UBIsoft in potential financial trouble

I don't think even Ubisoft has cared about that timeline stuff for a long time either.
 
Despite good reviews the new Persia of Persia has apparently flopped. Here’s a game that doesn’t suffer from the much maligned DEI and open world fatigue issues but still didn’t sell. In this case poor marketing and pricing were likely culprits.

www.engadget.com

Ubisoft has disbanded the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Ubisoft disbands the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. This means there will be no sequel or any real DLC.
www.engadget.com www.engadget.com
 
trinibwoy said:
I think you’re right. It’s been cool to hate on Ubisoft for a few years now. I think a lot of the vitriol is just people piling on.
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100% agree on this and I honestly don't get it. The AC games vary a bit in quality but they're always absolutely solid IMO. Ranging IMO from spectacular with the likes of Odyssey (a high point), to just great with Valhalla (a relative low point). I'm really enjoying Mirage at the moment as well although only recently started it.

Cappuccino said:
Nobody has ever cared about the modern day timeline in AC, they could abandon all of that and nobody would notice (in fact, I thought they did with Valhalla).
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It was still there in Valhalla but yes they definitely underplay it these days (rightly so). I haven't seen it pop up yet in Mirage but there's still time.
 
Nesh said:
The thing isnt that it casts a black guy. I am sure everybody would have been happy under the right context. The issue is that it just doesnt fit with the context.
A black samurai who acts like a hidden assasin is too obvious to not be noticed in a land where everyone is Japanese/asian. A different role would have probably been more fitting.
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I can appreciate that argument. It's completely different to the one presented so far though, that the story and writing and production will suck because of this and drive gamers away. You can still craft good story around Yasuke being so visible and prominent.

It seems the female protagonist is similar if not more nonsensical, being the fictional daughter of a real legend who only fathered a son. AC is a long running franchise. How much was historically accurate in past titles and how has that changed over time?
 
cheapchips said:
Desmond Boringman was the lead for the first six? games and he was just made up. :)

(His 2012 bits count as ancient history btw)
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He was experiencing the life a middle eastern assassin in the simulation of course located in the middle east, which is inspired by actual historical existence of the Order of Assassins in the medieval times. The name assassin actually has roots from the word "hashish" which they consumed before their operations
 
Nesh said:
He was experiencing the life a middle eastern assassin in the simulation of course located in the middle east, which is inspired by actual historical existence of the Order of Assassins in the medieval times. The name assassin actually has roots from the word "hashish" which they consumed before their operations
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I've never been convinced that they were an effective organisation in real life with that strategy. :)
 
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cheapchips said:
I've never been convinced that they were an effective origination in real life with that strategy. :)
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You mean the use of hashish? It was used as a form of manipulation as a mind altering drug used with religious propaganda if I recall by their authority. That made them blindly obedient to the extreme, ready to sacrifice their lives on command
That was partially depicted in the original game when they were asked to jump to their (fake) deaths
 
Nesh said:
You mean the use of hashish? It was used as a form of manipulation as a mind altering drug used with religious propaganda if I recall by their authority. That made them blindly obedient to the extreme, ready to sacrifice their lives on command
That was partially depicted in the original game when they were asked to jump to their (fake) deaths
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Feeling euphoric and really hungry have never struck me as key assassin attributes. :)
 
see colon said:
Ummm..... Because canonically it's impossible.
I have to keep explaining that Assassin's Creed uses Trancers rules for time travel. How that works is you travel back in time through your genetic timeline. In AC, it's a simulation based on your genetic memory. But it requires that your bloodline directly connects to the person you are traveling into. Musashi famously only had children he adopted. Therefore, for historical accuracy, Musashi cannot ever be a playable character in an Assassin's Creed game.
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Wow that's tragically kojimaesque! They should remove that useless stuff from the games.

Cappuccino said:
Nobody has ever cared about the modern day timeline in AC, they could abandon all of that and nobody would notice (in fact, I thought they did with Valhalla).
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This.
 
www.eurogamer.net

Ubisoft launches first-ever blockchain game, with NFTs costing up to £50k

Ubisoft has released its first-ever blockchain game, the tactical NFT battler Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles.
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net

Ubi have released a new NFT game. Thing is their statement doesn't advocate a good game at all. Not a single statement targeted at gamers to communicate it's worth playing.

The team inside the Ubisoft Paris studio developing Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles partnered with Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab and Oasys to ensure that our use of blockchain was done in service of delivering new and innovative gaming experiences for our players. Our shared goal is to explore new ways to play alongside bringing more value to players based on empowerment and ownership. Champions Tactics offers deep strategic gameplay featuring unique in-game assets and several exciting innovations. These include millions of procedurally generated figurines, each with distinct stats, assets shaped directly by players' choices, and an open marketplace letting players compose their teams on a peer-to-peer basis —much like a physical trading card game. For months, we have collaborated closely with our community through events and beta phases to build and refine Champions Tactics. We’re excited to keep expanding and enhancing the experience together.
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That's a sales pitch to investors; not an enticing invitation to gamers. A TCG where it's pay to win is a pretty crap offering.
 
www.eurogamer.net

Assassin's Creed Shadows delay necessary to change "narrative" of Ubisoft's "inconsistency in quality"

Assassin's Creed boss Marc-Alexis Coté has discussed the recent shock decision to delay the launch of Assassin's Creed …
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net

Ubi delaying AC:Shadows to make it better.

"Players expect more polish, more innovation and deeper engagement from the games we release, and they're not shy about letting us know when they feel we have fallen short. This environment pushes us to do better and to be better.

"Assassin's Creed Shadows represents our opportunity to change that narrative, not just for Assassin's Creed, but I think for Ubisoft as a whole."
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Some frank commentary and self-assessment there. I think it's refreshing and seems like they are taking things seriously, despite nonsense noise coming from the Ubi C-Suite.
 
Nesh said:
What do you mean there was nothing 0 real? The games had large references to actual historical facts, people who existed, real life events, actual myths/mythologies specific to the countries' culture with an added amount of AC lore, science fiction and of course some changes and spice.
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References, yes. But the people who existed are so cartoonishly reduced to the lowest common pop-history denominator stereotypes I don't know whether to cry or laugh, ever since the expansion for AC 2.
 
Yeah, I think it's easy to wander too far into the weeds on this issue (myself included) and lose sight of the fact that AC has always been pretty stupid. It's Xena Warrior Princess with 11 minutes of Wikipedia researched historical names haphazardly crammed in.

Maybe it's time to lean into that with a tonal shift towards good, daft fun?

Didn't they already dabble in magic in Origins or Odyssey? Let's scrap the sterile, focus-grouped feel of these games and get an adderall fueled schizophrenic in charge to introduce lightsabers, rollerblades, and kamehamehas.

I think Francis Ford Coppola is free now that Megalopolis has released.
 
I didn't click on the article, don't care to give them the clicks. But, unless I'm mistaken, Marc Laidlaw never wrote a video game until he wrote Half-Life. Also, Kelly Bailey never composed a video game before he composed the score (and the sound effects, and wrote the sound code) for Half-Life. I'm willing to bet a fair portion of Half-Life's development team hadn't worked on a video game before. And, we all know how it turned out.
 
Nesh said:
AC is covering actual culture,mythology and history even with science fiction. Of course people will treat it differently than CoD
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AC is a game with historical backdrop. If you set it up during Greater Poland Uprising your character will inevitably meet Frederic Chopin who hands you a portable steam-powered piano that can stun your opponents with music. It's not historical and never has been (DNA "memory" was core to its identity early on). Da Vinci's laser guns or whatever designers came up with weren't real. All of the historical characters put in AC games are doing extremely ahistorical things. Yasuke being skilled samurai is no different... except that he's Black and put in a timeline between heavily romanticized Sengoku and Edo periods. Some of the CoD games (e.g. WWII) are more historical than any and every AC title.

But back to topic. Ubisoft was facing ever-increasing costs of game development and there were internally ideas to try and build games with, say, 200 people instead of 1200. These experiments were met with a lot of institutional friction and ultimately produced very few scoped down games while hurting behemoths Ubi sort of knows how to make. They find themselves now with no clear idea of what to do next and a lot of waste on their hands. Given how capitalism works c-suite is likely going to take steps that stabilize stock prices short-term at the expense of workforce and mid- to long-term stability of the company. But I guess AC will look great in Sony's 2030 portfolio. ;)
 
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