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Ubisoft says it’s changing strategy to focus on more ‘high-end free-to-play’ games

Bragr

Banned
Jesus Christ, their mission statement is making generic free-to-play games with micro-transactions?

There are already 100 free-to-play shooter/arena-sport cartoon games. This is the last we need.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Their quality has been suffering a lot the last few years, this feels like the final nail in the coffin.

I wonder what this means for their Ubisoft+ subscription (or whatever it's called). No point in paying for "all the new Ubisoft games" when they're free anyway.
 

Mod of War

Ω
Staff Member
dj khaled grammys GIF by mtv
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Also, this sheds a lot of light on their recent announcement about The Division: Heartland

Today, we’re pleased to share that Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, a free-to-play game set in The Division universe, is in development at our Red Storm studio. Having worked on Tom Clancy games since 1997, its extensive experience across numerous genres and games, most recently The Division and The Division 2, makes Red Storm a perfect fit for this project. Heartland is a standalone game that doesn’t require previous experience with the series but will provide an all new perspective on the universe in a new setting. The game will be made available in 2021-22 on PC, consoles, and cloud.
 

Yoboman

Member
These publishers have totally the wrong idea

F2P games aren’t successful because they are free or because they have a big brand attached to them.They are successful when it’s a new and innovative idea that has streamer success like Among Us, Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft etc

They should be investing in a ton of smaller and mid sized devs until a game catches on. Instead we will get Far Cry 18 free 2 play and nobody will care
 

sn0man

Member

“Additionally, we are building high-end free-to-play games…”
Well which is it?

Disappointing to say the least. Ubisoft was one of the few third party publishers releasing AAA single player games.
Look, you can’t expect a company to see what Sony and Nintendo do and then not just throw that idea in the garbage to instead chase the trends.

It’s not like creating a singular video game product and charging a fair price is some sort of repeatable known strategy. /s

Seriously, if Ubisoft doesn’t have expectations like “we should be happy if we get Apex Legends or Heroes of the Storm popular” then this is just a pre-press-release of failure.
 
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Derktron

Banned
(Quoted from the article) --- The company provided an update on its game development strategy during its full-year earnings call on Tuesday, in which it said it intends to be less reliant on AAA releases as part of its overall product mix.

“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.

“This is purely a financial communication evolution and doesn’t change the fact that we continue to expect a high cadence of content delivery including powerful premium and free-to-play new releases.”
This is what happens when they keep making up the same formula for each game they make, now they are scrambling to find a quick-fix solution to a long-term problem that they seem to have. I hope this bits them in their ass when they do this in the coming years. Not a good look for them.
 
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I enjoy multiplayer games more. The numbers show multiplayer games are more popular. It makes sense and I’m looking forward to what they got.
 

Reallink

Member
This is what happens when they keep making up the same formula for each game they make, now they are scrambling to find a quick-fix solution to a long-term problem that they seem to have. I hope this bits them in their ass when they do this in the coming years. Not a good look for them.

Every Ubisoft game should have a little card in the box that reads "Designed by Mad Libs in France"
 
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mcjmetroid

Member
I'll never understand why they be we made a second mario + Rabbids game. It's one of their best games in years.

Ubisoft is at their best when it's one team with a vision. Their issue is that most of their games cross teams and thus feel very similar to each other.
 
Splinter Cell is a license to print money, why they not exploring this is anyone’s guess.


Going by what the trends is saying of Live Service and Microtransactions and DLC not likely. The gaming industry is changing i don't like it where it going to but it is what it is these companys are in it to make the most money.
 
In a world where people pay for things like loot boxes, I'm not surprised. I don't think it'll be that bad, Ubisoft are generally pretty good publishers.

Still, I can't wait to pay for real-time weather in the next AC.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
Why the two orders, Colonel?

Didnt they just release that AC had biggest release and people playing more than ever? FFS, all these PR statements are comical.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius

Disappointing to say the least. Ubisoft was one of the few third party publishers releasing AAA single player games. I wont lie, I didnt care for any of their games in the last few years, but this just goes to show how important Sony and Nintendo are to this industry, and why the Bethesda/zenimax acquisition was so important. Third parties will always chase trends and fads.
And the march towards the Mobile like marketplace on Consoles continues with "Additionally, we are building high-end free-to-play games to be trending towards AAA ambitions over the long-term" ... sigh...
 

CitizenZ

Banned


Going by what the trends is saying of Live Service and Microtransactions and DLC not likely. The gaming industry is changing i don't like it where it going to but it is what it is these companys are in it to make the most money.


Just curious, what were their intentions prior to wanting to make money?
 
Just curious, what were their intentions prior to wanting to make money?
Before it was more traditional AAA game release but now they going more of a Free to Play Model with more Live Service and more Microtransaction and more DLC because that where they make the most money. They have the data they see where the gaming trends is going both Ubisoft and EA and Activision and Take Two knows it and soon many others will follow it is what it is.
 

Kerotan

Member
Sony celebrating right now. If they pull this off Sony will get their 30% MTX cut on the FTP games but more importantly there's less AAA single player games for them to compete with.
 

Three

Member
Lol the doom and gloom from some of you. Are we now pretending that Ubi hasn't been shitting out the same damn game for years on end now? Whether it's AC, Far Cry, Tom Clancy, etc they all adhere to the exact same formulas and get incredibly stale after the first few hours. Sure they have the occasional outlier like Mario + Rabbids or Fenyx Rising (which are both great btw) but otherwise I'm glad they'll be pumping out less boring-homogenic-cookie-cutter-by-the-numbers collectathons which are designed by committee to to the nth degree. Even if we're still getting the same crap from them I'd rather have those titles be less frequent and polished to a sheen, brimming with content to boot. If their free-to-play titles can stand up to that same quality or help them put more resources in the remaining AAA offering then by all means, go Ubi!
You say that like free to play games aren't cookie cutter and by the numbers collectathons.
 
So......basically the exact same microtransaction-infested shit they've been pumping out, except now we won't have to pay upfront to play? :messenger_grinning_smiling:
 
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clem84

Gold Member
Genshin is actually a good example of FTP done right. It's well made, fun and it's all free. I wouldn't mind more of those games.

I'm actually secretly hoping they'll release a disc version of Genshin with the entire game on it, that's not always online. Sell it for 40-50$ I wouldn't mind. They could keep the micro transactions in there.
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
They did say the same thing a few years ago when one of their big releases underperformed (cant remember which one). So yeah dont look too much into this, and like i said i would still expect the big sellers like Assassins Creed and Far Cry to stay premium.

This might help them fork more budget for those as well, and afford more time given to them. I really like most of Ubisoft games, although most of them feel undercooked but they're still try new things and always bringing new experiences to the table.
 

SSfox

Member
Ubisoft started to go slowly into a mess tbh since they decided to turn AC into yearly game and Patrick's departure.

Sony is our lord and savior from gaas and f2p trash
Sony for the most part, Capcom and others deserves credits here too.
 
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Fox Mulder

Member
charlton heston laughing GIF


Ubisoft put out the most formulaic yearly titles and grindy open world games anyways. I’m sure their take on F2P games will be revolutionary and unique.
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