won’t be.
For the uninformed what does that mean?
Are they pulling a Nvidia - you only get 24 hours of playtime or you have to pay more - type of deal? Because fuck that…
No, it’s a game mechanic where you have to accomplish a certain objective before the time ends or you lose. Hopefully it’s just a rumor, because that sounds terrible for a Far Cry game.
Oh so like Majora’s Mask?
There best be a Song of Time equivalent
No time travel. That would make it more interesting!
The pc community would mod the game, at least use a cheat to pause the timer. Leaning into multiplayer would be awesome, coop mode is a lot of fun
Seven? Jesus. How about a fresh new IP instead?
NearLaugh
Turns out making games just to please shareholders doesn’t make sales?
The markets probably didn’t like all the cancelled games in the pipeline but a reset is probably for the best. Their main franchises have gotten steadily worst. I used to look forward to their games, now I don’t even buy them on special.
They said they want to focus on open world and live service games, so it sounds like the ones they canceled were the actual good ones.
Tbh, they cancelled the prince of Persia remake. I don’t think we know what the other games were. I know it’s a popular franchise but I hate remakes, they always end up being a cash grab. Open world is kind of their bread and butter but it’s been mostly shit, so if they focus on the quality aspect, it might turn it around.
I don’t really dig live service but r6 siege was one so maybe we can get another gem or two like it.
They certainly can be cash grabs but I wouldn’t say always. Usually it’s the low effort remasters that don’t warrant rebuying at full price as they’re mostly a technical refresh (with mixed results based on how much they tried).
Remake implies them remaking the game instead of upgrading it where you get things like the ffvii remakes or the upcoming dragon quest vii which looks pretty good. Sometimes they miss but I wouldn’t call them a cash grab as it still takes significant investment.
Meh. Their games are mediocre at best and the bullshit they attach to playing a game makes it totally not worth bothering to give Ubisoft any money.
I hate that Ubisoft have Steep and Riders Republic. Hands down my favourite snowboarding/skiing games that aren’t SSX.
I don’t suppose there are any better alternatives? I much prefer the arcade style over realism. It’s nice to be able to finish work and just freeride to unwind.
Tell me about it. The division is one of my favorite franchises, I’ve felt like they’ve kept one of my favorite games hostage for over a decade now.
Shredders is one of the best snowboard games I’ve played. I feel like it captures the feeling of snowboarding really well.
Descenders has mountainbiking and snowboarding
Thanks, been looking into this and it seems there is Descenders and Descenders Next. The former is really well received but it seems Next is still quite a work in progress. The impression I get from the store page is Descenders only has mountain biking? Still looks great though.
Yeah that’s kinda how the devs work. Descenders received a lot of love after its release, Next will get there too
