Decline meh Ubisoft (Ubi fuckery general thread)

[Inec0rn]

Even if they weren't' woke they are all tired dead franchises I couldn't give a fuck about, you would have to pay me a significant amount of money to play through any of those games.

 

[ferratilis]

This probably means that there's no chance of another Rayman platformer, which was the only good game they had. There goes any interest I had in Ubisoft titles.

https://insider-gaming.com/prince-of-persia-the-lost-crown-team-disbanded-at-ubisoft-its-claimed/

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Team Disbanded At Ubisoft, It’s Claimed​

There won’t be a sequel to The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and the team that built the game no longer exists at Ubisoft. According to a new rumor from French journalist Gautoz, Ubisoft has disbanded the team behind the game after it failed to reach internal expectations.
A sequel for the game was also pitched, but the company rejected it.

RELATED: Ubisoft Acknowledges Recent Buyout Reports​

The news was first revealed during Gautoz’s show on the Origami YouTube channel. The show is in French, but a user from Reset Era summarized the report.
The report claims that a decision about the future of the game was decided “a few weeks after the release”. It was made clear by Ubisoft that after releasing DLC and cosmetics for the game, support would be done. It was also said that members of the core dev team fought for the aforementioned sequel and even more expansions.
Lastly, it’s said that Ubisoft didn’t want another game because those higher up in the company because it could “cannibalize” the potential long term sales of the first title.
Insider Gaming has reached out to multiple sources on the legitimacy of the rumor. Should any new information come in, this article will be updated accordingly. Until then, please take this information with a grain of salt.
What do you think of Ubisoft disbanding the team behind The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown? Let us know down below or in the official Insider Gaming Forums.

 

[ghardy]

Ubisoft responds to report Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown development team disbanded

[Emphasis added]

"We know players have a love for this brand."

Ubisoft has responded to a report published yesterday that claimed Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown's team had been disbanded.

In a statement to Eurogamer, the Assassin's Creed publisher largely confirmed what had been reported - though made clear that the game's team were still present and busy at development studio Ubisoft Montpellier, albeit now on "other projects that will benefit from their expertise".

Yesterday's report by Origami was not fully clear on the status of the team behind The Lost Crown - which received a positive critical response upon its launch this year, though failed to set tills ringing.

The report also suggested The Lost Crown would not receieve a sequel as a result of its commercial performance - something Ubisoft does not contradict today - with ideas for a follow-up reportedly merged into plans for the game's DLC.

"I'm extremely proud of our team's work and passion at Ubisoft Montpellier to create a game that resonated with players and critics alike, and I am confident in its long-term success," Abdelhak Elguess, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown senior producer said in a statement to Eurogamer.

"Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is now at the end of its Post-Launch roadmap with three free content updates and one DLC that released in September. We are now focusing on making the game available to more players: it was recently launched on Steam, and will be available on Mac by this winter.

"Most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have shifted to other projects that will benefit from their expertise.

"We know players have a love for this brand and Ubisoft is excited to bring more Prince of Persia experiences in the future."

One of these is, of course, Ubisoft's long-awaited Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, which currently sits with a 2026 release window - some six years after it was initially revealed.

It's unclear which projects at Ubisoft Montpellier the team behind The Lost Crown have joined, though the studio is still toiling on Ubisoft's even-longer awaited Beyond Good & Evil 2.

"Ubisoft ditches its normal formula and finds the ideal way to bring gaming's original Prince back to life," Christian Donlan wrote in Eurogamer's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review.

[Just give me a remaster of Broderbund's Prince of Persia, please.]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

"Ubisoft ditches its normal formula and finds the ideal way to bring gaming's original Prince back to life," Christian Donlan wrote in Eurogamer's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review.

Somehow this won't be GOG release of original 2.

 

[911 Jumper]

Rumour: Rayman Remake in Development, Former Prince of Persia Devs Involved

 

[ghardy]

Ubisoft Apparently Doing Rayman Remake

[Emphasis added]

We’ve been talking about Ubisoft a lot recently and for very honest and true reasons. If you recall, there was a rumor/report yesterday that the publisher disbanded the team behind its best 2024 title, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, due to it “not meeting sales expectations.” That broke a lot of people’s hearts, including the dev team, who wanted to do more on it, and further highlighted the terrible state that Ubisoft is in. However, while that canceled future is bad, there may be a small sliver of light in this darkness, and it revolves around Rayman. Yes, this is real.

According to Insider Gaming, the team that was just disbanded has been put into another game called “Project Steamboat,” which is allegedly a Rayman remake being headed up by Ubisoft Milan. If you didn’t know previously, Ubisoft Milan is the team that worked on the unique crossover titles featuring Mario and the Rabbids. Those two beloved games were hits on the Nintendo Switch and even featured some DLC with the Ubisoft icon to wrap things up. That DLC left many wondering whether the floating arms mascot would return for a solo title in the future. This is potentially our answer, even if it’s not the answer that many wanted.

The reason we say that is because, not unlike many other game developers, Ubisoft is working off the feel of “nostalgia” versus making something new. It should be noted that when they made a new game featuring Rayman over a decade ago, it was a huge hit and was stated to be one of the best platformers of the generation. In fact, it won awards and sold almost 4.5 million units as of 2019. Yet, Ubisoft never capitalized on it, which has been a recurring theme with them in recent years.

It also needs to be noted that Michel Ancel is apparently a part of the project, which is a problem because he has been known to be incredibly toxic in the workplace. While he is the character’s creator, that doesn’t give him a “pass” to come consult on this remake.

That brings us to another issue here, even if the remake does get finished, which is not a guarantee with Ubisoft involved, it might have unreasonable expectations put on it by the company. That is why, for all intents and purposes, the Mario/Rabbids crossover isn’t likely to get a third entry, even though the first one sold many millions, and the sequel sold over 3 million as 2024 started.

 

[ghardy]

Just how rotten is the management regime at Ubisoft? They're like headless chickens over there. The CCP takeover can't come soon enough, Christ.

16 Years Later, Ubisoft Says It’s Still Making ‘Beyond Good And Evil 2’

Ubisoft is under siege on all sides right now, where in the last couple months alone it has released a somewhat underperforming Star Wars game in Outlaws, has seen XDefiant’s playercount drop, has delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows and disbanded its Prince of Persia team. All of this has led to share price declines and talk of taking the company fully private.

So, you will pardon some skepticism about this report that yes, despite being announced in 2008, and re-revealed in 2017, Ubisoft claims that progress is still being made on Beyond Good and Evil 2.

The report is from Kotaku who had Ubisoft confirm that the game has a new creative director Fawzi Mesmar, who replaces Emile Morel, who tragically passed away in 2023. The original two heads of the project, creator Michel Ancel and producer Guillaum Brunier are no longer on the project. Ancel left Ubisoft in 2020 an Brunier was replaced by Francis Coldeboeuf, as reported by Kotaku in July.

It is genuinely hard to believe that this game still exists in the deepest bowels of development hell. Here’s the original trailer from 2008 if you forgot when this was in fact originally announced:



And then the new, attention-grabbing cinematic trailer that premiered seven years ago in 2017 at E3, back when E3 still existed.



It remains stunning that Ubisoft, a company that is down to just a $1.5 billion market cap, is juggling so many projects and franchises at any given time. Bungie, a single-game studio, was bought by Sony for $3.5 billion. Ubisoft has Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Avatar, Star Wars, The Crew, Prince of Persia and any number of Tom Clancy-branded games in production at any given time. Now a return to Rayman as well, it seems. Plus, what should be a huge AAA project, Beyond Good and Evil 2, lurking in the background for a decade and a half? Suffice to say the idea that Ubisoft is spread too thin makes sense. Granted they have a lot of employees, 19,000 by last count, but its worth has shrunk to a tiny fraction of other, much smaller studios over the years. Activision Blizzard has 13,000 employees and was bought by Microsoft for $69 billion.

I have trouble believing that Beyond Good and Evil 2 will ever actually come out, no matter what they’re saying here. Ubisoft has enough issues where this does not seem like something they will be able to wrestle control of, but I guess we’ll wait and see.

[What a clownshow. In Beijing we trust.]

 

[mediocrepoet]

They claim to still be making that Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake as well, that they announced over a decade ago. There may have once been "Bioware Magic" or "Blizzard Magic" but there's certainly "Ubisoft Dev Hell". It's like their modus operandi is "Money go down da hooooole!"

 

[Inec0rn]

Stevy Chassard, has taken to LinkedIn to voice his opinion on the public's reaction to Ubisoft and its recent decisions.

"The gaming industry is rough at the moment, we all know it. But seeing how "gamers" react on social medias, wishing ill-fate to companies and people alike is sad. (And not only towards Ubisoft. Even though it is always the vocal minority that express themselves on social media, I was hurt, hurt and ashamed to be part of this community."
"What is even more revolting, is coming on LinkedIn and seeing the same comments from people within the industry. On top of exposing yourself as a clearly non-decent human being, you are affecting thousands of employees that are already impacted by all the hate despite doing their best to deliver incredible experiences."
"How can you wish a company to fail simply because they do not cater to you or that the produce does not please you is beyond me."
"We are all on the same boat, please please please, stop spreading hate, we should all uplift each other instead of bringing each other down," said Chassard

Why no just make a product people like or want instead of whining on social media? also indicative of toxic positivity (i'd be sacking this guy from that post). All they have to do is make a game people like and want to play. This guys role is "Game Economy Designer, his purpose at Ubisoft is implementing modern gambling and addiction psychology mechanics to games to extract as much gamer money as possible.

fuck this guy and this company

 

[ghardy]

Put crudely, his task is to make addicting mechanics in video games. Then, why isn't he succeeding in his stated role?

 

[JC'sBarber]

What company would even want to inherit this mess and go through the trouble of cleaning house?. Better to let Ubisoft die and snatch the best IPs at half-rate. A Rayman game developed under THQ Nordic would be pretty nice, or a new Rainbow Six under Hooded Horse?.

 

[NecroLord]

This guys role is "Game Economy Designer, his purpose at Ubisoft is implementing modern gambling and addiction psychology mechanics to games to extract as much gamer money as possible.

This.
Also microtransactions and ingame purchases.

 

[Fedora Master]

And then the new, attention-grabbing cinematic trailer that premiered seven years ago in 2017 at E3, back when E3 still existed.

That was incredibly annoyingly, cringe-inducingly French.

 

[jaekl]

They claim to still be making that Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake as well, that they announced over a decade ago. There may have once been "Bioware Magic" or "Blizzard Magic" but there's certainly "Ubisoft Dev Hell". It's like their modus operandi is "Money go down da hooooole!"

Nuh uh, they're operating highly efficiently, like a well-oiled machine with everyone working remotely. That's why they can't go to the office 3x a week, it would mess up their efficiency.

 

[ghardy]

Insider Claims That Ubisoft Will Push Out A New Assassin’s Creed Game Every Six Months

Of all the various video game developers and publishers suffering or dealing with serious blowback from their choices, you could easily argue that Ubisoft is one of the worst off. The publisher has made one bad decision after another, and it’s led to some key shifts within the company, including delaying a key title that was supposed to drop next month into 2025. Ubisoft also shut down one of its own teams and denied any chance of a sequel to an actual good game they made in 2024. That brings us back to Assassin’s Creed, which is apparently about to receive a blitz of content.

This comes from the Xbox Two podcast, where Tom Henderson, who is known to be a reliable insider with his intel, states that Ubisoft has “big plans” for the assassin franchise, in the fact that they’re about to release a new entry in the game every six months:

“They plan to do a new Assassin’s Creed every six months or so for the next ten years, I believe.”

At first, that might seem a “bit unlikely,” however, he listed off some of the titles within the franchise that Ubisoft has “on deck,” including big entries and remakes, which means that, at least at first, they could attempt to pull this off.

However, whether they should actually do this is another story. Let’s not forget that the reason they delayed the upcoming Shadows game despite all the big publicity they’ve already done for it, was because it wasn’t ready and had several historical inaccuracies about it. There were even reports that the dev team itself begged Ubisoft to delay the title months before they actually did it, which says a lot about the company’s goals.

The other issue here is that when you try to release too many games within a series within a short period of time, gamers get bored of it, and that gets magnified when you consider the fact that the games have to be made in a certain way to be quality, and Ubisoft hasn’t been the “shining beacon” of quality in recent times.

Not to mention, we’ve seen this kind of “oversaturation” happen within the assassin franchise before! That’s why they had to go and do a reboot to get fans interested in it again. If they do this again and do the lack of meaningful quality that they’ve done recently, the franchise could truly end up dead.

 

[Inec0rn]

I got maybe 2 hours into the very first Ass Creed game, thought it was shit, uninstalled it and have never looked at the franchise again. Who plays this stuff?

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Pretty sure they already tried that before.

 

[NecroLord]

I got maybe 2 hours into the very first Ass Creed game, thought it was shit, uninstalled it and have never looked at the franchise again. Who plays this stuff?

It's some really boring shit alright.
As for who plays it, you already know the answer:
Console peasants.

 

[deuxhero]

I got maybe 2 hours into the very first Ass Creed game, thought it was shit, uninstalled it and have never looked at the franchise again. Who plays this stuff?

Same reason people thought Oblivion was good: AC1 released Nov 2007, when the "next gen" 360 and PS3 had no games. Check out Wikipedia's list of 360 games and sort by release date so you can see just how fucking barren that era was when you ignore the digital re-releases of older games and crossgen titles you could play on original Xbox/PS2, let alone obviously inferior sequels to classics of the previous gen that were known to be a downgrade even at the time. For what it's worth, I've heard the second was a big improvement over the first (still not good).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_360_games_(M–Z)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_360_games_(A–L)

I think Ubisoft also aggressively pushed it by the later stages of that gen. By 2012 there was a physical re-release of three games for 20 bucks, which was super absurd

 

[mediocrepoet]

Insider Claims That Ubisoft Will Push Out A New Assassin’s Creed Game Every Six Months

On the one hand, that's retarded. On the other, pretty much everything this company does is retarded.

 

[ghardy]

Polarized Feedback: Ubisoft Commits to Player-Centric Strategy Amid Community Backlash

[Emphasis added]

Ubisoft intends to alter its release strategies, like managing season passes, offering early access to preorders, and launching PC games on its platform compared to competitors, like Steam, as per Digital Trends.

In response to the news, the company has already begun moving forward with Assassin's Creed Mirage and Star Wars Outlaws now available on Steam. It has postponed the launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows from November to February so that it can meet its high-quality standards.

Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot noted that in the "polarized comments" around the game, he wants to mention that the reputation of Ubisoft is to be protected by maximizing sales on its titles.

This is coming against the backdrop of attacks on Assassin's Creed Shadows, especially with regard to the inclusion of historical personality Yasuke as one of its characters.

Online criticism by fans to Ubisoft developers calls for a serious concern; whether the developers pay a deaf ear to such critical remarks.

Guillemot was interviewed on Ubisoft's official website and condemned the "malicious and personal online attacks" directed at Ubisoft employees and partners, asking the industry and gaming community to reject such behavior. He reiterates that the company will do everything in its power to ensure a respectful environment for its developers.

Nevertheless, the company Ubisoft claims that the game Star Wars Outlaws has not succeeded in living up to their expectation. As a way to try to recover the game situation, the company always makes its effort to patch up the game to fix mistakes in areas like stealth as seen by the gamers since that was the worst one to play.

The most successful titles are still doing really well: Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six Siege. The latter, for example, already reached more than €3.5 billion so far, which puts it as the second-best performer for the company, right after the Assassin's Creed series. Live-service games are also okay. The Crew has about 8 million active users within the last three months.

Interestingly, however, Ubisoft hasn't said much about Skull and Bones, its open-world pirate RPG that shipped earlier this year.

We hear the game will be getting a fourth season by the end of 2024. And elsewhere, Ubisoft's experiment with NFT is Champion Tactics, a new release that came out to next to no fanfare at all this week.

Although it attempted to introduce blockchain technology and NFTs through its Quartz platform, these are nowhere to be found in its latest financial report.

In other news, Nintendo surprises Switch Online subscribers with its new music streaming app. Some people already called it Nintendo Spotify although its real identity is Nintendo Music. This is not new anymore since the release of Nintendo Alarm Clock. That's the time when fans expected more details about the Switch 2.

 

[Prince Ketchup]

I got maybe 2 hours into the very first Ass Creed game, thought it was shit, uninstalled it and have never looked at the franchise again. Who plays this stuff?

How such a boring franchise saved Ubisoft from bankruptcy back then will always blow my mind. I tried Assassin's Creed 1 and 2. I didn't like them. I tried Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag, and it was okay. Honestly, that series is very repetitive.

 

[Iucounu]

https://pk.ign.com/champions-tactic...t-just-quietly-launched-a-full-blown-nft-game

Ubisoft Just Quietly Launched a Full-Blown NFT Game​

When you first start the game, you're given some temporary figurines to play with, but you'll eventually need to either purchase actual figurines, aka NFTs, from other players using either in-game gold or cryptocurrency, or craft your own using the "Forge" system which also requires either in-game currency or crypto. At the time of this piece, five days after launch, the in-game marketplace has figurines for sale ranging from around $7 to a whopping $63k for something called a "Swift Zealot". That said, just because a figurine is listed for that much doesn't mean people are paying that much. The next-highest listed champion currently runs around $25k, and while a handful more cost thousands the high-end stuff mostly appears to be capping around $335.​

​

Champions Tactics is free to download, though you have to have a Ubisoft account and a supported blockchain wallet to actually play it.​

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Champions Tactics is free to download, though you have to have a Ubisoft account and a supported blockchain wallet to actually play it.​

And a lobotomy.

 

[Modron]

a supported blockchain wallet to actually play it.