How about just the completely entitled attitude of the execs that think they can tell us how to enjoy something. Only to then whine that nobody wants to buy their 70 euro no better than mid game
They do damn near 10/10 work when they give a fuck, Thats probably the worst part.
Siege was damn near perfect as a tactical competitive shooter for the first few years. The Division was great, Just Cause was enormous fun and so on.
The problem is they hit a winner, and then milk it and milk it and milk it until we hate it or them.
I'm old enough to remember when Siege was a Rainbow Six game.
My god Siege was good for the first few years. Intoxicatingly good multiplayer. Too bad they fucked it up trying to make it more CoD like. For example, I used to play with a completely hidden hud because it was so immersive and fun. Now it's like rainbow six and Roblox had a baby and the weird game popped out. I can't even hide my hud or crosshair any longer
Ah yes the "sears" method of going out of business.
Clearly what they need is more management layers and SCRUM masters to streamline the game creation process.
and a dozen more external contractors will def make their games better
And of course, the preferred way is to do it at the office, 5 days a week.
How else do we foster a sense of team if all the devs are not in the office 5 days a week?
Also to promote a sense of community and close cooperation we’re moving to an open office plan. (I.e. packed in like sardines to glorified picnic tables with hot seating and noise everywhere.)
Don't forget AGILE. That should solve all of their problems, right?
They're going lean so they're firing half their workforce so the rest can produce more work. Don't worry though middle management is safe
Finally, let me address some of the polarized comments around Ubisoft lately. I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”
Creating games for the broadest possible audience is what has made Ubisoft games so lackluster in recent years, and I think players are tired of games not targeting a specific niche. It feels these games are full time jobs in themselves with how much needs to be done to complete/100% it, and I think that formula is now stale.
I'll be interested to see what results of this investigation. Hopefully better art, but I am cynical
. . . our goal is not to push any specific agenda
This is the part they're actually getting at. Not that the fundamental game design is for everyone (which, yes, is what they try and fail at), but rather they're responding to people who think they're failing because they put a woman as the protagonist in some game or another.
I can’t name you a single Ubisoft game that i’ve had any interest in buying, in the last decade
I missed when they' weren't so focused on development and more publishing focused. They published some bangers in the late 90s/early 2000s. Grandia comes to mind and a ton of Dreamcast games.
All of the big publishers from 20 years ago doubled down on a couple of key franchises that make the most money and appeal to the widest demographic, rather than the old strategy of having a diverse portfolio across most genres.
The last Ubisoft game I bought was Far Cry 3 in 2012. None of their games since then have even remotely interested me.
Also unpopular opinion incoming; Far Cry 1 was the best Far Cry game in the series and it was made by Crytek, the makers of Crysis.
Prince of Persia came out this year and I would say that it’s one of the best metroidvania games ever made
Here's one. Your main series assassin's Creed still has the same glitches and bugs it did 15 years ago. The last one was so much more of the same that it's the first Ac game I put down and gave up on after an hour cause it felt like I had played it already. How bout building a new game from scratch instead of repeatedly dipping into the same garbage pile and charging premium for it, while your other titles are overflowing with micro transactions and bullshit
Prince of Persia 😴
That new one is a solid metroidvania. It would have been better if they shrunk the map a bit or introduced meaningful upgrades more frequently, but it was still very good.
I bet they will find embezzlement, possibly funnelled through consultancies.
I bet at first it seems like multiple consultancies, but the more they investigate, the more they realize it's just minor variations on one consultancy copy-pasted around the map, and at a certain point, investigating each one just feels same-y and boring.
"Ubisoft investigates Ubisoft and found that Ubisoft did nothing wrong at Ubisoft"-situations, isn't it?
"The consumers are wrong, it's those damn Millenials again"
Followed by continuing to change nothing and fading into obscurity like Atari or Commodore. (hopefully)
It needs to happen to all the big developers.
What it really comes down to is that this type of “safe” game design where you rehash the same game over and over again for 20 years thing used to make a shitload of money, that’s why they all do it, and now it doesn’t. Or at least, they’re discovering that there’s a mathematical maximum amount of times you can rehash something without innovating. And not doing that is too huge a pivot for a huge lumbering company like Ubsioft to make on a reasonable timescale.
This is what’s supposed to happen though. When not enough people buy games to make them profitable, the games have to change, or Ubisoft goes under. Either is fine.
And I feel like half of that 20 years was based on FOMO. "I better get the next Assassin's Creed or I'll miss out", and then it's all the same crap but they still sold a million of them. People do eventually wise up to FOMO.
Miss out on what? Unity was a buggy mess on launch, skip, the British one was a snorefest. By the time of the reboots, Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring and BotW already came out
"The Board has investigated itself and found no evidence of incompetence."
Nah in this case this is real. The board is investigating the executive leadership, two separate entities. It's like corporate investigating stores management, in a way. This could mean executives getting fired
Good fuck em
They'll get payouts which is more money than you and I will ever make combined. I'm hungry. When do we eat?
Management has decided that the real issue is the lack of employee involvement. Mandatory beatings will commence.
Nah, this is about money. They'll definitely find a group of underpaid employees to fire.
They'll fire the developers that implemented the unpopular features (that they didn't want to build in the first place but were forced upon them from executives, who, by the way, are due for their end of year bonuses!!)
This is going to be one of those "Ubisoft investigates Ubisoft and found that Ubisoft did nothing wrong at Ubisoft"-situations, isn't it?
No, this is going to be one of those "our stocks are tanking and investors want someone's head on a pike" sort of meeting.
after careful consideration of the management decisions that brought us here, we concluded that 1600 layoffs of low level employees is the solution. those who stay will crunch harder for the same pay to make up for any lost labor so we can keep churning out slop that definitely has nothing to do with our crisis.
I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda.
Press X to doubt
Always suprised when I remember that WatchDogs 2 is from Ubisoft. Such a well made game, i played the crap out of it twice
Edit: awe man Steep was super fun too
Did we play the same game?
it’s always really annoying when there’s the assumption that the existing team is not aware of and trying to fix problems. I hate when I have a problem and I’m taking steps to fix it and then somebody else steps in to say “let’s figure out how to fix your problem”.
Maybe they should try not making crap games. All that money and they can't get decent voice actors or writers.
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