Ubisoft to Focus on "Return to Leadership" in Open World Genre, Expand Live Service Experiences

Ubisoft says they are focusing on two "core verticals," and that's to return as a leader in the open world genre, and live service games.

[-Foxtrot]

Good grief.

[enkiduxiv]

Calling Ubisoft a leader in open world gaming at any point in time would be like calling Dollar General a leader in retail.

[excaliburps]

Well, to be fair, they did pump out good open world games before. It was used as a template so much that people now know what it means when you say it's like an Ubi open world collectahon.

[shinoff2183]

What though? I can't think of one game they had where I liked anything about it. Atleast since the ps3/360 Gen

[Kornholic]

If they have never been the leader in open world gaming, then explain me this: why does almost every open world game follow the same tired old Ubisoft open world formula?

Follow the Leader.

[anast]

This is a good one.

[Aphrodia]

YO dont' talk bad about the General. There'll be problems...

[Goodguy01]

Lmao

[isarai]

You were never the leader bro 🤣

[shinoff2183]

I don't think they were ever the leader tbh. I've never really cared for any of their open world games. I do wanna try watch dogs 2 because it looks like it's set in San Fran. Looked interesting

[Kaii]

Wanting to expand on the whole subscription model and not owning games is fascinating, not.

"The point is not to force users to go down one route or another," he explains. "We offer purchase, we offer subscription, and it's the gamer's preference that is important here. We are seeing some people who buy choosing to subscribe now, but it all works."

£60 (Base Game/Pre-order Bonus) £95 (Base Game/Pre-order Bonus/Seasons Pass/3 Day Early Access)
£115 (Base Game/Pre-order Bonus/Seasons Pass/3 Day Early Access/Ultimate Pack)

But for the Impressive lowballing cost of £15 monthly you get the entire £115 package, which is pretty fascinating, not.
Every company out In the freaking cosmos want recurring revenue, I very much doubt this game will be scoring 8+ on the tally sheet.

[anast]

Spot on

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Sigh ubisoft Don't learn do they

[excaliburps]

One can argue that R6 Siege, For Honor, etc. are proof that their business model work, no?

[RiseNShine]

those games are nearly 10 year old, and its been downhill ever since.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Yes but can one can argue those at least have quality if you say oh this has quality yes and no. Single player having always online doesn't need always online to have quality. It's a single player game.

[RiseNShine]

Rockstar laughing loudly at this very moment.

[Skuletor]

It would be a cold day in hell that Ubisoft would risk launching a Watch Dogs 4 on the same day as GTA 6, or any other Rockstar game, this is all a bunch of PR speak they (probably) don't actually believe, like "AAAA".

[GhostMirror]

Yeah, but why act as if Rockstar are any better at this point? They’re not.

[GhostMirror]

Rockstar are boring as shit now too. Stop giving them a pass. I don’t know why people still wear rose-coloured glasses when talking about them. RDR2 is the only new game they’ve put out in the past decade because they live off microtransactions from GTA & Read Dead Online. They’re nowhere near as interesting or relevant as a developer and publisher as they were in the PS2 and PS360 eras as far as I’m concerned.

[Skuletor]

I'd agree, quality wise, and PS2 era was peak R* but without checking the. actual statistics, I'm comfortable believing R* are leaders in open world games in regards to sales, which is the only thing that truly matters to these companies.

[GhostMirror]

@Skuletor Yes, I’m sure GTA6 will sell better than anything Ubisoft puts out. You’ll get no argument from me on that one.

And we’re in full agreement that the PS2 era was peak Rockstar. I loved what they did with Max Payne 3 as well, but that was the end of Rockstar as we knew them up until that point. I hope Dan Houser’s new studio can recapture some of that magic. He was the head writer after all.

[Hedstrom]

Repetitive quests and bland gameplay?

[Rutaprkl]

Return as leader when you never were in the first place? How delusional are they?

[H9]

Oh god no, we kinda started seeing tiny bit less Ubisoft copy paste games recently, don't want to go back to their time, one less Ubisoft like game is a improvement

[gold_drake]

you know what not to do ?

live services experiences haha.

[lucasnooker]

They haven’t had any bangers since the ps3 generation imo. Some 8/10s maybe. Ghost recon wildlands was ok. But it was the 2010s where I thought Ubisoft was actually one of the greats. That reputation has dwindled lol

[Walalon]

"Return to Leadership" on the same idea with Live Service Games and Open World Games... Yeah sure champ, go ahead.

The first games they made where great, but now everyone have to complete a "to do list" that make them mediocre and formulaic at best. Good luck old man.

[CrimsonWing69]

They just aren’t going to stop until gamers tap out…GaaS stinks.

[Chocoburger]

Proof that Ubi-junk doesn't want to go back to their old ways. Open world games are dime a dozen and played out, whatever happened to the well crafted linear or chapter-based masterpieces like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, or Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory?

That era of Ubi-junk is long gone now, open world games are all they want to make because they can be monetized easier. Experience points, skill trees, resource hunting, treasure boxes, equipment upgrades, copy paste side quests. All these boring functions lend themselves well to open world games and micro-trash-actions, and less so for linear, or chapter-based games. This is why everything from Ubi-junk these days have to be open world. Not to make games better or more exciting, but in order to profit more off of them. They are rotten to their very core, they don't care about what gamers want, only how much money they can make off the fools that buy their trash.

[Aussiesummer]

Thing is they have some great ideas and settings but always manage to make really stupid decisions.

[Puty]

Yep, I miss the times when they were producing games like Skyrim, GTA, RDR, Witcher ... Good days.

[Petebloodyonion]

Again companies focus on the same old AAA formula of yearly releases because despite the usual complaints of not again the same trash, a boring open world made with reused assets does sell, just like Call of duty sells, EA sports games sell, etc.

If games like Mario+Rabbids or Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown were selling then we would have a different story but they failed despite great reviews.

[Demetrius]

They still make enjoyable games but that's just bout what they aim for they never really drop some shhi that'll have us in some sort of shock, great graphics, smooth animations/gameplay, quality story like when we saw Ghost Of Tsushima for the first time

[romulus23]

People will complain about the LS factor and yet people will buy it regardless, if people weren't buying those types of games than they would stop making them becasue they never sell, unfortunately the consumer trend doesn't match the vocal disdain.

[SimpleDad]

They are making live service game out of single player adventure while costing $140?
Good luck, will avoid anything you do Ubisoft.