Ubisoft’s CEO reportedly tells staff the anus is on them to reverse the company’s fortunes

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Ubisoft’s CEO reportedly tells staff the onus is on them to reverse the company’s fortunes | VGC

“The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality”…
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Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has reportedly told staff the onus is on them to reverse the company's fortunes after it provided a dire financial update on Wednesday.

Following weaker than expected software sales over the holiday season and a new delay for Skull and Bones, the company slashed its revenue forecast for the current fiscal year.

It also cancelled three unannounced games and said it plans to make some €200 million in cost cuts over the next two years "through targeted restructuring, divesting some non-core assets and usual natural attrition".

Skull and Bones will now be released during Ubisoft's next fiscal year, which begins in April and runs until March 2024.

During this period Ubisoft said it's also planning to release Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, "and other yet-to-be-announced premium games, including a large one, as well as promising free-to-play titles for some of our biggest brands".

Like Skull and Bones, the Avatar game was planned for release in 2022 prior to a delay, and so too was Assassin's Creed Mirage, according to reports.

In an email sent to employees on Wednesday and viewed by Kotaku, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said these delays had "weighed on our costs and decreased our associated revenues".

"Today more than ever, I need your full energy and commitment to ensure we get back on the path to success," he wrote. "I am also asking that each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we're being as efficient and lean as possible."

Guillemot also urged staff to deliver on what he called "the biggest pipeline in Ubisoft history", writing: "The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving."








 
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That is almost a malapropism

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I guess this is more indication of the oroblems with modern game development. The distributed teams could work on different projects, but now they are needed to make the bloated monstrosities games are becoming. That Raymam team is needed to focus on making grass and foilage bend more realistically.
 
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In 2007 AC first came out. Since that time UBI has been going back to that same well improving and regurgitating the story. This IS their business model.

In 2013 AC Black Flag came out which was IMO the best and still the best AC game. Since that time UBI has been trying to find a way to monetize it's success over a long period of time. This IS NOT their business model.

Go back to your well or die, stop making excuses elsewhere.
 
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Not sure it's necessarily about wokeness but rather a formula that has become quite tired. Let's face it, all ubigames are basically the same game with a different skin.

Secondary to that, I think gaming in general is going to have a tough time. The economy is dead and they've all been merging and acquiring so all we have left is a few mega corporations and some tiny indies, the same problem as the film industry really. The problem is the big fish have emptied the pond, there's no talent to pick off anymore, so there is no way for them to improve.

Honestly the industry needs a crash - shake out some of the companies that just aren't fit enough to survive.
 
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  • This tbh
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HariSeldon said:
Not sure it's necessarily about wokeness but rather a formula that has become quite tired. Let's face it, all ubigames are basically the same game with a different skin.
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This isn't true. Between any two Ubi games of the same series there are more difference than between two Sony or Xbox games of the same series. Like God of War Ragnarok and Horizon 2 are exactly the same games as their predecessors, where as each Assassin's Creed has a new setting, protagonist and bunch of gameplay additions. Ubisoft doesn't have the power of fanboys behind them so they are easy target for this sort of bashing, their marketing should have done something to fight this.

Not that their current problems have anything to do with this.
 
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Skull and Bones should have been improved Blackflag as a new simple player Pirate fantasy IP leaning more towards Pirates of the Caribbean then Assassins Creed.

It would be one of the biggest jokes in gaming, except Ubisoft somehow can't even get Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake done.

Assassins Creed open world should be less bloated, akin to Origins and even that is really pushing it.
Assassins Creed Mirage looks like a step in the right direction. Wonder what the catch is.
Assassins Creed Red might be decent, but absolutely will not any anyway match Ghost of Tsushima. Ubisoft waited far too long for a Japanese Assassins Creed with samurai and ninja, and now this game will forever be in its shadow, if it even releases that is.
Making a Chinese set Assassins Creed game and of course its a fucking mobile gacha. Wo Long Fallen Dynasty might also outright steal its thunder.
Assassins Creed Hex will likely have a lack of identify. Can't match Kingdom Come Deliverance for more grounded simulation, fantasy elements can't stack up to a actual dedicated fantasy setting like God of War or Witcher.

Assassins Creed honestly needs self contained stories and way better written ones. 3 screwed the narrative and so did every decision on the story after barring parts of 4.

Far Cry and Division are ok, but fall far short of their potental.

Don't even get me started on how Tom Clancy's name and the games related have been beyond mismanaged and dragged through the mud.
 
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I think the live service thing could be true. Ubisoft made bank on selling big single player games with enormous value per dollar (despite getting shit for it) but to stay afloat they have to ramp up the schedule. So they release games more often, yearly Assassin's Creed, 3 different Far Cry games last gen, etc. The workload increases every generation and they have to hire more and more personel and start studios all over the world to make these huge games in time. Any slip ups can collapse the whole company and in general this business model is doomed. Realizing this they've been trying to start a ton of different live service games in the last decade, set their foot in micro transactions for single player games and even NFTs, but all of it failed (except RS Siege) and only took resources away from single player games. Then pandemic stopped all production and now they're fucked.

I still like their games though.
 
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I really like Ubisoft. Just release Division 3 and I'll buy all the copies. Also, their StarWars game will sell a shit ton.
 
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First Rainbow Six, first Ghost Recon, and first Splinter Cell were all amazing games. Ubisoft just makes trash anymore. It won't surprise me if they go out of business.

Next up: EA?
 
I always hated Ubisoft game design pattern the moment I identified it in Prince of Persia 2008. There is just something that really puts me off in those games, like it's designed by committee or by a bunch of producers and has no creative drive. You play just a little bit and you can already tell exactly what you'll be doing for the next however many hours it takes to finish them and they make it a point to show you in advance.
 
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I cannot even remember playing an Ubisoft game. They all seemed shite to me.

Maybe I am forgetting one, though.

add/edit: played Rayman Origins and Legends. Those were fine.
 
I loved Assassin's Creed until 3 ruined it for me, and I haven't touched it since, and I certainly wouldn't like the modern games.

It often makes sense to have familiar ideas in your games so that fans have an easier time picking them up. But Ubi turned their whole business into a template, and it got old before long. Going even bigger with each game eventually crosses a line and becomes unsustainable.

Ubi don't help themselves, either. They tried to go it alone on PC by forcing their own launcher, and how's that worked out for them? A shitty launcher that doesn't close and ruins unrelated games by popping up and stealing focus because it logged out.
 
Soodanim said:
Ubi don't help themselves, either. They tried to go it alone on PC by forcing their own launcher, and how's that worked out for them? A shitty launcher that doesn't close and ruins unrelated games by popping up and stealing focus because it logged out.
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Yeah the shitty launcher definitely doesn't help - certainly it's reduced my interest in playing ubi games.
 
QuantumZebra said:
Can y'all sell the rights to Tom Clancy IP to Respawn and then go fuck off somewhere?
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Unfortunately, Respawn's owned by EA, who aren't much better.

I don't know who'd I'd trust with the Tom Clancy brand right now, though there are a bunch of popular indie tactical shooters out there right now. They're multiplayer only, though, which I'm not as fond of. But if any of them could tackle a proper single player Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon, that'd be great.

IO Interactive may be able to do Splinter Cell properly given Hitman's the only stealth IP still around these days, though I still despise IO's always online bullshit with the World of Assassination trilogy.
 
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gameragodzilla said:
Unfortunately, Respawn's owned by EA, who aren't much better.

I don't know who'd I'd trust with the Tom Clancy brand right now, though there are a bunch of popular indie tactical shooters out there right now. They're multiplayer only, though, which I'm not as fond of. But if any of them could tackle a proper single player Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon, that'd be great.

IO Interactive may be able to do Splinter Cell properly given Hitman's the only stealth IP still around these days, though I still despise IO's always online bullshit with the World of Assassination trilogy.
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I'd trust Respawn with anything shooter-based (and the ability to weave a compelling narrative into a basic concept). Titanfall 2 is up there with Half-Life and Halo for me. Absolutely phenomenal. Jedi: Fallen Order showed they could do a 180 and make a Soulslike Star Wars... which is wild.

I honestly haven't played any of the Hitman games. May need to check them out.
 
QuantumZebra said:
I'd trust Respawn with anything shooter-based (and the ability to weave a compelling narrative into a basic concept). Titanfall 2 is up there with Half-Life and Halo for me. Absolutely phenomenal. Jedi: Fallen Order showed they could do a 180 and make a Soulslike Star Wars... which is wild.

I honestly haven't played any of the Hitman games. May need to check them out.
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Oh yeah, Respawn are great. The problem is they made those games when they were still technically independent with EA just publishing. Now they're owned outright by EA. As soon as they start getting owned by a publisher, the culture eventually shifts. id Software was my all time favorite developer, but they're going to shit under Bethesda.

I've played a bit of them and they are good (though I still think Blood Money is better). However, the fact that you can't play them properly offline is absolute bullshit.
 
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gameragodzilla said:
Unfortunately, Respawn's owned by EA, who aren't much better.

I don't know who'd I'd trust with the Tom Clancy brand right now, though there are a bunch of popular indie tactical shooters out there right now. They're multiplayer only, though, which I'm not as fond of. But if any of them could tackle a proper single player Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon, that'd be great.

IO Interactive may be able to do Splinter Cell properly given Hitman's the only stealth IP still around these days, though I still despise IO's always online bullshit with the World of Assassination trilogy.
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At some point it'll be abbreviated to TC's Rainbow Six, but not for Tom Clancy, rather the new owner of the IP, Tencent.
 
gameragodzilla said:
Or a Ghost Recon game like the original. I still enjoy playing that game, especially with the mod that lets me see the gun model (and another mod that lets me play as Rambo).
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Man I played so much of that game back in the day. I'd just get high and hang out in the woods with night vision on and kill Russians. Good times.
 
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