Ubisoft Investors Push For Company Sale as Shares Hit Decade-Low (techspot.com)
- Reference: 0175174041
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/24/10/01/203230/ubisoft-investors-push-for-company-sale-as-shares-hit-decade-low
- Source link: https://www.techspot.com/news/104950-ubisoft-investors-push-sale-shares-hit-decade-low.html
> Ubisoft has never had the best reputation among gamers. It's been voted the most-hated gaming brand in the world more than once, and there are those who blame the Outlaws reception on trolls who target Ubisoft games and modern Star Wars media.
>
> "The game received an unusual number of user reviews with a clear negative bias (including a large percentage of "zero" reviews), despite seeing acceptable review scores from reputable review sites," Wedbush analysts Michael Pachter, Alicia Reese and Kade Bar wrote in a note last week. "This is a case of a rare incel victory that led to Ubisoft having to take down its numbers," they added.
[1] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/09/03/1014230/star-wars-outlaws-is-a-crappy-masterpiece
[2] https://www.techspot.com/news/104950-ubisoft-investors-push-sale-shares-hit-decade-low.html
The definition of out of touch: (Score:4, Insightful)
"The game received an unusual number of user reviews with a clear negative bias (including a large percentage of "zero" reviews), despite seeing acceptable review scores from reputable review sites," Wedbush analysts Michael Pachter, Alicia Reese and Kade Bar wrote in a note last week. "This is a case of a rare incel victory that led to Ubisoft having to take down its numbers," they added."
"Well of COURSE it has to be the fucking incels. We couldn't possibly make a shit game, just look at the scores in all these reviews we paid for!"
Re: (Score:2)
I don't even know if it's that. I looked at the MetaCritic and it had a 76 average critic score. Maybe things have changed recently, but in years past anything below an 85 was considered to be a subpar game. A game had to be practically non-functional to score anything below a 5/10 and reviewers handed out perfect scores like candy so even games that were merely just okay would often have average scores in the 80s. If they paid for reviews it clearly wasn't enough of them.
I haven't paid any attention to
Re: (Score:3)
> I haven't paid any attention to Ubisoft games in a while or this game specifically, but I wonder if the lackluster sales have to do with how much damage Disney itself has done to the Star Wars brand with their recent films and television series. I do realize that after reading a short blurb about this game that it doesn't share a story or setting with any of those entries, but I think there's so much Star Wars fatigue that a lot of people didn't bother to even look into it.
This, in particular, strikes me as having the largest impact on the sales of the game; in combination with the fact that Disney has done to Star Wars what Ubisoft has being doing to their own open world formula for over a decade. I didn't give this game the time of day, but if it had come out like 10 years ago (with graphics relative to what was reasonable 10 years ago) I would have been all over it. The market is saturated, and we don't want what they're selling anymore. I mean, yes I did read the same biz
Re: (Score:2)
A bad take is probably better than telling the market that they're a company that makes the kind of games the public has no interest in due to a reputation for formulaic crap that doesn't add much beyond better looking graphics. Your post did remind me of why I quit caring about their games in the first place though: open world, empty gameplay.
Re: Go Woke (Score:2)
It must hurt to be so afraid of made up shit. Boogeyman!
Outlaws is really great (Score:3, Informative)
From what I can tell, a lot of the negative Outlaws reviews came for two reasons:
1) PC version was pretty buggy (unlike consoles), most reviewers were on a PC.
2) Most reviewers only slammed through the main story so they missed a huge amount of side content and honestly, the point of the game.
I just find it enjoyable to wander around, exploring, taking on missions. I liked the main story but it's not at all where I spent most of my time.
The whole thing is just seriously focused on classic Star Wars, being set right between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, with some (bit not too many) familiar things from that era in the game along with a lot of original stuff. As a result is is just really fun to play, this is the Star Wars it seemed to me that most people unhappy with Disney stuff have been asking for.
It's also just really nice to have a game not focused on Jedi, just someone trying to get by in the outer rim which is mostly run by one crime syndicate or another.
If you liked classic Star Wars, I honestly think this game is a must play. It's not the most serious game around, it's not Splinter Cell in terms of stealth. Nor is it Call of Duty in terms of combat. But it has a fun mix of everything and a a really likable character you play as along with a great companion creature.
I don't know that it can save Ubisoft but I think at least sales will pick up pretty rapidly on this once they get a stability patch out (due very soon) and the DLCs.
Re: (Score:2)
> It's also just really nice to have a game not focused on Jedi
Very true.
> I honestly think this game is a must play
3) I do not have a dog in this fight, but I have seen some YouTube videos pointing out interesting shortcomings. It doesn't make the game not worth playing, but it is surprising that a AAA game would even face such issues. Here's a video comparing several activities side-by-side with Red Dead Redemption 2 (from 2018): [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkTbIO2Yg3I
Some small corrections to vid. (Score:1)
Interesting but a little misleading at times.
You do leave footprints in sand. Sort of in mud.
You do get wet when it rains, it's just that swimming is not really a thing in Outlaws. On the planet Akira when it rains her hair gets obviously wet along with her clothes, on Kajimi her clothes get covered in snowflakes. I don't know if it ever snows in RDR2 to compare.
Also some people have complained it's "unrealistic" you can knock helmeted figures on the head and they collapse. Meanwhile in the comparison f
Don't want shitty UbiSoft launcher, thanks (Score:5, Insightful)
Also I want my games to be mine.
The Not Pirate game that became World of Ships (Score:1)
doomed UbiSoft more than anything else. All the fans ask for is more open world pirate adventures and was rewarded with a cutdown World of Ships simulator.
Trolls!! (Score:5, Insightful)
> there are those who blame the Outlaws reception on trolls who target Ubisoft games and modern Star Wars media.
This. This right here is the problem.
Blaming game sales on "trolls" is really desperate. If the game is good, no amount of trolling is going to cause it to fail (even trolls could have reduced the sales a little).
A Youtuber I watch always says "We do not even have the power to force users to click to subscribe to our channel. Why do you think we can cause a game to not sell?"
Re: (Score:2)
As I mentioned, all the fans want when they heard that UbiSoft is doing another pirate theme game and they have vision of a more expanded Black Flag sequel. Instead we got Skull and Bone, which for all intent and purpose is a World of Ship simulator. Skull and Bone cost a lot of time and money to develop.
Wedbush, a wealth management firm (Score:2)
With an unfortunately large position in ubisoft, I imagine.
Did they really just blame incels for their woes? (Score:3)
Did they really just incels for their game failing and the company dying?
Every person and company has a certain amount of "benefit of the doubt". Because literally every action, everything you do, can be interpreted at least two ways. When you have a good reputation, then things tend to get interpreted in a good light. When you exhaust the supply of benefit of the doubt, then even good things start getting interpreted poorly. That is where Ubisoft is today. They may not be responsible for everything they are being blamed for, but they are 100% responsible for getting themselves in the position where no one will issue them benefit of the doubt any more.
Once you're in that position, that isn't the time to start blaming people and whining. Once you exhaust your benefit of the doubt, you have to fill it again. Drop by fucking drop. So I have exactly zero sympathy for their position.
heuristics to live by (Score:3)
own a pc and see Ubisoft on a game - don't buy its a waste of money for a crappy console port.
Re: heuristics to live by (Score:2)
This. I bought rider's republic and returned it for a refund on steam within 30 minutes.
They should merge with Unity (Score:3)
May as well get all the bad ideas in one place
Great (Score:2)
Fire the boss. He's a fuckwit. I know ubisoft makes shit that is unplayable with insultingly bad DRM. If I see the ubisoft logo, i move on without any more consideration.
A long time coming (Score:2)
Ubisoft hasn't been what made it successful in almost a decade now. The CEO was propped up by weird deals with banks involving personal wealth a few years ago during a hostile takeover attempt despite how obviously he was failing. Just another outsized ego willing to lose tens of thousands of people their jobs so long as it keeps up the illusion of personal greatness.
Re: (Score:2)
Tencent investment allows the family to continue to have oversized control over the company. Right now the activists shareholders just want UbiSoft to be taken private so they can be cashed out from this sinking ship. I'm not sure if any investment bank is dumb enough to sink time and resource to do that.
Uh– (Score:2)
I just checked; Star Wars Outlaws doesn't even drop until Nov 21.
So much expectation.. (Score:1)
and "Star Wars Outlaws" is a shit game, graphics a decade old (why?) some "tomb rider" feelings and to little star wars feelings, a shit game, with shit results, no surprise
Collateral Damage (Score:2)
There's an industry-wide boycott of Star Wars properties after Kennedy decided to sacrifice the lore at the altar of The Message for Disney.
That's not necessarily Ubisoft's fault.
I am puzzled by the investors' "buy high sell low" strategy though.
Not attached personally; I was out at Midichlorians.
per the EULA we can drop all the servers with no r (Score:5, Insightful)
per the EULA we can drop all the servers with no refunds on games that don't work any more.