Ubisoft's issues are numerous but I think Far Cry and Assassin's Creed are the least of their problems, the last mainline AC was 4 years ago and the last Far Cry was 3 years ago and while quality has dipped in these IPs, they're still played and enjoyed by millions, they have the luxury as well established IPs of being able to take a couple hits, the IPs aren't going to plummet over one-two "okay" entries.
Ubisoft's issues are everything else surrounding it, toxic work culture led to a lot of people leaving, the company is directionless and chasing trends in the GaaS sector but cancelling a bunch of them before they even release, instead of focusing on improving their strengths and what they're known for. Yves needs to be booted out of the company and someone else needs to takeover.
Take Skull & Bones, everyone wanted either a pirate title but without the Assassin's Creed background or simply a sequel to Black Flag (or prequel) and either one would have sold millions and been loved as much as Black Flag. Ubisoft...Decided to make Skull and Bones instead...Nothing close to what Black Flag fans were asking for, learning all the wrong lessons from Black Flag...
Beyond Good and Evil 2...That should have simply been a 15 hour-ish experience, a modest sized title but instead Ubisoft is apparently Ubifying it and turning it into an open-world which nobody asked for but honestly I think it should have been put down long ago, there's nothing about BGE1 that justifies how long it has been in development for, BGE1 flopped and they're investing a stupid amount of time and money into BGE2.
Their good titles though are underperforming as well like Sparks of Hope and The Lost Crown so that sucks. They still have Rainbow Six Siege which is very successful and a GaaS but now the market is a lot more competitive, if they're going to try to do more GaaS then as I said for Sony, they need to focus on more unique GaaS experiences and less directly competing with the biggest games in the industry.
Ironically Ubisoft is the biggest publisher in the world at around ~20,000 employees and have probably had the least amount of layoffs but I'm always concerned that could change any-day in the current state of the industry when smaller but more profitable companies are slashing thousands. It's about the only thing I respect from Ubisoft these days, it seems they're trying to avoid layoffs.
Ubisoft Net Income 2024 | Statista
They actually profited in the fiscal year in which Avatar released, Lol. I'd say the worst cast scenario is they get gobbled up by Tencent but I'm pretty sure AC Shadows will sell well enough to offset Skull and Bones and Star Wars underperformance, partially because, Skull and Bones was largely developed in Singapore...Budget won't be high. As for them as a company, I see no reason to doom them just yet, they're not in any danger of closing.
Oh and Ubisoft has conditioned gamers into knowing that Ubisoft titles always price cut instantly so there's no reason to buy on launch, Lul.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 17 September 2024
