This is going to be one of those “Ubisoft investigates Ubisoft and found that Ubisoft did nothing wrong at Ubisoft”-situations, isn’t it?

  • ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago
    1. fire all DEI consultants
    2. get rid of woke writers
    3. stop making everything live service
    4. give devs more time to optimize
    5. don’t overmonetize your games

    literally all they need to do. If you make games that people actually want to play, then people will buy them. And if you want to have lgbtq characters, then do it like borderlands 2, that game got it right in 2012.

    • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 month ago

      Why would firing DEI consultants improve the work?

      And if you want to have lgbtq characters, then do it like borderlands 2, that game got it right in 2012.

      In what particular way do they differ?

      • ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Because things like black protagonists with hip-hop music in the background make no sense in a feudal japanese setting and people are sick of games being abused as vehicles for morality preaching.

        An example from borderlanfs two could be Sir Hammerlock, who was introduced as a normal (for borderlands) character early on and later in a side quest was revealed to be gay in passing. That’s the kind of ‘representation’ you want for lgbtq to be “normalized”. In modern games, his story would be one of struggle against straight white oppressors at the end of which there would be a five minute long cutscene in which everybody turns to the camera and informs the player that being gay is normal and that prejudice is bad and that straight white people are inherently evil. I’m overexagerating (spelling?) of course, but you get the point.

        • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.worldOP
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          Because things like black protagonists with hip-hop music in the background make no sense in a feudal japanese setting and people are sick of games being abused as vehicles for morality preaching.

          But games about dudes in medieval-looking sci-fo power armor stomping around WW1-styled soldiers do?

          And that doesn’t preach any morals? But a black guy in a samurai setting does? How come one does, but the other does not?

          Also…

          An example from borderlanfs two could be Sir Hammerlock, who was introduced as a normal (for borderlands) character early on and later in a side quest was revealed to be gay in passing.

          Maybe don’t make it as readily apparent how much you internalized gayness being abnormal. Telling. You wouldn’t write sentences like this if that wasn’t a normal thought process for you, since you did probably not have to actively consider your wording.

          • ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Bullshit. Normalization means not making a big deal out of it, which goes contrary to the woke standard of putting it front and center.

            • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 month ago

              But like you say, if you want to normalize it, shouldn’t it be front and center then? Since that’s part of being normal, also being front and center?

              • ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                It cannot be front and center and normal at the same time. It cannot be the main part of a character’s identity, else it will always be perceived as “special” and “extra”, but not “normal”. Devs can make whatever game with whatever chars they want ofc, but the result is what we’re seeing with ubisoft.

                I’m just ranting at this point.

                • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.worldOP
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                  1 month ago

                  It cannot be front and center and normal at the same time.

                  Why not? If it’s normal, any possible identity and any possible element will be front and center every so often, no? That’s what normality means after all? Something has to be front and center, and if everything is normal, everything will appear there repeatedly?

      • ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        funny, given that most gamers seem to agree with me, according to sales numbers. Noone wants this shit in games. Perhaps we’re not the problem.

    • frostmore@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      last time i wrote something similar to yours,the left wing nutjobs came rushing in,guns blazing.

      god damn wokies.

    • BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I bet at first it seems like multiple consultancies, but the more they investigate, the more they realize it’s just minor variations on one consultancy copy-pasted around the map, and at a certain point, investigating each one just feels same-y and boring.

    • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      “Ubisoft investigates Ubisoft and found that Ubisoft did nothing wrong at Ubisoft”-situations, isn’t it?

      “The consumers are wrong, it’s those damn Millenials again”

      Followed by continuing to change nothing and fading into obscurity like Atari or Commodore. (hopefully)

  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    What it really comes down to is that this type of “safe” game design where you rehash the same game over and over again for 20 years thing used to make a shitload of money, that’s why they all do it, and now it doesn’t. Or at least, they’re discovering that there’s a mathematical maximum amount of times you can rehash something without innovating. And not doing that is too huge a pivot for a huge lumbering company like Ubsioft to make on a reasonable timescale.

    This is what’s supposed to happen though. When not enough people buy games to make them profitable, the games have to change, or Ubisoft goes under. Either is fine.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      And I feel like half of that 20 years was based on FOMO. “I better get the next Assassin’s Creed or I’ll miss out”, and then it’s all the same crap but they still sold a million of them. People do eventually wise up to FOMO.

      • delitomatoes@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        Miss out on what? Unity was a buggy mess on launch, skip, the British one was a snorefest. By the time of the reboots, Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring and BotW already came out

    • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      Well, it also doesn’t help how much they are “accidentally” insulting multiple racial groups trying to make an Assassins’ Creed game.

  • hdnsmbt@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Nah, this is about money. They’ll definitely find a group of underpaid employees to fire.

    • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      They’ll fire the developers that implemented the unpopular features (that they didn’t want to build in the first place but were forced upon them from executives, who, by the way, are due for their end of year bonuses!!)

  • olicvb@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Always suprised when I remember that WatchDogs 2 is from Ubisoft. Such a well made game, i played the crap out of it twice

    • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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      1 month ago

      I wanted to like Steep but the Controller experience, even on the Steam deck is so horrible I didn’t last a full hour

      • olicvb@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        I know there are some changes you can do in settings. I mostly did snowboarding and since I snowboard irl I found the controls were close to how you’d control your feet on an actual board. So that probably helped ^ ^

        But rider’s republic mixed it all up so I get what you mean

      • olicvb@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Maybe they fixed it? I didn’t play day 1 so I’m not sure how it was then (played maybe 2-3 years after it’s release)

        • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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          1 month ago

          I just found it soul less and unbalanced. But then again I was going into it early when they where still calling it the “GTA killer”.

  • Lad@reddthat.com
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    1 month ago

    Maybe they should try not making crap games. All that money and they can’t get decent voice actors or writers.

  • kerthale@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    How about just the completely entitled attitude of the execs that think they can tell us how to enjoy something. Only to then whine that nobody wants to buy their 70 euro no better than mid game

    • Delphia@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      They do damn near 10/10 work when they give a fuck, Thats probably the worst part.

      Siege was damn near perfect as a tactical competitive shooter for the first few years. The Division was great, Just Cause was enormous fun and so on.

      The problem is they hit a winner, and then milk it and milk it and milk it until we hate it or them.

          • ampersandrew@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            9 years old is pretty old for a video game. When it first came out, the goofiest thing about it was the guy who could heal you by throwing a syringe at you. Now everyone has goofy super powers and things that would never make sense in the same world as something like a Jack Ryan novel.

      • Suburbanl3g3nd@lemmings.world
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        1 month ago

        My god Siege was good for the first few years. Intoxicatingly good multiplayer. Too bad they fucked it up trying to make it more CoD like. For example, I used to play with a completely hidden hud because it was so immersive and fun. Now it’s like rainbow six and Roblox had a baby and the weird game popped out. I can’t even hide my hud or crosshair any longer

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          they did a little bit of this to hell let loose. The primary thing that bothered me was how when the game came out there was no hit indicator whatsoever. no visual no sound nothing. it made for some very interesting gameplay. then they added it indicators, even if you’re like 100 yards away from somebody you can hear this bullet go “whap” if it hits them

      • WalnutLum@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        I love the division 1 and 2 but the first game had some MAJOR bullet soak issues for the first half-year of the game’s lifetime.

        Massive always does good work despite Ubisoft, in my opinion.

        • Katana314@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Massive are the ones that made Star Wars Outlaws - so it seems the world disagrees with you.

          I wasn’t so interested in Outlaws, but I’ve sometimes thought the criticism was slightly overblown. It looks a lot better than some other Ubi games.

          • garretble@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Honestly, Outlaws has flaws, BUUUUT it’s fun as hell. It’s a 7/10 game, but it’s fun. I enjoy my time with it even though I see some glitches here or there, or that the lip sync is a little jank.

            It’s a big ass Star Wars game (with no AC towers hooray!) where you get to rub shoulders with scoundrels and play Sabacc and visit honestly cool locations that are visually impressive.

            I feel like most of the issues it has is probably a function of “we need this game out by X date” versus the devs’ ability.

            • brenticus@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              I finished the main story last night and I basically agree with you. It’s got plenty of issues, but overall it’s fun. It is neither the 9/10 game of most reviews I saw nor the 4/10 game that people want it to be.

              I think my main issue is that it wants to have a story about the underworld and how you can’t trust anyone and you’re a huge underdog just trying to survive but it doesn’t want to commit to it. It feels thematically janky in places and ways that feel design-by-committee. It fills the shoes of Shadows of the Empire decently enough, but it feels like it was trying to be 1313 and failed.

              • garretble@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                I have this feeling that once it starts going on more sales and more people play it the general consensus will be that’s it’s a pretty solid game. I also imagine like a lot of these games there will be a patch in the next month that fixes a litany of issues.

                You’re right it’s kind of interesting that the factions don’t really add a lot of meaningful gameplay mechanics, but oh well. At first I was like, “I’m not working with the Pykes AT ALL because I know what happens in your spice mines.” But you end up just being friends with all of them as needed (to get their rewards).

                Just having this big coat of Star Wars paint over this otherwise fairly standard action/shooter/open world game really does make it more fun, though. I still have a bit to go in the story, but I’m just basting around cleaning up side quests right now because it’s fun to do.

          • WalnutLum@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            It seems like a very polarizing game, you either really enjoy it or not at all.

  • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Clearly what they need is more management layers and SCRUM masters to streamline the game creation process.

    • 100@fedia.io
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      1 month ago

      and a dozen more external contractors will def make their games better

      • DudeDudenson@lemmings.world
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        1 month ago

        They’re going lean so they’re firing half their workforce so the rest can produce more work. Don’t worry though middle management is safe

      • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        How else do we foster a sense of team if all the devs are not in the office 5 days a week?

        • Janovich@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Also to promote a sense of community and close cooperation we’re moving to an open office plan. (I.e. packed in like sardines to glorified picnic tables with hot seating and noise everywhere.)

  • Phegan@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Absolutely not. When the board is looking into it, it’s because they are not returning shareholder value and they are pissed about it. This will likely end with the C-suite being butchered.

    • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 month ago

      Ah yes, I hate being butchered that way, too. It sucks hard to be paid to leave before you get paid extra to start your next job elsewhere.

      And don’t get me wrong, if the C-suites actually ever had to take actual responsibility for their fuck-ups, I’d be all for those board investigations. But they don’t. They get paid enough to not care about interims between jobs - just look at the CEO who said people can just spend a year on the beach or so if they’ve been laid off - plus they get paid extra both on the leaving and on the re-hiring.

      If they had to pay all non-salary money back on fucking up, even retroactively, no matter how many Porsches they’d have to liquidate to get the money from X years of fucking up the company back, sure. Do it. But that’s just sadly not the case. For a C-suite, this just means changing what name is written under your name, and moving on to the next place you can grift.

  • FISHNETS@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 month ago

    Finally, let me address some of the polarized comments around Ubisoft lately. I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”

    Creating games for the broadest possible audience is what has made Ubisoft games so lackluster in recent years, and I think players are tired of games not targeting a specific niche. It feels these games are full time jobs in themselves with how much needs to be done to complete/100% it, and I think that formula is now stale.

    I’ll be interested to see what results of this investigation. Hopefully better art, but I am cynical

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      100% is itself a bit of a misleading target.

      I think I remember Just Cause 2 had it so the top achievement in the game was only for 70% completion because they knew they had such a ridiculously huge map.

      Breath of the Wild aims the same way - they like having you come across a bunch of Korok seeds while traveling, but not scouring the land with a magnifying glass looking for them.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 month ago

      . . . our goal is not to push any specific agenda

      This is the part they’re actually getting at. Not that the fundamental game design is for everyone (which, yes, is what they try and fail at), but rather they’re responding to people who think they’re failing because they put a woman as the protagonist in some game or another.

  • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Management has decided that the real issue is the lack of employee involvement. Mandatory beatings will commence.

  • frostmore@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    they can start by just making games as gamers want it,not inserting lame ass political agendas in their games or hire politically correct nutjobs to determine how games should be inclusive.

    • grayhaze@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      What you mean is making games how you want them to be, not the overwhelming majority of gamers. Stop thinking everything is an agenda designed to limit your freedom.

      • frostmore@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        ubisoft stock price plummeting,black myth wukong having more players than star wars franchise,game with DEI rubbish tanking or having little to no players,yea majority have spoken alright.

  • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Here’s one. Your main series assassin’s Creed still has the same glitches and bugs it did 15 years ago. The last one was so much more of the same that it’s the first Ac game I put down and gave up on after an hour cause it felt like I had played it already. How bout building a new game from scratch instead of repeatedly dipping into the same garbage pile and charging premium for it, while your other titles are overflowing with micro transactions and bullshit

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    it’s always really annoying when there’s the assumption that the existing team is not aware of and trying to fix problems. I hate when I have a problem and I’m taking steps to fix it and then somebody else steps in to say “let’s figure out how to fix your problem”.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      after careful consideration of the management decisions that brought us here, we concluded that 1600 layoffs of low level employees is the solution. those who stay will crunch harder for the same pay to make up for any lost labor so we can keep churning out slop that definitely has nothing to do with our crisis.