| JEMC said: Ok, let's go by parts: You compared Ubisoft with GOG, not Uplay with GOG nor CD Projekt (if it doesn't have the Red moniker it's the publisher, it's that simple) to Ubisoft. Now, is UPlay good? Of course not!, but I wasn't talking about their store but what do they do as game publishers. I don't want this discussion to become another comparison between stores. And now, the different replies: I won't disagree that indie and AA developers that mostly publish their own games have proven time and time again that publishers can take more risks when it comes to videogames. Now tell me how many AAA publishers like Bethesda, Warner, EA, Microsoft, Take two, etc. take as many risks and try new IPs as Ubisoft. The rest of the publishers you don't mention, are the ones that could take a page from them. Why do those have have to be unique? Because you say so? The thing is that, unique or not, they still publish games from several genres, something that not many publishers do. Well, of course Odyssey won't drop as much nor as soon as Shadow of the Tomb Raider or Fallout 76, but that's mostly because the former has been a success and the other two have been a big failure. I could point out that AC Origins that launched a bit more than 1 year ago, has been on sale ten times on Steam since its launch despite selling very well, and the latest one was this Autumn sale with a 60% discount. Or that Far Cry 5, launched 8 months ago, has been on sale four times and up to 50% off, again despite selling very well. Still, why don't we forget about game to game comparions and move it to how other publishers work, to see if they also put their games on sale, and with big discounts, as soon as Ubisoft does with theirs? You had problems with the gamepad and AC2. I didn't and apparently Conina also didn't. And why didn't you use CD Projekt again to prove you point about long term support with what they did with The Witcher 3? Why did you go with two recently launched small games, one of which the first of the devs, who may want to give a good impression to us to gain our trust and support? But you know what? The "long term support" thing is entirely subjective, so there's no point arguing about it. I didn't said that Ubi was unique, just that more publishers could learn from them. Neither EA nor Valve sells their games through GMG, Fanatical or the Humble Store, for example. But sure, let's focus on Ubi not having their newest games on GOG, becaue the old ones sure are. By the way, one of these days you could lend me that crystal ball of yours to see the future, because while I haven't been able to find a single preview for Anno 1800, you already know that it will be dumbed down and demanding. It must be nice to see the future. |
Nearly exactly this, just as expected from the wisdom that's blessed you over the years JMEC 
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Just a few additions though ...
In comparison to the other big publishers unlike Ubisoft, we have EA with their NFL, PGA Tour, NBA Live, and not too recently long ago the Madden NFL series stuck to being console only releases and then we have Take-Two Interactive with one of their biggest franchises which is Red Dead being a console only release. I do not look forward to debugging Bethesda old trash technology that they still use either in their games and there's no reason to give a shit about mods either since the vast majority of the reviews do not judge a game for it's potential extensions so it's a massive plus on Ubisoft's part that they just get their PC ports mostly right instead of having to deal with something only a hard core fan of the games would. Don't get me started on the Japanese publishers as well which are usually the worst of the bunch when it comes to PC support since they have a huge history of console only releases with their PC ports being terrible ...
Out of all the PC publishers, Ubisoft is like one of the rays of light surrounded by cold darkness that are the other big or relatively mid sized publishers who's not so guilty for using outdated technology, release largely broken games and do several console only releases but sure I can accept that they are not perfect either going by their DRM record, however mod support or their store isn't going to change that one bit because as a publisher they've been one of the least offending so far ...
Not everyone can be like CD Projekt when it comes to PC support but Ubisoft is probably my second or third top most pick cutting through all the bias bullshit. I don't need to repeat this but Valve has been sorely disappointing since the start of this generation where they have yet to release a AAA game since Dota 2 ?
