Ubisoft First Half Operating Profit Down By 93%
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fantaskarsef
Whoah.... 93% down... that's a lot of money not coming in.
Undying
Shitty games ubisoft reflects that.
AndyMutz
that's what you get for moving your games off of steam AND releasing messy shit like breakpoint.
-andy-
moo100times
Didn't they also recently spend a lot of money on share buybacks to stop vivendi taking over? I wonder if that has anything to do with this too. I agree games definitely less good but I thought their titles were still selling reasonably?
Netherwind
Some yes but not all. I feel like the recent AC games were really good. FC5 was also a step up in the right direction.
KissSh0t
Along with the release of Division 2 and the not a real Ghost Recon game could this sharp downturn in profits be related in any way to Ubisoft no longer releasing new video games on Steam / going into a partnership with epic to release new video games outside of the Uplay storefront?
Backstabak
The problem is they have nothing new, so they only sell older titles like AC:O since Ghost Recon didn't pan out. But quite frankly their games are often quite similar with a lot of the unnecessary open world busy work that they try to monetize through their store. Even though I did enjoy latest AC, most of the game you do basically the same mission over and over just with different in game cutscenes in between.
emperorsfist
Let me "correct" you. All Ubisoft "main IP" games are the same. AC, Ghost Recon, and Far Cry have the identical gameplay loop nowadays. You have a big map that's filled with quest markers, but you mostly do the same stuff over and over again, working with some lightweight RPG system. You gain xp and loot, all the while the game offers you "boosters" to do it quicker, and some useless skins, because most of the time, you'll be playing alone. The only difference is what weapons and camera you use.
Undying
You know how they say about Ubisoft game formula. Once you played one you played them all. 😀
FM57
I would be more positive than most of you guys. This is a cyclical business, where the portfolio effect is meant to cover low performing games with a few hits.
This time Ubisoft did not do well BUT they postponed many of future releases to make them better and satisfy their customers.
So I would say they are very good at twhat they do, wise also to make the games right to gain credibility among players. Let's see thei results next year same time.
go4brendon
Yea and they didnt exactly help themselves with the whole rainbow six siege china sensorship issue awahile back. That put me off that game aswell with the constant nerfs.
emperorsfist
Yeah. Thing is, I could understand if this whole "streamlining" meant that you kinda choose your Ubisoft poison. For me, it's the two new ACs. I never liked the AC gameplay, and the stories were ranging from ok to dumb. But once they basically ripped off most of Witcher 3 (and some principles of Dark Souls' combat), the series kinda entertained me. The rest, though? I don't get how there are people playing all these titles and not go insane from the sheer repetition.
KissSh0t
I see it as Ubisoft pushing back the releases for those games because Ubisoft saw that releasing unfinished games wasn't working as well as it has in the past.
emperorsfist
To be fair, I had some giggles out of the release of both Watch_Dogs and AC: Unity. I guess it wasn't as funny to those who got those games day one...
Undying
There is one game from ubisoft that im excited about isnt even announced yet and thats Splinter Cell.
I musy say WD3 looks interesting with all that "play whoever you want". I guess thats different.
emperorsfist
I don't want to be a party pooper, but I don't think a Splinter Cell game is coming anytime soon. As for WD3, the idea is neat, but it will mostly be a novelty feature, rather then some substantial change in gameplay. The rest will still be a GTA clone with a hack prompt.
labidas
It is my conviction that the gamingindustry has very low standards, which is fueled by an desire to sell more by keeping the consumers never satisfied.
RealNC
Good. I hope they go down so that the devs can move on and create actually good games, not payment platforms disguised as games.
Dean_Demon
To me this isn't surprising at all, developing AAA games today is very costly and runs into 100's of millions for a single game and it's unsustainable but with some rather bizarre microtransaction practices that exist today gamers will and do right now say enough is enough and will fight back with their wallet. Developers and publishers will at some point have to take a different approach if they want to survive, i'm a programmer and musician and have seen all kind of changes in this industry but only gamers can make that change happen.
AsiJu
It could... 😉
Division 2 is solid though and in many ways better than original but it's ultimately more of the same.
Sequels to live service games can be tough sells even when good (Division 2) and especially when not so much (Breakpoint).
