Ubisoft CEO told staff today the company must "succeed in strongly limiting our spending"

Started by the-pi-guy, Jul 21, 2022, 07:01 PM

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the-pi-guy



Ubisoft announced they have canceled 4 games today, 2 unannounced, 1 VR.  And delayed a major title.

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Another big Ubisoft game has been delayed. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora won't arrive in time for the release of James Cameron's feature film Avatar: The Way of Water this December and is now launching sometime after March 2023 at the earliest. CEO Yves Guillemot also told staff on Thursday that some projects have been canceled, and that the publisher will have to cut back expenses to only "what is essential" as it searches for its next blockbuster hit.

the-pi-guy

Ubisoft and Unity are struggling.

Sony, Nintendo are doing really well.  

There are a few that are probably doing well, but they might be close to peaking. Activision, maybe Square Enix?

MS is in too big to fail territory.

Legend

At least the two announced games that were canceled weren't that interesting. Still though, not at all good.

Glad Beyond and Evil 2 wasn't cancelled. I guess that's a good sign that development is going well.

kitler53

Limiting expenses is a thing many companies do while trying to look attractive for a buyout…


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the-pi-guy

Limiting expenses is a thing many companies do while trying to look attractive for a buyout…
It's also something they do when they're struggling.

They delayed Avatar, cancelled 4 titles.

Skull and Bones has been in development for 9 years. Beyond Good and Evil 2 seems to be struggling.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of their recent games have underperformed. Watch Dogs Legion, Far Cry 6.

Ubisoft is still doing okay, but it doesn't feel like they're going to last how they're going.

BananaKing

They started last gen really strong and had a lot of hits. But this gen they cant seem to pump out the hits like they used to

I think skull and bones will be a mess, but they are releasing whatever they can put together because they are obligated to release something. Just eat the hit, gather whatever revenue they can get, and move on. If somehow some people latch on and they have a community for the game then they try turn it around with updates like they did seige and for honor

kitler53

Jul 22, 2022, 03:25 PM Last Edit: Jul 22, 2022, 03:27 PM by kitler53
just double checked what Ubisoft has released in the last 20 years and for my tastes it's not much.  

I wish they'd port Rayman origins to ps5 and make more.  if I ever get a switch I"d buy the Mario + rabbits games.  I've never played a prince of Persia due to being a Nintendo fanboy back when those were released but in theory that peaks my interest  everything else I've skipped on purpose.


Featured Artist: Vanessa Hudgens

the-pi-guy


kitler53

since it's announcement it has looked like a bad idea.  the biggest failure was greenlighting it. 


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Legend

since it's announcement it has looked like a bad idea.  the biggest failure was greenlighting it.
It's harsh but I agree.

Skull and Bones at least had obvious potential, but it should have released years ago as a minimum viable product. Spending so much money on games that will likely flop is crazy. Both Fortnite Battle Royale and Apex Legends spent less time in development than these two games.

kitler53

It's harsh but I agree.

Skull and Bones at least had obvious potential, but it should have released years ago as a minimum viable product. Spending so much money on games that will likely flop is crazy. Both Fortnite Battle Royale and Apex Legends spent less time in development than these two games.

it's also why I'm worried about Sony's commitment to GaaS.  how many will flop?  will any be a big success?


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BananaKing

it's also why I'm worried about Sony's commitment to GaaS.  how many will flop?  will any be a big success?
Playstation has other revenue sources that make it billions where it can cover up for those flops and make up for them. In the case of ubisoft a lot of their games have been failures lately and they need games to make money for them in order to continue expanding and funding new games.

Sony just need a few games to succeed in that GaaS genre.

kitler53

Playstation has other revenue sources that make it billions where it can cover up for those flops and make up for them. In the case of ubisoft a lot of their games have been failures lately and they need games to make money for them in order to continue expanding and funding new games.

Sony just need a few games to succeed in that GaaS genre.
not going bankrupt does not make it any less of a failure.  

and for each of those failures is an opportunity cost of how they could have better spent those resources.   i don't entirely hate that sony is pursuing GaaS but very few games can be successful at a time and it takes a massive amount of resources to keep them running.  and by that i mean market-wide only so many GaaS games can get and keep an active community of gamers.  we as gamers tend to aggregate to the high population games and let the rest fall aside.  

10 GaaS games by 2026 is too many.


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the-pi-guy

I'm not exactly sure how Sony views their live service titles, and how much success they're really expecting out of the average one.

Sony seems to view it as being a multiplayer push, as they have contrasted it with their "Single player" titles.
But I'm not sure if they expect that each of them will be moderately successful, or are they just expecting that 2 of them will be successful enough to make up for the other 8.

But I would expect that their GaaS titles won't be resource hogs, unless one of them really takes off.

kitler53

But I would expect that their GaaS titles won't be resource hogs, unless one of them really takes off.
if their GaaS titles aren't a resource hog,.. it won't take off.   

people don't keep playing games that get a 1-time content drop and then go into "maintenance" mode.   heck,.. without new content regularly does the game even qualify as a GaaS?


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