“In line with the evolution of our high-quality line-up that is increasingly diverse, we are moving on from our prior comment regarding releasing 3-4 premium AAAs per year,” said Ubisoft’s chief financial officer Frederick Duguet.
“It is indeed no longer a proper indication of our value creation dynamics. For example, our expectation for Just Dance and Riders Republic are consistent with some of the industry’s AAA performers.
“Additionally, we are building high-end free-to-play games to be trending towards AAA ambitions over the long-term,” he added
Disappointing news, ubisoft were one of the few publishers left that produced a lot of AAA content, looks like we're going all in on the subscription/f2p future now. Activision recently repurposed the rest of their internal studios to support Warzone, I wouldn't be surprised to see battlefield 6 being F2P in some capacity.
Looks like we'll need to lean on platform holders for AAA single player stuff going forward.
Just looked through their release list. Mario Rabbids in 2017. It was a fine dumbed down Xcom. When you get Nintendos blessing to make a Mario game, you don't fuck up.
I didn't mind Steep. I never bought it though. I think I got it on PS+ maybe. Quite an enjoyable snow sports experience.
Before that, Assassins Creed Syndicate (2015 lol) was quite good. Loved the London setting.
Beyond Sony and Nintendo, gaming is pretty much dead at this point. Hence buying a Super Console X Pro.
They had AC/Watchdogs/Immortals release recently, I think watchdogs and immortals underperformed. The thing for ubisoft is they've never had a good track record with free to play games, their last attempt at battle royale(hyperscape) was a complete flop. So it's going to be interesting to see how this new strategy works out for them.
AAA games are a massive risk, not just in financing the game but all the media and advertising behind especially when it gets to the point of no return. It just seems like it's no longer viable unless the game has that fanbase (Naughty Dog, From Software, Capcom or Bungie etc).
I'd like to play the new Watchdogs since it's based in London, but I'd never buy it.
selfish wrote:Being a massive fanboy and trying to hide it is Lestat's worst bottleneck.
lestat wrote: ↑14 May 2021 07:08 am
They had AC/Watchdogs/Immortals release recently, I think watchdogs and immortals underperformed. The thing for ubisoft is they've never had a good track record with free to play games, their last attempt at battle royale(hyperscape) was a complete flop. So it's going to be interesting to see how this new strategy works out for them.
Ghost Recon too. Which bombed badly and caused a massive rethink in the design of their games and delays to Watchdogs etc.
I enjoy Ubisoft games. I get the criticism they get, but I still enjoy them. Far Cry 6 looks great.
I thought it was madness to release AC/Watchdogs/Immortals within months of each other. Not surprised at least one of them ended up tanking. Hopefully this means their big guns are spread out more reasonably. This is encouraging:
Following the publication of this article, Ubisoft reached out to offer an additional clarifying statement on yesterday's call:
“Our intention is to deliver a diverse line-up of games that players will love - across all platforms," the statement reads. "We are excited to be investing more in free-to-play experiences, however we want to clarify that this does not mean reducing our AAA offering.
"Our aim is to continue to deliver premium experiences to players such as Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Riders Republic and Skull & Bones to name a few while also expanding our free-to-play portfolio and strengthening our brands to reach even more players.”
It was a botched launch but Breakpoint turned it around. They've added tonnes of features and well received DLC. AI squad is now in the game. You can switch off/toggle the looter shooter mechanics (Immersion Mode). Ubisoft announced ongoing new content throughout 2021.
I don't mind Ubisoft games (Division and Division 2 are probably my most played games ever) but the biggest issue I've found are the buggy releases that require at least a month or so of patches to repair (Valhalla springs immediately to mind) and lack of originality in sequels. I really enjoyed AC Origins but Odyssey felt like a reskin of the same game. Same again with Farcry 3 - Farcry 4, Primal and Farcry 5 were basically the same game. Ghost Recon - massive game but always the same point to point gameplay with nothing in between - it reminded me of an all you can eat buffet. Looks good but always the same flavour. Immortals was actually a great concept. I played the first few hours before my subscription ended, will pick it up at some point. I think Ubisoft have seen the success of Siege and will just try recreate that - endless title updates and operators that cost $5 to unlock.
What's your Uplay ID, Rors? I've been playing Division 1 as a precursor to 2 and have been having a blast these past evenings. Solo only as i) I have no friends and ii) I'm loathe to group with randoms as a dad with young kids. I'm up to the last campaign mission I think and am on the verge of having fully upgraded my home base. The LMB faction I've encountered from level 25 or so on are fun to fight. Aggressive, flanking AI and they hit hard. I'm getting purple drops now so have some decent weapons to melt them. I'll roll my first Div 2 character in the next couple of days I estimate.
Hit me up then, can run you through Division 2. I've clocked 187 hours in it now - OsakaDave is my Ubisoft UserID. It's a shame, I think it's getting one more update this year and then it's end life.
Edit - Just checked, you're already in my list. I'm on most nights, just ping the Discord
Updating my Div 2 posts in the Watch Dogs thread. Further to the freezes I was getting after running my first 25 hours with the game without issue, I loaded up easyanticheat_setup.exe in the Easy Anti Cheat directory off my Div 2 directory and there's a repair button which uninstalls and reinstalls the service. Previously I had a 3.5hr freeze-free session after stopping the Easy Anti Cheat service. After the repair I left the service running and had another 3hr freeze-free session last night.
Ubisofts new game Riders Republic is phenomenal. One of their best games ever made. Addictive open world extreme sports game. The online mass races of 64 players is chaotic fun.
Also good to see more cross platform gaming is becoming the norm. So easily to play with mates with chat on different consoles. Back for blood and now this.....good stuff for us gamers