Ubisoft CEO Blames Gamers After Poor Sales of Star Wars Outlaws

After the low sales of Star Wars Outlaws, the Ubisoft CEO said that gamers have extraordinary expectations and that delivering solid quality is no longer enough.

[OtterX]

Why pay full price when we all know prices on Ubisoft games drop faster than any other AAA publisher? I'll pick it up for 20 or less, or wait and play it on PS+. I'm in no hurry.

[Cacabunga]

So can we blame ubisoft for releasing trash software? No they just made themselves miserable and irrelevant in no time.

I do not want to buy their game.. last Ubi game i bought was Rayman

[RaiderNation]

"The Last Ubisoft game I bought was Rayman".

Same! I havent bought an Ubisoft game since Rayman Legends on PS4. Their games are very generic, very "assembly line" made to me.

[S2Killinit]

I don't know Black Flag was amazing.

[babadivad]

Rayman was a great game. My children put in ours on those games.

[babadivad]

@S2K

I heard Black Flag was phenomenal as well. I was just over the Assassin's Creed thing by then. The last AC game I bought (though I skipped a lot of them) was the one in Egypt.

I played a little but never finished. Maybe I'll try Black Flag if it's on a steep discount.

[Tapani]

Same, my last Ubisoft game is Rayman Legends. I did buy Valiant Hearts and Child of Light as well. After these, I haven't touched their games.

[Ninver]

Last ubisoft game I played was Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 on ps3. That says it all.

[Psychonaut85]

Friends don’t let friends buy Ubisoft.

[lelo2play]

I'm also going to blame others for not giving me money.

[jambola]

it's specifically your fault that Ubisoft has a bad reputation

[Amplitude]

"In today’s challenging market and with gamers expecting extraordinary experiences, delivering solid quality is no longer enough" - Yves Guillemot

That's the only source this article has. The rest is filler text and ads. Saved you the click.
Tech4Gamers strikes again as being in the top 3 most useless clickbait garbage N4G websites that clearly uses AI to extend one sentence into entire articles. I have absolutely no idea how they always get approved.

N4G User Sajjad_Hussain works for this site [blog, really] and constantly spams N4G with these "articles". He doesn't do literally anything else - doesn't comment on anything or engage with the community. He simply uses N4G to get ad revenue on this AI nothingness. Please don't click it and please stop approving this annoying bait.

[neutralgamer1992]

I bought Assassin's Creed Odyssey after finishing Origins, and the amount of unnecessary content in Odyssey was overwhelming. I couldn't even get into it. They've turned a single-player game into a grind, with every enemy either at your level or higher. XP boosters and similar features are everywhere, which just feels like a blatant push from Ubisoft to monetize progression.

The last somewhat fun Ubisoft games for me was Origins and the original Watch Dogs. The OG Watch Dogs had a serious tone and was a great game, but for some reason, Ubisoft decided to move away from that, and the next two games suffered in sales. Please, focus on making great games without all the fluff and monetization schemes. Make your games fun to play, not a chore or grind.

Instead of blaming gamers, Ubisoft should look inward. If they keep pushing overpriced, mediocre games ($120 for early access, only to have the game-breaking bugs still require a patch), it’s no wonder their fan base is frustrated. The Guillemot family, who run Ubisoft, are dragging the company down with nepotism, corruption, and abuse. If they don’t change course soon, they may be ousted, and maybe then Ubisoft will have a chance to make great games again

keeping blaming gamers and not look inside the company

[CrimsonIdol]

Black flag was okay. Still very much the same game as all the rest with all the same copy pasted challenges in different locations we've come to know and hate about Ubisoft games though.

[Pyrofire95]

It's true. I like me some Ubisoft games, but I know they don't take long to go on sale. Sometimes 3 months or less.

[OtterX]

Yep. This game will be incredibly cheap come Black Friday.

The last time I paid full price for an Assassin's Creed game was Black Flag back in 2013, only bc that was a launch title for PS4. I learned quickly to wait until at least Black Friday after that, if not a year or 2.

[PapaBop]

Pretty much, players expect extraordinary products when they are paying extraordinary prices. Hence why most of us were smart enough to hold out on this.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Right... Blame gamers when they don't want to buy a product crazy

[blackblades]

Should blame themselves, can't just reskin far cry and there other open world games with star wars and avatar. One problem with gaming these days is that they dont have a imagination or heart. They just copy and paste what they did decades ago.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Yep

[Demetrius]

Exactly how I feel most devs either release games that still look on early ps4 gen level, copy&paste fromsoftwares formula of their games, online only bs. All type of idiot bs going on. Most open world titles don't even have more content than games from last gen or even the gen before that one. It's so basic leveled still

[Crows90]

To be fair far cry 1 and 2 were very unique....then they just started copying and pasting with that series.

Same with the first assassin's creed...very unique.

They stopped innovating and just repeat the same formulas.

[Hotpot]

Current gaming and movie industries are weird. The companies often pick a fight with their own customers and then getting upset when they’re not buying the product.

Any other industries would scramble to meet the market’s taste, doing market research in order to sell their products but in gaming, companies try their hardest to dictate the market what they should buy and like, it’s hilarious.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Onfg strange

[babadivad]

That's the final stage of a failed company. Unfortunately, they aren't the only ones.

So many studios ignore feedback and try to find ad hominems to holistically dismiss any criticism.

If an artist work is never critiqued, it never improves. More often than not, it degrades.

The Rings of Power TV show has so many amateurish writing errors that I'm sure no one is honestly critiquing their product.

"Toxic positivity" kills art.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Facts

[Lightning77]

Things aren't lookin good for them. I think someone will buy them. It's only a matter of time.

[isarai]

Um.....you make products for us, we're not obligated to buy sh!t. I swear it's like they're aliens who were given a business to run and don't understand how it works

[Einhander1972]

Star Wars Outlaws was really good, it's kind of a shame things went down like this, I enjoyed it more than EA's Star Wars which I also enjoyed.

Stupid culture BS is destroying everything. People who don't even play the game had more influence than the people who did... sad...

[-Foxtrot]

"People who don't even play the game had more influence than the people who did... sad... "

Maybe people don't like playing games like Outlaws when it's low quality at launch, bugs, some frame rate issues, terrible AI, facial models and animations during conversations look bad and stealth, the main gameplay element of the game is poorly done where it can get some reparative after a while.

This bundled in with the fact i's another open world game from Ubisoft where its quantity over quality is maybe why things went down like this.

It's an average game and for how much money most likely went into it along with 600 developers from 11 studios, it's not a good luck, especially for a Star Wars game. People should want more and better quality.

[Seafort]

Did you play the game or just saying what the group think thought?

It seems to happen a lot these days. The loudest minority have more of a say and the people actually playing and enjoying the game are cast to the wayside. Social media has a lot to answer for especially on lawless twitter.

[-Foxtrot]

I've played a little bit, couple hours, got up to The Wreck and just got bored.

"It seems to happen a lot these days..."

You know what else happens a lot these days, people who think when people are criticising a game they automatically haven't played it...like its some kind of counter argument to downplay their criticism.

If you enjoy it, cool I guess, but enjoying something which is average and CLEARLY has issues while bitching about those who don't like it for these actual reasons is why companies like Ubisoft continue to give ALL of us slop.

I mean there's certain average games I like but if people call them I don't really have a leg to stand on because they are usually right.

You can enjoy the game, just don't get in the way when people are completely justified in criticising an average product because they want better. In the end it benefits everyone, even yourself if things do improve.

[Einhander1972]

I didn't find it to be buggy at all, not more than any other game. Nor do I agree with the other claims like animations or stealth sure it wasn't ridiculously mo-caped like a PlayStation exclusive but again it wasn't dissimilar to other games and the stealth was just common stealth game fare, I enjoyed it. And certainly these "issues" were not nearly to the tier of the drama surrounding the game.

And it's strange how the drama started before the game even released and the "so called bugs" were even known, same as the upcoming Assassin's Creed game...

Edit: And ya know in thinking about your claims of bugs, EA's Jedi Outlaws had whole sections of that game that basically ran at 40'ish FPS and really performed much worse all in all than this game, but where was the drama there... This had nothing to do with bugs or performance.

[KyRo]

I'm not defending Ubisoft as I agree with you but Fallout and the Elder Scrolls has everything you mentioned being bad about the game and the media and gamers turn a blind eye to it.

[CobraKai]

I played the game and it’s buggy and boring mess. The stealth missions alone are an absolute chore and there’s more “wtf just happened” moments than i can count. 👎👎👎

[Friendlygamer]

People invested in culture wars are a ridiculously small percentage of the gaming community, most consumers don't even watch reviews for AAA mass appeal games like this one. This flopped because the masses didn't want it, the market corrects itself

[Einhander1972]

"People invested in culture wars are a ridiculously small percentage of the gaming community."

If only...

[Friendlygamer]

If the groups you're talking about had the kind of influence you think they do, games like TLOU 2 would have failed horrifically. The internet has the power to make small groups sound loud, but in the end, they're still small. Just look at Alan Wake 2—one of the most overexposed games online, with tons of awards, yet it probably hasn't even reached two million sales

And if I'm wrong then maybe companies should cater to them I guess

[Einhander1972]

You can't narrow it down to two games like that. I can name a dozen games that have been attacked over culture then underperformed but of course if all someone has to do is say "oh it was a bad game" what is even the point...

And btw the culture people constantly say they "won" in the argument over TLOU 2 because it didn't sell as fast as the first game...

Anyways I am done here, I don't want to help these articles getting clicks. @excaliburps

[Crows90]

Exactly. They decided to choose a lead and character design that didn't resonate with the masses while claiming the masses should like it...

it.does.not.work.like.that.

They have to make gameplay really standout if they're going to opt out of lightsabers. It is possible as rogue squadron doesn't have lightsabers...at least not the majority of the gameplay.

[Charal]

I agree with you. Some gamers groups are as responsible as publishers of the current state of the industry.

[Zombieburger638]

Sorry but Ubisoft has pumped out nothing but far cry 3 remakes and garbage ghost recon games this past decade. Why should I support a company like Ubisoft when they clearly don’t care about the rehashed games they pump out?

[Crows90]

Nope. The people that play it dictate its success. Every successful game has been successful because of those that play it and then tell their friends. That shit as well as social outlets make good games spread like wildfire.

If the game isn't ready to release then it should be delayed. It's their own fault.

[Charal]

We live in a world where a vocal minority can make or break anything, with little correlation to real quality. You are convinced that social media praise is a guarantee of a good product or idea? Never humanity faced such powerful advertisement or propaganda tool, it is to be dangerously naïve to believe that social media consensus is an absolute metric, especially when not experiencing directly what is discussed.

[LostPotato]

Poor Ubisoft 2023-2024 hasn't been good for them.

Whats that been now two or three games that have sold poorly?

Can't say I feel sorry for them. Karma at work.

[jambola]

even if I did feel bad
this would have turned me away

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

There wasn’t much hype for Star Wars: Outlaws. It also released when Star Wars was in a slump due to the poor public reception of the Acolyte. Ubisoft over relies on open world gameplay tropes. The company consistently relies on open world Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games. People who are tired of open world games don’t get too excited for new Ubisoft titles. The game market is competitive, a company should expect to be handed sales.

[thorstein]

"In today’s challenging market and with gamers expecting extraordinary experiences, delivering solid quality is no longer enough."

-Yves Guillemot

How did the journo go from this to "He seems to be blaming the fandom for Star Wars Outlaw’s failure."

[isarai]

How can you not?

If someone cooks you food, and you eat it and say "this isn't good" and they're reaponse is "i make good food" that insinuating "the problem isn't me, it's you" which is exactly what he's doing here. The game isn't "solid" is glitchy, unpolished, soulless, lacks attention to detail and any real meaningful content. Which would all be fine if yhey weren't asking full price, or $130 for early access that you had to delete your save for.

[LoveSpuds]

I agree Thornstein, I think Ubisoft deserve criticism in various respects, but to take a snippet from a leaked internal communication and suggest they are blaming the gamer is really poor 'journalism'.

You could see this as actually a positive thing, after launching so many titles in a poor state, Ubisoft have at last learned that gamers expect a higher quality and more polished product.

[Knightofelemia]

Better to wait Ubisoft games tend to drop in price after a while. I remember snagging one AC game for $20 after a year and a half it was released. And honestly I am not a big Star Wars fan so I am like I said just going to wait for the price to drop on this game. And no it's not my fault it's my choice there are other games coming out so to me a Star Wars game is not on the top of my list.

[chicken_in_the_corn]

He isn't wrong. There was hatred and opposition thrown at it since we found out it was in development.

[jznrpg]

I am going to get the game just not now as I have too many games to play.

[CrimsonWing69]

Y’all might want to take a look in the mirror and stop blaming your consumers. If you’re putting out games that you hear the vocal criticism on BEFORE it releases and you decide to ignore consumers out of whatever dumb-a** principle, then that’s on you and get what you f*cking deserve.

I hope the industry is starting to open their eyes. If you are making games people vocally make very clear they are not interested in, or see things they don’t like, and refuse to change anything, then how do you expect to sell to them?

[Viryu]

I guess they aren't comfortable with not getting gamers money.

[badboyz09]

price is right Losing Horn😂

[-Foxtrot]

"delivering solid quality is no longer enough"

But you don't deliver solid quality...that's the issue.

[gold_drake]

sure, blame us for your incompetence

[jambola]

there are so many ways to make fun of this I don't even know where to begin

However if I'm to blame for this selling poorly
I will take that with pride, do better or flop Ubisoft

[Emme]

"Solid" ? I though we were aiming for "extraordinary" ?

[SDuck]

"solid quality". I wanna punch that guy so bad for his delusions

[Dandizzle]

Cut to Space Marine 2

[Yi-Long]

Game looked great to me from the first announcement and later previews. Not a Star Wars fan but it gave me ‘unofficial’ Beyond Good & Evil vibes.

However, when a game launches to roughly 7 & 8 scores, with a lot of criticism aimed at gameplay-aspects, like the stealth, while also asking for 120 euro (!) for the Gold (complete) edition, obviously I’m just gonna laugh, shrug my shoulders, shake my head, and walk away …

[Hofstaderman]

Wow way to foster goodwill Ubi...you need that if you hope to sell Shadows....

[Dandalandan117]

That's why you shouldn't buy Ubisoft games

[nmbr1esq]

Ubi can suck it. The game looked like shit, the character was fugly, and the gameplay boring, ai awful, reason for exploring non existent, and on. I don't have to play it when I can see it with my own two eyes. It was a turd from the beginning. This shitless company had the audacity to release this pile of crap when they had released splinter cell chaos theory and black list both with genre defining and best in class stealth gameplay back in 2005 and 2013 respectively, and they couldn't make this pile of crap better or even as good. What a fkn joke. Finally any company that thinks they will force players to play their garbage games with hamfisted cultural junk can burn and go bankrupt. Leave your me too, and forced shit at home. Enough said.

[Retro1986]

The gaming Industry needs to understand soon that its about quality, not quantity. Greed is about to lose now.

[Relientk77]

Well my bad Ubisoft. I didn't realize it was my fault.

/s

[enkiduxiv]

“Solid quality” is that some sort of unique French idiom for boring crap.

[RhinoGamer88]

Toxic Positivity with the game's leadership team is a major cause. #seeConcord

[milohighclub]

Tell you what Star Wars game I'd buy....1313 that looked great!

Anyway on topic, I was gonna pick this up at somepoint. Guess I'll pass now.

[PRIMORDUS]

Poop😂

[XBManiac]

Call it Twitter.

[PRIMORDUS]

Yup. I'm not calling X, don't care what that putz Elon calls it. Twitter forever lol.

[RiseNShine]

It's that sweat in your eyebrows Guillermot? Hmm things not looking good, next time listen to gamers for once...
Also love that AC Shadows is coming day 1 to Steam, so the brilliant idea of not releasing games on Steam worked well too I presume? I thought Ubi Connect was doing really great and EGS was amazing so no need for Steam at all, so that didn't work too well either.

[ANIALATOR136]

Make good games then

[Dirty_Lemons]

So essentially the exact same mentality *most* gamers have always had: if it's good enough, it's (sometimes, gamer dependant) a day 1 buy. If it's average, wait until the inevitable discount.

This response is an example of why they are taking hits like this. When there was no internet, you rented or relied on word of mouth before buying. Now we can literally watch and see how good a game really is before pulling out the cash. Basically, yes they need to up their game or they'll have repeats of this as they have done for a while.

[Puty]

Last UBISOFT game I bought was Prince of Persia Sands of Time on ps3.

[jambola]

great game tbf

[Kaizin514]

I liked Outlaws for whatever it's worth. I think people blow stuff up too much, and firmly believe the worst thing about Star Wars in general is its fans. It is what it is at the end of the day, but I do hope the game did/does well enough for a sequel.

It isn't perfect, but it is better than some of the other games in the genre in my opinion. Open world games have gotten tiresome to a lot of people, and the fact it takes so long for a game to be made, they couldn't have pivoted Outlaws even if they wanted to, too costly.

I think EA hasn't really done wonders for the Star Wars brand (outside of Jedi, which isn't for everyone either) and I think Disney as a whole needs to slow down and be a little more picky with who gets a hold of the IP for games and whatnot.

At the end of the day... play what you want to play. Who cares what someone on the internet has to say about some random game they had no intention to play to begin with. Gaming needs to not be treated like a damn job, its an expensive hobby/entertainment, nothing else. =/

[YourMommySpoils]

How about making a better game along with stop the blocking of free speech.

[mudakoshaka]

I am playing this in VR. And to be honest, it feels like one of those watered down VR games like Star Wars Tales from the Galaxy's Edge. When I am shooting, it feels like a cheap game when hitting enemies and surroundings. Also playing Cyberpunk and RDR2 in VR, and those feel like AAA games even in VR! It is fun driving (hovering?) around on the vehicle and seeing the world of Star Wars, even if the world's are shallow. Even Assassin's Creed Valhalla's world felt alive compared to Outlaws.

[Chocoburger]

Ubishit pissed me off when they went full grind filler micro-trash-actions in Assassin's Creed, and all their other games.

They became a waste of time, not worth the money or effort to play them. I decided to stop buying and playing any of their new games since then, because that's the only way to make a statement.

I'm not even a big Star Wars fan, so this game isn't for me either way. But I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in no longer giving Ubishit money.

Your greed ruined your company, now learn to live with it.

[QuantumMechanic]

If they put a complete build on disc, I'll happily buy it.

Also, if they're going to tell me I should get used to not owning my games, then they can get used to not getting my business.

[Profchaos]

When I read it I don't see it as I blame gamers it's more it wasn't good enough an admission that it should have been better

[BlackCountryBob]

I saw it was an Ubisoft game so immediately switched off paying any interest in it, I don’t like their games. I find the open world radio tower game style dull and a slog, so seeing Assassin's Creed / Watch Dogs in Star Wars dress is not something I’m fussed about.

Please realise a lot of people just aren’t interested in the Ubisoft loop so try something new, like a proper mission driven Splinter Cell sequel rather than blame customers for not liking what you’re offering

[Oddmania]

"Governement blames voters for poor election results"

[MetroidFREAK21]

Needing internet to install a physical game disc is an instant skip from me... sorry Ubisoft

[CobraKai]

Um….. where’s the solid quality? Astro Bot = Solid Quality. Outlaws = Buggy Mess. This is why Ubisoft will never be great. They don’t see themselves as the ones accountable for their crappy game’s crappy sales

[MeteorPanda]

lol, palworld?

[JEECE]

They advertised this game wrong. If you hype it up as a AAAA experience, people are going to set their expectations accordingly. Just because a game is a Star Wars game doesn't mean it has to be AAA though. There were plenty of Star Wars games in earlier generations that weren't crazy, big budget experiences (Jedi: Power Battles, Bounty Hunter, etc). Even Squadrons launched at $40. They should have sold this as a $40-$50 AA title and then many of its issues would have been charming, rather than aggravating. But they sold it as a AAAA open world, so of course we are going to compare it to Red Dead.

[DaniMacYo]

Typical 🤣 and I blame UbiSoft for making terrible decisions and games nobody wants.

[ChiefofLoliPolice]

Never fucking learn. And that kind of attitude is one of the reasons why your company is in the position it's in now.

[Demetrius]

Lmao he mad cause we ain put enough money in hospital pockets lmao mf yo bank account most likely full. Smh this mf will be aite, throwing temper tantrums, this game could have looked alot better if ubisoft stopped rushing like they always do. A true gaming dedicated studio needs to try getting watch dogs from them they just letting that series sit and go to waste

[46player]

I will enjoy watching them go broke. They deserve it.

[babadivad]

This is the ultimate result of blaming your customer base for your failures. Lucas Films has been in this downward spiral for years.

In their minds, the reason they failed is never because the quality of their output is bad. It's because of the misogynist(racist, etc) fans.

Situations like this is where the "customer is always right" comes from and would be properly applied.

You are a video games company making games for the customer. The customer is buying video games, they just aren't buying YOUR video games.

If they are buying games, the issue isn't with the consumers, it's with your product.

If your product isn't resonating with the consumer base, the thing that needs to change is you and your product. Not the customer. The customers know what they want. The customer is always right.

[thecodingart]

It’s not on Steam….

[Oni]

Ubisoft a massive corporation filled with narcissistic woke radicals working in a bubble of toxic positivity blaming everyone but themselves for their incompetence....What a surprise.

[BoneMagnus]

There are videos all over the internet showing this game was anything but solid quality.

[jwillj2k4]

Customer backlash will eventually lead to the next evolution of revenue generation which is to simulate sales with ai. Cutting out a piece of your budget to simulate game purchases, reviews and to falsely bring notoriety to vaporware like products. I believe companies like these have end goals to make their actual consumers second class citizens.

Gaming hardware vs gaming software are two ships passing in the night.

[GrmpyolGamer]

I'll buy the game when I think the price matches the quality 🤷

[garos82]

your welcome

[kingeliran]

I wonder why rockstar studios never had this problem... just play gta or rdr2 and take notes
Every aingle game rockstar games made was an amazing success learn from them

[Pyrofire95]

Gamers do stink

[Fonsecap]

And where in this game is the "solid quality"? People are complaining about the poor gameplay and game mechanics and nothing new and engaging that we haven't seen done better on other games. So yes gamers are to blame for poor sales because gamers want to spend 80 euros on good experiences.

[SoloGamer1]

WE didnt develop the game.. of COURSE we have high expectations, we are spending our $70 plus dollars, we have a right to expect greatness, especially after Ubi has gotten away with releasing many crap games over the years, its about time they are held accountable!

[SoloGamer1]

anybody have the CEO's twitter handle? lets tell him how we feel about his copout comments..

[Solitariussaint]

Lol, Ubi you were warned about GaaS so don't play dumb.

[IAMRealHooman]

" Gamers have extraordinary expectations" Extra ordinary for ubisoft maybe, we want good games, an yall been banking on your formula without innovating, In fact ubisoft has been regressing, tech, story gameplay.

Xdefiant probably dies next season.( awful visuals, hit reg still an issue)
Outlaws is a giant mess ( Bad visuals, brain dead AI, cannot carry weapons)
AC aside from the controversy will just be a Valhalla or odyssey, overly bloated 100hr game with no substance

[Kassanova07]

This is laughable, make a quality product that people want and stop shoving products down people's throats ffs. Looking at you Concord.

[Crows90]

Extraordinary expectations.

So maybe just leave the gaming industry if it's too much for you. Also being the CEO you didn't realize this?! Maybe stand down from your position.

[Psychonaut85]

Yves and the Guillemot family need to just take their millions and fuck off. They’ve driven Ubi face first into the ground, absolutely cancerous management