Ubisoft is having a lot of issues as a company right now, from a mass exodus of developers to a controversial non-fungible token (NFT) push that went down poorly with the majority of the gaming community. But, something you may have forgotten happened in 2021 is that Ubisoft unveiled its plans for the future of the Tom Clancy franchise – and no one seems to be overly keen on what the French publisher has in store.
With a new focus on free-to-play, competitive multiplayer experiences, Ubisoft unveiled three new Tom Clancy-branded games this year: The Division: Heartland, XDefiant, and Frontline. Ever since their respective unveilings, these games haven’t really been seen or heard from (bar a few developer updates on XDefiant). The reception to Frontline, in particular, was so poor that its technical tests and playtests for the public were cancelled just days after the game was unveiled.
Paul Tassi: "Sony recently reiterated its commitment to live service games with one big hit last year (Helldivers 2), one big cancellation (The Last of Us Factions) and one big failure (Concord). It’s no great surprise it is continuing down this road, given the way the industry is trending and the limited shelf life of its famed single player games. But it immediately made me think of a game that Sony is allegedly releasing that I have to believe is pre-destined to fail, Fairgame$."
Fairgame$ feels like it's destined to flop out the gate- that initial trailer felt full of that same instantly-dated 'fight The Man with a ragtag team of weirdos' energy that was prevalent in Sega's Hyenas (which they wisely cancelled.) Unlike Marathon I just don't see this standing a chance.
It will definitely flop, missed the boat by a couple of years. Agreed that Marathon has a decent chance of succeeding it looks genuinely good and interesting.
It can't be sustainable having all these expensive GaaS being DOA being balanced by the odd modest success like Helldivers. The aim is to find the new Fortnite or whatever but it's highly unlikely and seems to be a massive waste of money.
With all of the upcoming XDefiant content now released, fans find the experience bittersweet and hope everyone the best.
XDefiant fans have come together to create a petition in hopes of saving the game. Created by Nytefall, the petition already has over 500 backers.
The biggest shame is that Ubisoft has so many IPs that either have been or could be killer experiences if they just stopped rehashing the same imagination.
Ubisoft could be many things but what they are is deaf and blind to fan opinion.
They’re supposed to be realistic tactical games but they insist on making hero shooters and goofy loot.
Ubisoft is the decade's biggest waste of talent and IPs. They "live-service" single player games and make them not fun to play, so people have to buy the fun from their games via MTs.
Assume nothing but towers and NFTs.