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[Thebonehead]

We all know that GAF likes a poll so ...

Considering the recent slap in the face that Ubisoft has faced with it's recent releases underperforming, do you consider they will make a hit in the short term?

The investigation launched by the board of directors indicates that the company is facing significant issues that need to be addressed. Will they be able to turn around in the short-term though? I don't think so given development time frames.

My personal opinion is that I used to feel it was a brand that I could trust they'd push out a game and I'd enjoy it. Now they just seem tone deaf to what I used to like, and my view is that is the agenda driven ideology is putting me and others off.

On the flip-side hey have a talented pool of developers. If they can effectively address the underlying problems and focus on creating high-quality experiences that resonate with players, there is a possibility that they could bounce back and produce a hit game.

What say you Gaf?

 

[Skyfox]

Game over

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Nah... you'll get the 'lessons have been learned' shite from them in the next couple of months and they'll pay off some top influencers to wax lyrical about how good the now-delayed Ass Creed is and all will be well in the Ubiverse.

 

[Bernardougf]

If their last shareholders email is anything to go by they apparently know that something is fucked up and are moving towards a more "product centric first" approach instead of DEI pandering and ideology... if thats real or just pr bullshit who knows ... if they clean house and start to do more focused experiences I can see they turning things around... it will take time though

 

[Digital-Aftertaste]

If they cannot steer the ship after the latest batch of rotten games, they will most likely go under. We’ll have to see what comes out after ascreed shadows

 

[Bonfires Down]

No, they just need to cut their super bloated staff in half.

It’s actually surprising how many flops they’ve recently considering how successful Valhalla was. Valhalla is like the epitome of generic bloated Ubislop so why did those other games fail? Seems like Mirage was successful too so maybe they just need to focus everything on AC.

 

[panda-zebra]

They're the failing high street retailer of the games industry. Continually cutting corners on quality, reactive not proactive and taking wrong kinds of risks; a trend chasing shadow of former self tethered to a huge staff payroll ball and chain that inspires no loyalty to stay put when they pay worse than comparable outfits. Sports Direct going to be eyeing them up, sledge hammers and wrecking balls at the ready.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

They’re a once great brand that is largely associated with mediocrity now (similar to Microsoft, EA, Activision and Bethesda).

They rode off the good will of people nostalgic for the Ubisoft of the 00s, but even that’s run out now.

 

[Robb]

Define hit. I realize there’s been a lot of bad press for the next AC (although mainly in Japan I guess), but I have a very hard time believing that game won’t do big numbers regardless, just based on the brand alone.

 

[BlackTron]

It's obvious they learned a lesson but it remains to be seen whether they still have the ability to act on it. Most of the old guard are gone I think.

 

[Strider7]

I think they are borderline fucked. But I’m also heavily biased against them. I’m Splinter Cell deprived.

 

[HL3.exe]

Kinda hope so. Doesn't feel good shitting on them constantly. They're one of the few that at least still try to do ps360-like systemic big budget games, while the rest release these Souls-like clones or high fantasy/anime style trope-y stuff I personally don't care for.

It's a loss for the industry as a whole if their gone. Even if I personally don't care much for their output the last 8 years. More 'trend chasing' instead of 'trend setting', like they used to do in the 00's.

 

[itshutton]

They need a restructure, build fewer, bigger teams, reduce their workforce by half, improve their engine and change fire a lot of their creative management. Set some clear guidelines for how they recover their reputation around some messaging, improve the jank.

But they won’t. They will reduce spend on their studios by making more sub par games and repeat the same formulaic games as they have been for decades now.

 

[bighugeguns]

Whatever they're working on right now will dwarf anything out right now in wokeness, it's not about the money, not anymore. They'll use the company's capitalist investors last dime to shit things up and that's a good thing.

Can't help but feel bad for investors who lost pretty much everything by now thinking their trust was put into a company operating on good faith, tragic mistake.

 

[Begleiter]

They're doomed because even a massive course correction made now will take too long to show any effect. If Ubisoft survives the next few years it'll be in a very different form to how it is now.

 

[Hookshot]

Even if they did instantly change right this second into making good exciting games it’ll take years for them to be ready. And they can’t instantly change, they can’t sack half their wokeforce, and if they try there will always be holdouts trying to uglify the women and lameify the men.

I highly doubt they have the cash to survive 3-5 years without a big seller so I expect them to collapse and different franchises to get sold off.

 

[winjer]

Ubisoft's organization and internal culture has gone so bad, that it will take a massive shift and purge to get the company back on track.

 

[The Cockatrice]

What do you mean by hit? Quality-wise? Probably not. Money-wise? They always made a hit. Outlaws and Shadows are the first dent in their pockets since, i dunno, 2010?

 

[RaZoR No1]

Perfect candidate for Embracer or MS

 

[Sentenza]

Man, things are degrading pretty quickly at this point.
We are probably this close to start hearing the "professional gaming press" berating the player base for being so hostile to Ubisoft because of nazism or some shit.

 

[ahtlas7]

They need a strong, determined leader to take control (they’ll need to look outside France) to whip the company back into a functioning business before Embracer swoops in.

 

[Roufianos]

How do we define a hit? I think their next Ass Creed and Far Cry games will sell well on brand recognition alone but they'll need to review well to be the kind of successes to sustain a 20k employee brand.

If by hit you mean a AAA GOTY contender, absolutely no chance that comes from them anytime soon.

 

[balls of snow]

Saudis or Tencent buyout.

 

[Griffon]

If you make trash you don't deserve to stay in business.

 

[GHG]

Saudis or Tencent buyout.

They aren't even an attractive proposition from that point of view either.

Saddled with debt and they have a ton of bloat.

They would need to be sold off in pieces.

 

[Nikodemos]

They're definitely in a bad place right now. Almost every one of their releases this year bombed, most of them deservedly: Skull&Bones, XDefiant, SW: Outlaws.
The only one which didn't deserve to bomb was PoP: The Lost Crown (IIRC the other PoP game is an early access title, so it's outside the bomba/not bomba discussion).
They postponed AC just so they wouldn't have yet another bomba on their hands, which would've likely dropped share price under 1 euro, forcing a trade stop order.

 

[Lambogenie]

History repeats so I think they'll be back.

They grew too quick and probably hired the wrong people. Lot of self insert or activist and not understanding what people want, and rested on milking the same tired formula. Like many big companies currently.

Their IP is strong though. It might be cheaper for them to make more boardgames and do expansions in the same way, if they aren't already.

 

[Drake]

I mean, they seem to love to put out woke garbage that no one buys. My experience is that these type of people would rather the company crash and burn then reverse course, so I don't have much hope for them.

 

[diffusionx]

They're fucked. Outlaws totally screwed them. The only thing keeping them afloat is Siege which they continue to ruin in increasingly hilarious ways, like with the operator in a wheelchair. They're going to need Shadows to sell like 20 million plus units and, well, it's possible I guess.

It's not talked about much but company leadership, the people that turned it into a massive behemoth, was #MeToo'd a few years ago. As soon as that happened they seemingly lost the ability to make and ship a good game. The stock price is down like 90% since. Of course nobody is ever going to put the two together because that's crime think.

 

[Nikodemos]

They're fucked. Outlaws totally screwed them. The only thing keeping them afloat is Siege which they continue to ruin in increasingly hilarious ways, like with the operator in a wheelchair. They're going to need Shadows to sell like 20 million plus units and, well, it's possible I guess.

Possible, but unlikely. Not at launch price, at any rate.

It's not talked about much but company leadership, the people that turned it into a massive behemoth, was #MeToo'd a few years ago. As soon as that happened they seemingly lost the ability to make and ship a good game. The stock price is down like 90% since. Of course nobody is ever going to put the two together because that's crime think.

The individuals in question were pretty high-ups, which had been personally appointed by Yves. And, IIRC, he ran interference for several years prior to the accusations becoming public. Unfortunately, in order to squash the story, they overcorrected, and went too far down the diversity & inclusion rabbit hole. Should've just fired them and continued as usual.

 

[Fortress of Regrets]

If it dies, it dies.

Let natural selection handle these bloated western corporations who make games for people who don't buy or play games. Now most of them are pumping out sales duds for an audience that doesn't exist. Course correcting will be so, so expensive. It's quite beautiful, when viewed from a distance.

 

[diffusionx]

The individuals in question were pretty high-ups, which had been personally appointed by Yves. And, IIRC, he ran interference for several years prior to the accusations becoming public. Unfortunately, in order to squash the story, they overcorrected, and went too far down the diversity & inclusion rabbit hole. Should've just fired them and continued as usual.

I won’t speak to the “accusations” but all I will say is that you can’t fire competent people, replace them with incompetent people, and expect things will continue as usual. I think Ubisoft is as clear an example of this as anything.

And yea I doubt Shadows is going to do as well as they need it to do.

 

[supersale88]

If they start making quality games on par with Bg&e, Rayman Great Escape and Origins, Sands of Time maybe they can get themselves out of the gutter after a few bangers. Who am I kidding...

 

[CliffBronger]

A couple of youtubers where speculating the delay could be because ubi are going to delete Yasuke from AC Shadows and that game could sell gangbusters if they did.

I doubt ubi have the balls to do that but i guess we will just have to wait and see.

 

[digdug2]

I think Ubisoft could have some hits again if they would just get back to basics. If their games lost the bloat and went back to barebones, they would a) save a bunch of money and b) interest more people.

What I wouldn't give to have a tight, 15 hour Assassin's Creed or Far Cry game again. Stop with the 70 hour shit.

 

[SHAKEZ]

I guess they might be, the only thing interesting they have coming is Anno 117 for me, which at this point might even be canned if things continue as they are.

 

[Metnut]

They should repurpose assassins creed to make Kingdom Come deliverance assassin type games across different historical periods. Kill the stupid modern storyline and scale back the DEI a bit too and they can make some great games if they really got their shit together.

 

[Sybrix]

Ubisoft need to downsize by least half, It's way too big and unmanagable to put out decent games.

Assassins Creed should be shelved for at least 5 years.

They should focus on one or two games and not make them annual releases or even every 2 years.

Focus on quality and not quantitiy.

Splinter Cell (2025)
WatchDogs (2027)
Ghost Recon (2029)
Far Cry (2031)
Assassins Creed (2033)

 

[KungFucius]

Why are people so convinced DEI is the problem everywhere? Ubisoft has been selling the same open world game for over a decade. It was very successful at first then they made the games bigger and filled with more of the same. Many just got tired of the product and found something else to play.

 

[SaintALia]

If their last shareholders email is anything to go by they apparently know that something is fucked up and are moving towards a more "product centric first" approach instead of DEI pandering and ideology... if thats real or just pr bullshit who knows ... if they clean house and start to do more focused experiences I can see they turning things around... it will take time though

Is this what people seriously think?


Because from what I've seen, the shareholders want the company to make decisions based on what are guaranteed sales, and to take fewer chances. It has nothing to do with DEI. Something like Outlaws is a licensed property that's a new IP. Takes a shit ton of time to develop and they don't take all the money from it, requires licensing fees and they don't own the IP at the end of th day. 100's of millions to develop, tons of manhours that could have gone to a more profitable venture, and it seems to be flopping. It may seem like a waste to shareholders.

Better to leverage their existing IP and churn out what can be considered solid sellers, take less risks like that game.

The only people truly concerned about DEI initiatives are a small section of the gaming market and the grifters who make money off them by stoking the fires.

 

[Tams]

I want Nintendo to buy them out, and to use that as an opportunity and excuse to fire all the loonies and DEI hires.

 

[b0uncyfr0]

Are they really 'fucked' though?

There are still of plebs who'll buy their recycled games

 

[SaintALia]

Why are people so convinced DEI is the problem everywhere? Ubisoft has been selling the same open world game for over a decade. It was very successful at first then they made the games bigger and filled with more of the same. Many just got tired of the product and found something else to play.

It's what people want to believe from what I can gather. It's like the gaming boogeyman scapegoat.

I think their formula still sells though and why they always go back to the well. After Farcry 4, I just started avoiding all Farcry games and games that rely on that forumla until they made major upgrades to the formula. I'm still waiting, only real upgrades they've made seems to be with the graphics engine. But I mean, they can't doing the same thing forever though, they have to EVENTUALLY change the shit up.

 

[Bernardougf]

Is this what people seriously think?


Because from what I've seen, the shareholders want the company to make decisions based on what are guaranteed sales, and to take fewer chances. It has nothing to do with DEI. Something like Outlaws is a licensed property that's a new IP. Takes a shit ton of time to develop and they don't take all the money from it, requires licensing fees and they don't own the IP at the end of th day. 100's of millions to develop, tons of manhours that could have gone to a more profitable venture, and it seems to be flopping. It may seem like a waste to shareholders.

Better to leverage their existing IP and churn out what can be considered solid sellers, take less risks like that game.

The only people truly concerned about DEI initiatives are a small section of the gaming market and the grifters who make money off them by stoking the fires.

DEI practices are a major problem in todays indutry, in every portion of the production line culminating in the final product ... I still think they will do fcking nothing about it.. but nonetheless the "gamers first company, not ideology" was pretty clear in the shareholders public memo... and it didnt need to be there.

 

[TheDreadLord]

They’re too deep into this DEI strategy. I’m not able to see them recovering. They will probably be purchased by another company.

 

[Bernardougf]

It's what people want to believe from what I can gather. It's like the gaming boogeyman scapegoat.

This is a head in the sand, fingers in ears, ignorant statement. Completely ignoring all that is happening. But you do you mate.

 

[PeteBull]

Why are people so convinced DEI is the problem everywhere? Ubisoft has been selling the same open world game for over a decade. It was very successful at first then they made the games bigger and filled with more of the same. Many just got tired of the product and found something else to play.

Its one thing when they hire some useless ppl coz of DEI as a token, they are simply burden on company/leeching salaries while providing 0 value, but as long as they dont mess with normal/actual workers way of doing their job- its just relatively small % of loss.

Its completely different story where DEI is so deep in company it affects creative decisions of their blockbuster games(2 examples from this year is putting black dude as mc in AC:S that will literally do japanese genocide, and putting female copy of mike tyson with her crooked nose and uglyfied a lot vs sexy actress)- that isnt few % wasted profit on salaries for literal parasites in the company, instead its huge loss in revenue/profit coz game gonna sell visibly less copies.

Best example of when DEI/woke is center of a game is concord- there u didnt have insane ppl in their cage cut off from decision making process, but they were the top ppl who decided how game gonna look/play, and we all saw what results it brings, lets just say it always end in failure of epic proportions

 

[IDKFA]

No lie. I actually started a game of Rayman Legends last night. I forgot how good of a 2D platformer it is.

Not only does it look better than recent 2D Mario titles, but it plays better as well. Could be one of my favourite 2D platformers of all time.

And this has me wondering why Ubisoft never made a sequel, or went back to a 3D Rayman title? Either could be the mega hit they need at the moment.

 

[Kamina]

 

[Sybrix]

Some interesting info into how Ubisoft currently works..... explains a lot: