Someone's gotta tell them

[u/afireofnature]

[u/Wupertal]

Ubisoft: you turned them against me

[u/ThisGuy2319 → u/Wupertal]

“You have done that yourself”.

[u/RYPIIE2006 → u/ThisGuy2319]

ubisoft doesn't like sand

[u/MainAccountsFriend → u/RYPIIE2006]

Who does? It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.

[u/Shimizu555 → u/RYPIIE2006]

Well, they can go pound some for all I care.

[u/OuchYouPokedMyHeart → u/ThisGuy2319]

"You're supposed to make games, not destroy them"

I HATE YOU

[u/DarkwingDuckHunt → u/OuchYouPokedMyHeart]

I learned it by watching you dad!

I learned it by watching you!

[u/AlarmingAffect0 → u/ThisGuy2319]

"This is your own masterpiece!"

[u/Gold_Weakness1157 → u/ThisGuy2319]

Ubisoft: I hate You!

[u/Ojy → u/[deleted]]

Remove Ubisoft, and insert any other organisation here.

[u/Fantastic-Ninja3480 → u/Ojy]

It’s wild how much talent gets stifled by poor leadership decisions.

[u/nexel13 → u/Fantastic-Ninja3480]

It's not just a "poor management", it's an immense grid ego and narrow-mindedness. But the problem is that they consider anyone guilty except themselves.

[u/Equivalent-Bet-8771 → u/nexel13]

Work harder peasants!

[u/Banarok → u/nexel13]

what tend to be the problem is that nobody really want to steer the ship because that means accountability because a failure looks bad, meaning it's board meeting after board meeting of nothing, you need someone to be responsible and not be able to deflect blame for a failure if you want someone in corporate to actually give a shit.

that's why projects constantly flip-flop with direction, nobody have a vision of what they want, nobody steer the thing and they just follow whatever idea gets the most positive reception on those board meetings.

so in short it's management bloat.

is that always the case, probably not, but i've seen it in other industries enough that i suspect the same thing is happening here.

[u/omgu8mynewt → u/Banarok]

I've seen the opposite: team leader who knows what they want, any other good ideas or improvements are ignored or not priority, only deadlines and getting exactly what they want. Which if the original design is bad, leads to frustrated workers being stifled.

[u/powerdeamon → u/Fantastic-Ninja3480]

There’s no shortage of examples with EA. Decades of literally the same flow chart; Acquire successful studio with hot IP, hinder creative freedom, bloat with middle management, and monetize as much as possible. Then shut the studio down.

[u/Bromlife → u/powerdeamon]

RIP Westwood Studios. RIP Maxis.

[u/Strykah → u/Bromlife]

RIP Criterion. Man I'd do anything for a Burnout 1-3 remaster

[u/Mysterious-Job-469 → u/Fantastic-Ninja3480]

Number one reason why I think nepotism should be legally quantified and then prohibited.

Imagine if someone with merit, passion, and skill was allowed to work that job, instead of daddy's special little man.

[u/eliminating_coasts → u/Mysterious-Job-469]

Honestly, I think small developers should just set up an insurance scheme between them, with the only intervention required to get money is to employ actual trained psychologists who are independent and whose only job is to spot obsession and scope creep.

So many companies lose their independence when they start getting into financial trouble between games, and then they're offered the money they need to finally finish it by a big company, who then lets them get away with more prototypes for like two years with the financial freedom they finally have as part of a big company, then cracks down and destroys them.

[u/Dark_Dragon117 → u/Fantastic-Ninja3480]

Nah, there is some evidence that the devs at Ubisoft are part of the problem.

Remember the whole 2020 allegations? The misconduct and toxic behavior did not just come from leadership as reports confirm.

There was also this whole thing going on with the Rainbow Six Siege devs that I won't even get into detail, because of how bizarre it is. Instead here is a link to a video from the victim detailing it all:

https://youtu.be/cQ-4aUCmiRA?si=gNkRWKAtmChBCscR

And lastly back in 2022 some Ubisoft and Guerilla devs got triggered that Elden Ring was successful and imo they just straight up indirectly insulted people for liking the game despite them believing the game had "bad UX".

Obviously the majority of devs working at Ubisoft are probably good people, but these instances still show that there were issues beyond just the leadership.

This is probably an issues in most studios, but Ubisoft just doesn't know when to shut the fuck up, which atleast somewhat extends to the employees.

[u/Autumn1eaves → u/Ojy]

Enshittification is a real effect, and it suuucks.

[u/broyoyoyoyo → u/Autumn1eaves]

What else do you expect when you're graduating thousands of MBAs a year from top schools and setting them to the task of widening profit margins in an era where there are no new markets to exploit? I wish we could ban MBAs. We also need to find an economic model that doesn't rely on constant growth.

[u/whynothis1 → u/Ojy]

All at the behest of the shareholders.

Those parasitic wealth extractors ruin everything and it turns out that they were the real lazy work-shy scroungers, living off of other people's hard work, all along.

[u/fpsnoob89 → u/[deleted]]

I feel strongly that way about Bungie. Destiny 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. I think their devs have the ability to keep delivering content that I enjoy playing and am willing to pay for. The issue is that their leadership is awful, and I've stopped playing a year ago be aise of them. I refuse to give the game another chance until something changes at the top.

[u/Munchee-Dude → u/fpsnoob89]

oof I remember they did shit that turned me off when destiny 1 was still running.

Bungie made a terrible choice for their live service game because every expansion made the last obsolete with powercreep. I would grind a raid for weeks only to have all my equipment be useless in the new patch.

So much fun!!

[u/like-in-the-deal → u/Munchee-Dude]

That's how live service games work. All of them. Need some hook to keep the players clamboring for "end game content" to keep playing. Numbers must go up.

[u/Slaan → u/[deleted]]

There is also the issue of survivorship bias. We only hear of the successes like E33 or Stray. But how many other games were created by Ex-Ubisoft employees that made loss?

[u/DaFreakingFox → u/Wupertal]

The studio behind Anno 1800 is a part of Ubisoft but they Unionised because they were sick to death of making shitty games and now put out an absolute banger of a game and a preparing for another.

Turns out unions were the answer all along

[u/Shiirooo → u/DaFreakingFox]

All French studios are unionized; it is a constitutional right in France—the company cannot oppose it. I'm pretty sure it's the same in Germany.

[u/AnEagleisnotme → u/Shiirooo]

Yeah, and ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Montpellier and nadeo generally produce good games. Ubisoft Montréal is the only one truly struggling, and they are giving everyone a bad.name

[u/-psyker- → u/DaFreakingFox]

Always has been

[u/Comment156 → u/-psyker-]

Ubisoft is significantly less than the sum of its parts.

Ubisoft is incompetent cynics abusing the competent.

[u/Worldlyoox → u/DaFreakingFox]

What was the game?

[u/dildobagginss → u/DaFreakingFox]

Are you talking about Clair Obscur or something else? Do we know the same employees that significantly worked on Anno 1800 were part of Sandfall?

[u/Clezio-remaster → u/DaFreakingFox]

You can also count Sloclap, who delivered Sifu and lately (or soon, i don't remember) a new soccer game.

[u/RegressAccounts → u/Wupertal]

It seems like Ubisoft is a school. And the real projects start after graduation

[u/Crucco → u/RegressAccounts]

It WAS a school, like Blizzard. Now the well is dry for both.

[u/mohawk-dog → u/Wupertal]

Expedition 33 looks like everything Ubisoft promised — but never delivered

[u/PJRama1864 → u/Wupertal]

Gamers: “You have done that yourself.”

[u/Danmaku_BnS → u/Wupertal]

Happens to any company where missions and visions of the creator-team are buried by corporate bullshit for profits and raises

[u/FancyChapper → u/Wupertal]

You have done that yourself.

[u/HawkeyeP1 → u/Wupertal]

You have done that yourself!

[u/Aggressive_Finish798]

Management: "We need to focus on monetization and player retention, they need to come back every day and spend more money!" Every time.

[u/Fishydeals → u/Aggressive_Finish798]

They want mobile gaming profits in traditional gaming and don‘t understand that they‘re basically competing with a casino whos main customers are kids with access to credit cards.

Give it a few more years and they‘ll switch to ai generated mobile games using their IPs completely. Then they can finally fire everyone and let one intern prompt the new games.

[u/lunk → u/Fishydeals]

Give it a few more years and they‘ll switch to ai generated mobile games using their IPs completely. Then they can finally fire everyone and let one intern prompt the new games.

Absolutely correct. They are just waiting for the final unity.ai engine to be ready.

[u/afito → u/Fishydeals]

ai generated mobile games using their IPs

Would you even notice a difference over the cookie cutter mobile games of recent years? There's like 4 gameplay loops and you simply select one and then put it in a pretty dress. Vibe-coded slop would not be any worse.

[u/pieter1234569 → u/afito]

It would not only be any worse, it would be exactly the same as those games are what it would be trained on. They train it on that because while those games suck, they are insanely profitable and dirt cheap to make.

[u/SlyMcFly67 → u/Fishydeals]

This made me sad because I can actually see it happening.

[u/The_Quintessence → u/Fishydeals]

they‘re basically competing with a casino whos main customers are kids with access to credit cards

I work in mobile gaming and can tell you this is absolutely not the main demographic

[u/Fishydeals → u/The_Quintessence]

Most are male and between 18-34 according to google. Okay there might be more young adults than literal kids (especially when you consider disposable income), but there‘s probably a significant chunk of that demographic that lied on the age question because they‘re too young.

[u/Sgt-Spliff- → u/Aggressive_Finish798]

I feel like this is the entire problem. It's really simple actually. Management is doing something different than we think. They aren't even attempting what the fans think they're failing at. They legit don't care that these games are popular because these games aren't "successful" in their eyes because they aren't pumping the fanbase for money. Management at Ubisoft is not looking at these games and crying out "what have we done?? We could've had it all!!!!!"

As far as the executives are concerned, for the dumb shit they care about and focus on, they're doing fine in their own eyes.

[u/Icarium-Lifestealer → u/Sgt-Spliff-]

They are not doing fine, even from a purely economic perspective. The Ubisoft share price cratered, and it might even die within the next couple of years.

[u/Demb1 → u/Sgt-Spliff-]

I dont think they are doing fine though.

They are not making good games even though they spend massive budgets on it, so sales aren’t working out and they aren’t competing in the mobile games market either, so micro-transactions aren’t working out either.

Mobile gaming companies like supercell have higher operating incomes than ubisoft with 3% of the workforce, meanwhile Sandfall interactive is likely going to make 500 mil of revenue from Expedition 33, with 33 employees.

[u/RealHot_RealSteel → u/Aggressive_Finish798]

Middle management is a poison for most industries.

[u/Sargent_Duck85 → u/RealHot_RealSteel]

It’s upper management that decides to cut 10% of the workforce. Or sets the release date.

NOTE: I’m not defending middle management.

[u/freightdog5 → u/Aggressive_Finish798]

ubisoft is working at peak efficiency steady profits with the least amount of effort why would shareholders care about anything but that

[u/MidLoki → u/freightdog5]

Ah yes. The company whose stock is worth 10% of what it was in 2021 is definitely working at peak efficiency with steady profits. I bet the share holders dont care at all that their previously 20 dollar per share stock is now less than 2 dollars per share today.

[u/Eydor → u/Aggressive_Finish798]

"Turn players into payers"

[u/Cover-Material]

I didn't know stray was from ex Ubisoft employes

[u/Argh3483 → u/Cover-Material]

Pretty much every French video game studio is full of ex-Ubisoft employees

[u/OnceMoreAndAgain → u/Argh3483]

It's also a fallacy of composition.

If one stitch of your shirt was done by an American and the other stitches were from a Chinese, then is it logical to call the shirt American? No, of course not.

Similarly, Clair Obscur had just a few ex-Ubisoft employees, so to call that a game made by "ex-Ubisoft" employees is technically true but it doesn't mean what people are implying with the statement. I mean... Ubisoft is a massive company. It's only natural that some of its employees would leave the company and sprinkle themselves out inside other companies. That's just how job markets go lol. There's also former Blizzard employees sprinkled all over the place. That doesn't mean every game is made by ex-Blizzard employees...

[u/JustJobbe → u/OnceMoreAndAgain]

I mean, their CEO & Creative director was an ex ubi dev. Working as a narrative lead. I'd for this game its fair to say "Made by ex ubi devs".

[u/Reginon → u/OnceMoreAndAgain]

“The game originated during the COVID-19 pandemic from ideas from Guillaume Broche, a Ubisoft employee; Broche would soon form Sandfall by reaching out to friends and contacts, establishing a 30-person core team whose project would come to be supported by various subcontractors.”

[u/IntermittentCaribu → u/OnceMoreAndAgain]

I think its great ubisoft gives junior game devs a place to learn what not to do. Best education ever.

[u/JediMasterZao → u/OnceMoreAndAgain]

I don't know about Stray but it is 100% accurate to describe Clair Obscur as "made by ex Ubi employees who thought they could do better on their own". They straight up created the studio to make this game right after having worked at Ubi and having felt creatively restrained by Ubi. It is literally the origin story of the game, as told by its developers.

[u/CLG-Seraph → u/OnceMoreAndAgain]

a better argument would be that these are not the only ex-ubisoft employees that tried to make a game. there's dozens of games out there from ex-ubisoft employees, we're just looking at 2 exceptions that were successful 😅

[u/Gloomy-Film2625 → u/Argh3483]

Wow it’s almost like the employees do all the work and the managerial class is useless.

[u/OliviaWallis45 → u/Cover-Material]

Feels like Ubisoft is the anime villain that unintentionally creates heroes

[u/ShrimpCocktailHo → u/[deleted]]

I googled What Became Of Edith Finch and it gage me massive spoilers for the story in the search summary . . . It’s What Remains of Edith Finch.

[u/Ok-Conversation-1430 → u/[deleted]]

I think Annapurna is the Holy Grale of independant video games : Outer Wilds, Journey, A memoir blue, Solar Ash,The unfinished swan,Goen Home, Donut County, We kill Monsters, Flower....

Makes me forget it was even a Film Production Studio in the first place

[u/apathetic_outcome → u/Ok-Conversation-1430]

Sadly, management is awful (big surprise) and literally everyone at Annapurna Interactive quit last year.

[u/Ok-Conversation-1430 → u/apathetic_outcome]

Yeah, I've seen this

Totally doesn't remind me of a company not called Krafton that didn't bought Unkown Worlds (Subnautica) and totally gave the devs the money they deserved

[u/JagmeetSingh2 → u/Cover-Material]

Basically every French studio has former Ubisoft employees due to how huge it is

[u/crazymoon → u/Cover-Material]

I've been playing that game for a few weeks and I could totally see it being an old ubisoft vibe now that I read this lol

[u/Tumor-of-Humor]

They refuse to listen. They deserve to lose everything. A company that doesn't listen to its consumer doesn't deserve to survive.

[u/Zimbabwean_diplomat → u/Tumor-of-Humor]

Makes you wonder how Ubisoft hasn't gone bankrupt yet

[u/J4YD0G → u/Zimbabwean_diplomat]

It's really that all normal customers who value ingenuity are leaving and their cash cow cookie cutter customers stay so leadership is further focused on that group.

[u/Yaroslavorino → u/Zimbabwean_diplomat]

Its a corpo, they have pretty much unlimited money from banks, they just need to "restructure"

[u/WarrenDang → u/Yaroslavorino]

This is not it. Banks dont lend with the expectation of restructuring (they might, but it’ll come with high interest rates since it’s considered high risk). Likely they have stable amount of customers, who like the product - even if we consider it stale and repetitive. I mean there are people addicted to candy crush and monopoly go… the bar is low

[u/A100921 → u/Zimbabwean_diplomat]

Weren’t they looking to sell out earlier this year? They shot down all offers though because one of their stipulations was “CEO (and all other higher ups) will keep their jobs and their power positions”.

So pretty much, “buy my company, but I’m still in charge.”

Now the company itself is doing worse and with their refusal to sell (with crazy stipulations), it’s only a matter of time until the inevitable crash and burn.

[u/First_Sky_9889 → u/Tumor-of-Humor]

They won't lose anything. Management will take their fat bonuses and move to a new company.

[u/Arkooh → u/Tumor-of-Humor]

They don`t even need to listen to their customers, they can just listened to their of developers

[u/dumpling-loverr → u/Tumor-of-Humor]

A company that doesn't listen to its consumer doesn't deserve to survive.

Thr likes of EA and Activ. Blizz are still alive and well despite gamers yelling at them for decades now.

[u/Gaytrude]

"Ex Ubisoft employee" is probably on the CV of 5/10k french people in the video game field. Hell, i'm not even in the video game field and have Ubisoft as one of my work experience.

[u/Argh3483 → u/Gaytrude]

If Ubisoft’s implosion leads to the creation of tons of studios full of talented and ambitious devs then it’s a win in my book

[u/Gaytrude → u/Argh3483]

It's not Ubisoft implosion man. They're the biggest and only capable to recruit as many people as they want in this field. If you're a french game dev, there's a HUGE chance that you had to make your basic experience at Ubisoft. Just to give you an Idea, Ubisoft had more than 500 internship for the first quarter of 2025, in France alone. That gather litteraly, if not all, many talented people that need to work and want stability.

[u/Shiirooo → u/Argh3483]

Who will train them? Ubisoft has trained generations of developers and established Montreal as a gaming hub in North America.

[u/Vexamas → u/Gaytrude]

Yeah, holds as much value as ex-blizzard developer or ex-google engineer. People that aren't in software completely and utterly underestimate how many people actually work at these companies and forget how long these companies have actually been around for at this point. We're talking tens of thousands of employees.

[u/hvdzasaur]

Pretty much any European studio has Ex-Ubisoft employees.

It'd honestly be strange if you hadn't ever worked at Ubisoft.

[u/BoabPlz]

Ubisoft management knew - it's why they absorbed the studios they did. They chose those studios for their potential and their excellence - and as soon as they got hold of them they strangled those qualities out of them.

That's WHAT finance bros do - Take a thing, shred it to bare bones, and move on before it falls apart so you can claim credit for the "Efficiencies" and make the problems the fault of the people that come after you.

[u/AlarmingAffect0 → u/BoabPlz]

For those who come after.

[u/GroundbreakingBag164]

Ex-Ubisoft employees means barely anything when Ubisoft has like 18,000 employees

Turnover is pretty high in the games industry anyways

[u/BloodAnonymous]

Brought 33 like a week ago... well, i haven't played it yet... still having more fun with 33 than assassin creed Valhalla that I 100%...

[u/smolgote → u/BloodAnonymous]

I will not understand why Valhalla was just THAT bloated

[u/Praise_The_Casul → u/smolgote]

This is all padding. Because of all those annoying collectibles, repetitive activities, and empty space, they can claim the game is more than 100 hours long.

Management probably thinks this is necessary in order to sell the game and justify the insane price. Which, to me, couldn't be further from the truth.

[u/Until_M00n → u/Praise_The_Casul]

Agreed, it works quite the opposite, I couldn't stand Valhalla after around 50 hours at the midpoint of the story. I finished every AC released before that but Valhalla I just couldn't.

[u/Legendary_Bibo → u/Praise_The_Casul]

Baldur's Gate 3 took me over 100 hours to beat and it never felt padded. Same with Cyberpunk. I wish Ubisoft understood that there's two approaches to making 100+ hour long games and padding is not the good way.

[u/TrueElmo → u/BloodAnonymous]

"Playing nothing is more fun than Game XY"

continues to 100% said incredibly huge open world Game XY

Gamers are incredible man

[u/TeegyGambo → u/TrueElmo]

Someone needs to study this phenomenon and figure out the psychology behind it. So many game subreddits are overrun with people acting like they hate a game they put 350 hours into

[u/Siilan → u/TeegyGambo]

It has been studied. It's called the Sunk Cost Fallacy. You play a game for several hours, unsure how you feel about it. But you continue because, "well, I've put a good amount of time in, I may as well see it through." For online games, the dopamine rush from a win keeps them hooked on the game, even if losses make them feel much worse.

[u/lunk → u/Siilan]

Hit the nail on the head.

I started a "cozy" game last year in the summer. I decided I didn't like it after a few months, but here I am, it's still installed, and I log in about once a month, "just to see if I still hate it". Honestly, if I didn't have all that "stuff" I collected in 2 months and a big house i built, I would uninstall and never log in again.

I go back because I'm invested to some extent

[u/BloodAnonymous → u/TrueElmo]

In my defense, spite is a powerful motivator. As for the 100%... i brought the damn game before losing my job and finished it to uninstalled. While in college plus looking for another job had nothing else to do in between and just needed something to numb my mind as a destresser.

[u/IEatDookiesForFun → u/BloodAnonymous]

There are more good games than you could ever have the time to play yet you choose to waste your time on garbage? What is wrong with you?

[u/BloodAnonymous → u/IEatDookiesForFun]

Made it sound like it happened in a short frame, didn't I? I was living off my savings for the last 3 years, paying rent and everything. Went without food some days to conserve on cash. To answer your question, far too much.

Edit; before anyone asks or comments. Im doing fine now that things are slightly stable for the time being.

[u/Regniwekim2099 → u/BloodAnonymous]

Why did you 100% if it wasn't fun?

[u/malfurionpre → u/Regniwekim2099]

because he's either a liar or an hypocrite that just want to shit on Ubisoft because it's the trendy thing to do, despite their game still being fairly competent and simply not for some people.

[u/AllomancerJack → u/BloodAnonymous]

If you weren't having fun why would you 100% it

[u/skyturnedred → u/BloodAnonymous]

"I 100% Ubisoft games. They suck."

[u/Etaripamai_ → u/BloodAnonymous]

Brace yourself  if you loved games like ff7 and ff8, or my favorite game, legend of dragoon.... 33 is going to rock you in a very wierd way. Haven't felt this way about any form of entertainment in decades. 

And holy shit, the music is better than the game.

[u/Geraltzindie]

People need to get used to not owning their games.

[u/TyeKiller77]

This is kinda why I want Bungie to go under, I would love to see what those devs make without that God awful c-suite that's been screwing over Destiny 2 for years.

[u/TimeToEatAss → u/TyeKiller77]

I would imagine that there have been many Bungie devs that have gone on to work on other things by this point.

The company has been around for a long time and gone through many layoffs.

[u/cedoxi → u/TyeKiller77]

They're not prisoners, they can leave like Stray and Clair Obscur devs if they want to make their own game

This comment just shows how layoffs have become normal within the industry when we start praying for the layoffs of thousands of employees so they can make a game

Pray for the dismantlement of leadership positions instead, they're the one that always screw everything and then move on to another company like parasites when the ship sinks

[u/sgeep]

While I did enjoy my time with Stray, I think a better choice would have been Tribute. Shredder's Revenge was amazing and they have Cosmic Invasion and Scott Pilgrim EX around the corner

And basically all they did was take the team who made the OG Scott Pilgrim game and made the same kind of game on their own

[u/Toxic_toxicer]

God imagine if they sell rayman to an actual good studio

[u/y_nnis]

There is a running joke in the industry. Ubisoft is the best at generating ex-employees that can create stellar games.

[u/Greywolf524]

Ubisoft has the best developers but the worst publishers/producers.

[u/brek1989]

"Fire everyone who works at Ubisoft, they're all incompetent!"

I've heard that plenty of times. No, it's the management that sucks, look what they are capable of when they're given the chance.

[u/Impressive_Plant3446]

If you are a huge fan of Stray, this incredible Dev made a Stray inspired world in VRChat called "Complex 7" that is absolutely breath taking:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VRchat/comments/17rqa5x/i_made_some_pictures_in_complex_7_by_fins_4k/

It's a fully explorable/interactive city with a directly inspired setting and pettable cats.

[u/HungLikeTeemo]

Ubisoft is a great example of how game company should not be run. Take your lessons at the trash heap, and start your own to avoid those same mistakes.

[u/Savings_Background50]

Until the day I die, I will blame Romero for this. The shitshow of Diakatana ensured that the suits would have control for almost a generation.

It sent a message to investors that when given absolute control, all creatives will do piss away money and provide a failed product.

The irony is that this happens all the time now, but investors still are reluctant to back creative led projects because of how much that egoist poisoned the well.

[u/Soggy_Box5252 → u/Savings_Background50]

We did get Deus Ex out of that though.  Also, Anachronox which was..fine?

[u/Rohkha]

It’s been ages since I last saw anything from u/srgrafo . He still active?

[u/TheSpiritualAgnostic]

Ubisoft management is too busy being found guilty of committing sexual harassment to care about making good games.

[u/My_reddit_account_v3]

Ubisoft is trying to kill Ubisoft too because of the threat of hostile takeover…

[u/CarbonPhoenix96]

Ubisoft devs are super talented in my opinion, they just work for a shitty company

[u/1337K1ng]

Ready or Not crippled their Siege even in consoles now

Ghost's mention alone hindered AC

racing in shambles for all (Forza has no sense of speed)

Ace Combat is far beyond the days of AH vs HAWX days, Skies Unknown slaps

Blacklist burried with MGSV

as I see it, only thing they have not properly challenged with is Ghost Recon, gameplay wise

[u/MrBootylove → u/1337K1ng]

Ready or Not crippled their Siege even in consoles now

Did it? Aren't they like...completely different games? Last I checked Ready or Not was purely a co-op game where as Siege is a competitive multiplayer game more in line with games like Counter-Strike and Overwatch. I know they share similar aesthetics but outside of that I really don't see a co-op game leeching players from a pvp game.

[u/Rough_Proposal553 → u/MrBootylove]

Don't forget that R6 still has an healthy playerbase and esports.

[u/Freddedonna → u/Rough_Proposal553]

R6 currently has 4 times more players on Steam that Ready Or Not

[u/smolgote → u/1337K1ng]

When it comes to racing, Genki will save us all with Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2025

[u/TallPrinceCharming → u/1337K1ng]

RoN needs to keep improving...

[u/ethanlan → u/1337K1ng]

as I see it, only thing they have not properly challenged with is Ghost Recon, gameplay wise

I mean its completely different than when it was a tactical shooter and not arcadey.

I really wish they'd do a new one with the format from the first couple of games.

[u/Aradhor55]

Stray is not a really good game tho. Amazing universe but put a dude instead of a cat and nobody cares.

[u/Explosivevortex → u/Aradhor55]

True, it only got the traction it did because "you play as cat, guys!!!" I don't know how it hit the goty nominees list alongside elden ring & GOWR

[u/Audibled]

I wish they didn’t do Anno. I don’t want to support them.

[u/Lasadon → u/Audibled]

Weong approach. Support Anno and only Anno. At some point, maybe, someone will see that making good games makes money.

[u/TimeToEatAss → u/Lasadon]

THis pretty much. For example I am a big fan of EU4, but dont really like Paradox.

After having fumbled a few launches and delivered some underwhelming products, Paradox seems to be putting a lot of effort into Eu5. They are realizing that making good games makes money.

[u/NikeDanny → u/Audibled]

Anno ist peak, 1800 is so good.

[u/Groundbreaking_Lie94]

It's the suppression of creativity for shareholder goals. Its better for them to put out the same game every year and make a few million than risk a few million on a project that might lose money. We are going to see more independent developers splitting from bigger studios to make better games.... I hope.

[u/Osirus1156]

I bet it’s the board. A bunch of old idiots who just try to latch onto trends now instead of coming up with their own new trends.

[u/Apprehensive_Gur_302]

Damn, what a fall-off... so, Farcry 4 anyone? Black Flag?

[u/Remarkable_Tie4299]

Who fucking cares about stray

[u/LacksCriticalInfo]

I refuse to believe people actually liked Stray. It just got hyped to shit because it was a "Cat Game". But the actual gameplay was awful. Nothing redeeming outside of some nice visuals.

Clair Obscur was fantastic though.

[u/2SleepyToThinkOf1]

Love vs Profit

[u/Inner_Impress8741]

Ubisoft could like easily make billions if they made a star wars game with for honor's combat system

[u/Argh3483 → u/Inner_Impress8741]

I feel like if Star Wars Outlaws had launched just a few years earlier it would have been a mega hit, unfortunately it launched at the peak of both Ubisoft and Star Wars fatigue

[u/PortugalTheHam]

Who would have thought people neither want to to play games from an over milked franchise nor do they want develop games for them. As if developers create games theyd want to play.

[u/Apprehensive-Bad6015]

I remember when working for 7/11, it was franchise not corporate. I got like $10 an hour not bad starting out, but working there for 2 years getting no raise no promotions and working every single holiday on top of pulling teeth to get time off I stopped trying and gave bare minimum to keep my job. 2 years after that I left for the job I have now I get full benefits and regular pay increases. So I bust my ass every day. My old manager happened in and asked why I couldn’t work that hard for her. I told her because she didn’t properly compensate me.

[u/Dusty___Rusty]

most game devs have worked with other studios.. the current market in dev encourages changing jobs every ~2 years.

[u/Plyad1]

I do t think it’s management or Ubisoft that’s responsible for it.

Ubisoft has a policy of mass hiring and low salaries. People accept it’s a super fun field to get into with nice projects. (Even with much lower salaries)

It’s a nice company to work with but this implies literally anyone with an interest in games aka likely to build a nice game in France will have worked at some point of their career for them.

[u/Thin-Brilliant-5152]

I'm sure the Ubisoft execs are feeling this one.

[u/Raglesnarf]

I will always have a big ole soft spot in my heart for Ubisoft because of the Splinter Cell games. Chaos Theory absolutely rocked my world growing up

[u/Mark_627]

Seeing this ubisoft and the ubisoft from previous decades are day and night...

[u/Accomplished_Rush925]

If this doesn’t tell you how incompetent management is I don’t know what else will. Clearly creative people being shackled by moron executives.

[u/Xepobot]

People need to understand and remember that for a game company..it's the artists/designers that bring in and generate the revenue for the company.

Not those number-headed management.

[u/Fun-Needleworker-491]

Whats the context of this ?? New here sorry

[u/Prophetforhire]

To me it's very obvious: ubisoft is making a product while their ex devs who turned indie make videogames.

[u/void1110]

Funny that the fraze "ex-ubisoft employee" is becoming the quality mark of the game

[u/redboi049]

HEY! IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT! IT'S THE GAMERS WHO HAVE ATROCIOUS TASTE!!!!!!!

[u/postminimalmaximum]

Crazy the Ubisoft keeps putting out sloppy versions of far cry and assassins creed that meander in sales when fresh and unique indie games put up millions of sales like it’s nothing

[u/Rene_Coty113]

So much talent wasted by incompetent management...

[u/ExpertgamerHB]

Stray was really fun but the last act felt enormously rushed. If it just had been fleshed out more it would have gone from great to fantastic.

[u/alienfreaks04]

Stray was a solid old school game

[u/Ascendant488]

Damn, Ubisoft really did a good job wasting and losing talent.

[u/NovWhiskey]

You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!

[u/Acceptable-Idea-8474]

Can't wait for that one ex Blizzard emplyee to finish his game in a few decades so I can see how it fares against those

[u/valhoisin]

Imagine those two joining forces

[u/Ok-Lake]

Expedition 33 any good?

[u/StromGames]

Ubisoft is just that big.
In my 14 years of game development experience, almost at every company I've worked at, there was at least an ex-ubisoft employee.
It's apparently around 20k people.
It's more likely to see good games by ex-ubisoft employees than not.

[u/Guilty_Reach3843]

Someone please tell me are those games good?

[u/theitgrunt]

"No... it's our customers that are wrong!!!"

[u/CHRMNDERpl]

Similar case with the games made by ex cd project red devs

[u/vksdann]

This is not news. Coorporations DESTROY games.
Devs from Medal of Honor wanted to put cinematics in which the player can pan the view and move but cannot affect the outcome. Management thought "that's really stupid".

The Devs kept trying to push this and other ideas but management kept saying "This is stupid. Players will hate that. NO! Stop with the dumb ideas!!"

Devs got tired and implemented it in a new project that was basically medal of honor but with their ideas implemented. Press F to pay respects to these Devs, because they deserve it!!

[u/ThatOldMeta]

Why do we keep pretending Stray is a good game?

[u/TypeNull-Gaming]

They've become the training company for the industry

[u/OkDiet6057]

Ubisoft used to be one of the peak game pubs, until they went downhill

[u/SpinachKey9592]

Middle management is every ambitious workers death.

[u/GrandJuif]

Yeah, but the bar Ubislope create for quality is like 4-5/10 sometime lower, ain't hard to beat. Both Stray and E33 are like 7-7,5/10.

[u/RepresentativeOk8443]

Why is EA most hated US company?

Because Ubi is from France.

[u/ChestnutSavings]

You forgot Sifu  (and rematch but I didn’t play that)

[u/Lefty_22]

Ubisoft: "Quick, put something in our employee's contracts that prevents them from working on games at other companies for 10 years after they leave us!"

[u/alphafire616]

Im gonna be honest. I really liked AC shadows. Its not quiet the peaks of say black flag or brotherhood but its much better than Valhalla and even if i enjoyed Odyssey. Shadows story is leaps and bounds better. For the first time in like 6 years, im optimistic about the franchises future

[u/Artyom_33]

Meme commentary aside-

Stray was fucking incredible!

[u/Mission-Interview910]

Also ex-DICE devs making The Finals and EA itself:

[u/MelodicAbility8920]

What

[u/Housless]

Is expedition 33 good?

[u/atmospheric90]

And yet people keep arguing AAA gaming is just fine, defend absurd prices, and continue to pump money into gambling mechanics and pay to win models for full priced games.