Chris Early, Ubisoft’s SVP, Strategic Partnerships & Business Development, discusses how the Microsoft deal came about, what the deal means for players, and the future of cloud streaming in the games space.
Ubisoft is currently experiencing one of the most concerning months in company history.
Am I reading this right? The Lost Crown (great game btw) took $200 million to create? How? Like seriously? No wonder the games business is in serious trouble. A side-scrolling Metroidvania game costing that much money is insane to me. Maybe I am out of touch, very possible, but of course that is not sustainable. Sad and scary times in this industry. Ubisoft is in serious trouble. Too bad because at one time I really enjoyed a lot of their games. But recently they seem so lost on how to manage their amazing catalog of IP's and are pushing their projects in a direction that gamers simply don't want. Is the only way to save them is for them to be bought up by someone (going to another huge problem with the industry in lack of competition and monopolization)? So sad.
The problem is multi-layered.
Games are taking longer to make, and you would think even something like a side-scroller should be simple for a what is generally considered a AAA studio, but 3 years in development is still a high cost. A team of say 150 devs, and the average salary is basically $100k per year, that’s $45 million right off the bat, and honestly IMO, more than what should be invested into a game such as this.
Unfortunately, a lot of these gaming companies were founded by people who loved making games, but are not pushed into business roles as they’ve grown from studio to corporations, and they simply don’t have the business sense to run them. You have two groups responsible for this, the gamer turned executive who has a passion for the hobby but finance is not their area of expertise and thus a game that should have a $20 million budget ends up with a $100 million budget. Then you have the greedy shady corporate slimeballs who only want money and will run the budget up for their own personal gain, and now you have a game that should have been $20 million now at $200 million and the developers are the ones who get screwed over.
https://www.mobygames.com/g...
200m is just mad and i think is highly inaccurate..
God of War ragnarok cost 200m to make.. we are on another level value wise.
Mismanagement is the issue, especially if they need 150 devs for a side-scroller. Hollow Knight had 3. Even if they wanted to up the production value, I don't see a reason for 150 devs.
Yes that in no way looked like a 200 mill budgeted game… I think we’re overpaying people.
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No they don't cost that much unless you include the massive CEO salaries.
Hollywood Accounting is what it is called. But recently directors are starting to tell the truth about costs in making movies.
Hopefully someone will blow the lid off of how much it actually costs to make a game.
Overhiring most likely. Ubisoft has around 19 thousands employees, now compare that to Nintendo with 7 thousands employees worldwide.
That’s right, almost 3 times the employees of Nintendo, a company with far more game libraries and a hardware division. How many of those 19 thousands are actually developers?
Right! $200m for the last PoP is insane and I can't see how that was possible. If it did indeed cost $200m then there's a major problem lol. I loved the game but no way in hell is it a $200m title.
The gaming world is burning and these CEOs are the dog saying "it's fine" while they sit atop their piles of money.
Gaming was great when it was SEGA and Nintendo, then Sony and Microsoft came along and moved it to the next level. £70+ games, £700 consoles, £70+ controllers, VR too expensive and paid DLC, it was inevitable what direction this was going in.
Don't couple Sony with MS. Gaming was still great when it was Sony and Nintendo. Then MS came in with their big heads and continue to scorch earth console gaming. At least Sony is an entertainment company. MS is just a conglomerate looking to monopolize or burn it all down if they can’t get their way.
VR too expensive? I'm pretty sure PSVR2 is the best value headset in the business.
Revisionist history...most early Nintendo and Sega games were expensive reskins of Mario, Street Fighter and random Atari games and they were well over a $100 in today's money.
They churn out some great looking games, but gameplay wise and paid DLC, it was always heading for a cliff edge, which will be the downfall of gaming. The 1983 gaming crash is looming.
Happy spooky season to those who celebrate! We have a collection of scary games for you to enjoy with Game Pass, while hiding under the blankets (or maybe that’s just how I play). And if you want to do something slightly less scary, we have a whole list of games for you to start pre-installing including more day one additions like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and more! Let’s get to the games.
• South Park: The Fractured but Whole (Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 16
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 25
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (Cloud) – October 25
Game Pass Ultimate
• Call of Duty: Warzone (Cloud) – October 25
Game Pass Ultimate
• Ashen (Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 29
• Dead Island 2 (PC) – October 31
• StarCraft: Remastered (PC) – November 5
• StarCraft II: Campaign Collection (PC) – November 5
Let the COD on GamePass experiment begin!
I would think their quarterly revenue will take a hit compared to a year ago, but will maybe make up for it throughout the year as the monthly GP subs keep coming in
Was up with call of duty man?
I downloaded cod on gamepass and for some reason I cannot access the game.
just curious what version? There are some that you can pre-load, but they wont work until their release date later this month.
I have to redownload it again for the 3rd time to check.
I ended up just deleting it to make room for other games after the second time.
It was on Xbox game pass, I didn’t know there was other versions. I just downloaded everything, but sadly I couldn’t even access the game. Maybe 3rd time the charm. I’ll download it again.
On xbox there is the last gen/current gen versions pc though you could also get a xbox version.
When that new forza first came out for one day they had the xbox version on the pc store i was like ? what it was odd.
On xbox you can easily download the one version of a game instead of the series version so you run into issues on your series console.
Because a game won’t run after I download it??
Man your kids must hate your @ss if that’s how you think.
It's going to be very interesting to follow up on how the new entry of CoD will perform at the box office, player numbers and distribution of Xbox, PC and PS versions this year.
I got excited thinking they ported StarCraft to consoles but it's just the PC version. Also, I thought Starcraft 2 was already free to play.
The Haunting returns and it’s more terrifying than ever! Introducing a horrific cast of Operators alongside the new "Drive Thru" Multiplayer map and six new map variants, the anything-goes Purgatory Limited Time mode, free Rift Runs in Zombies, plus new weapons, Aftermarket Parts, a frighteningly epic Battle Pass, and more.
Am I reading this correctly? If I have Ubisoft+ I can play Any future COD games, etc
"Which games are included in the deal? Does it include other content like DLC
CE: The deal includes all the Activision Blizzard games that are being distributed today and includes all the games that Activision Blizzard will release over the next 15 years. That includes the Call of Duty franchise and a whole lot more. Yes, it does include all the DLC, including in-game content and downloadable DLC packs, expansions, and add-ons."
Levels of gross
yeeaah, for the majority of people, streaming online games will be a big nono.
I just can't understand,
so Microsofts tag line "play anywhere". is not applicable on all Activision games,?
how's that going to come across.