Some companies get a lot of crap.
Often this is justified; it’s the result of years of bad decisions by big wig corporate
managers who take advantage of their customers and employees.
Other times, it’s because they’ve made a couple huge mistakes in recent memory and
have lost all credibility as a result.
These mistakes could have been malicious, or simply a result of incompetence, but regardless
their customers have lost faith and no longer trust them.
For the third type of this phenomenon, we have to look at a company who has a troubled
past but has made an active effort to redeem themselves.
They were previously mocked and ridiculed as a result of their foolish decisions, but
now they are trying to right the ship.
It’s an admirable endeavor, one that requires vast expense and patience, but if they are
successful, they could regain all of the frustrated fans they previously lost.
You know who I’m talking about.
Of course, Bethesda Game Studios.
Time and time again they show everyone how pro-consumer companies should handle releases
and dlc and I can’t stop fellating- haha I’m just kidding.
Those guys suck.
You hear they’re reselling chunks of Fallout 3 in 76 now?
Yeah.
Creation club for the win.
I swear, those guys are the worst.
Seriously, fudge those guys.
#FamilyFriendly.
I’m actually talking about Ubisoft.
They have done wonders for the industry in terms of tech and R&D, something we’ll discuss
in a few moments, but first we need to elaborate a bit on Ubisoft as a company.
After all, the title of this video is “We Take Ubisoft For Granted” and that’s a
statement that I stand behind.
I don’t think Ubisoft gets enough credit for the games and development they do.
When we discuss some of the most prolific developers in gaming we often throw out studios
like CD Projekt RED, Rocksteady, Rockstar, but you rarely hear Ubisoft mentioned despite
the fact that year after year Ubisoft pushes the tech envelope and are consistently responsible
for some of the biggest leaps we’ve had in recent memory.
Now, don’t think I don’t realize how ballsy my claims are, I know that many of you are
probably writing out your comments right this very moment, so I am going to break all of
this down, all I ask is that you hear me out.
And no, Ubisoft is not paying me to make a video praising them.
I swear, everytime I complement a studio or developer 5 people in the comments freak out
and demand to know how much I was paid.
It’s ridiculous, I am not being paid and never have been paid by them for anything.
I’m just a gamer who loves their work and think they deserve more credit paid unto them.
Firstly, what has Ubisoft done that made them the target of online displeasure?
Well, most of their credibility was lost due to two major mistakes made in the year 2014.
You see, this was the year that they were set to make huge leaps into the next generation
of gaming.
The PS4 and Xbox One had just launched and this was Ubisoft’s chance to push the envelope
and separate themselves.
Problem is, they did just that; they pushed too hard.
Giggity.
The first snafu was related to Watch Dogs, which launched May 27th, 2014.
Ubisoft had shown off the game to press and media for months, releasing highly polished
and scripted gameplay demos to the public and encouraging players the game would meet
and exceed expectations that were set by said demos.
Everything about the game seemed great.
The graphics were incredible, the gameplay seemed endless, and comparisons between Watch
Dogs and Grand Theft Auto began cropping up.
One prominent gaming journalist even said it resembled a true “next gen GTA.”
Hype was through the roof, and when the game launched…
Well, let’s just say some people were dissatisfied.
Most of this had to do with the fact that the graphics were heavily downgraded from
what was shown off at E3.
Furthermore, the game was sold as having a fully dynamic world, within which you are
able hack and slash your way into almost any building or space.
This was not the case at launch.
The game was bland and while parts of it were fun, it lacked the true “next gen” feel
that it was sold on.
Likely due to the fact that it was cross platform and cross gen, releasing on the 360 and ps3
in addition to the new consoles.
Regardless, the game wasn’t received very well.
So after this, Ubisoft was facing a new type of challenge.
They had just launched Watch Dogs to critical frustration and they were revving up to release
Assassin’s Creed Unity, which was to be the first game in the series to launch exclusively
on the PS4 and Xbox One.
But the same story was true of Unity as was true on Watch Dogs.
They promised too much and were too ambitious.
At launch, the co-op mechanics were underdeveloped and the game, in general, was bugged beyond
belief.
Now, I’ve done critiques of almost every Assassin’s Creed game.
I love them to death, and Unity is a weird one for me.
You see, the game is actually really good.
There’s a real gem in here.
The problem is that when it launched it was so broken that it was borderline unplayable
for many people.
Even today, remnants of the tech issues can be felt, such as glitched animations and some
of the worst model swap pop in I’ve ever seen in a AAA game.
All this being said, we had two games that could have been something great, but were
too ambitious and oversold.
As they say, the only impression that matters is the first one.
The unfortunate reality of these releases is that they mortally damaged the reputation
of Ubisoft, especially AC Unity.
They went from being one of the big three developers who are always pushing the tech
boundary and dropped into the same ranking as EA and Activision.
People looked at them as a big business first and a gaming company second.
They were more concerned with the bottom line than they were with the game’s polish or
quality.
And Ubisoft realized this.
And I think this is something people forget when we talk about a big company like Ubisoft.
We forget that a company is, by definition, a collection of people.
These people have feelings, emotions, and pride.
Don’t you think two especially terrible launches would seriously upset and depress
the people who worked on them for years?
Do you think they were actually proud of those releases?
No.
Sure, some ethically bankrupt individuals probably didn’t care either way.
They got their pay checks and bounced.
But we should all remember that these gaming companies are comprised of countless artists
who are pouring their passion and love into these projects, and you’d better believe
stuff like this upsets them and perhaps more importantly, motivates them to do better.
Almost immediately they began shaking things up.
Managers were fired, hierarchies were restructured and new quality control methods were implanted.
Over the course of the next few years, Ubisoft began working on two new endeavors to try
and win back their credibility.
They were going to try and reinvent two of their most popular franchises in one of the
most ambitious ways imaginable.
Firstly, for Assassin’s Creed, they knew that the games had steadily been growing and
getting bigger.
They were becoming less about stealth and more about melee combat.
But more than anything, Assassin’s Creed was starting to focus on a part of the games
that had always been there and had been a fan favorite feature from the beginning: the
world.
AC had been recreating vast swathes of ancient and medieval locations for almost a decade,
and time and time again, players made it clear that they were always blown away by the quality
of these recreations.
Heck, they’re even using the model of Notre Dame from Unity to help rebuild it after the
fire earlier this year.
I can say, for one, that my favorite part of most AC games is the world that they place
the game within.
A recreation of industrial era London, or revolutionary Paris, or even the early American
Colonies, they’re all incredibly well done and are intoxicating to explore.
When mixed with the free running system that Ubisoft had been developing since the Prince
of Persia games, these locations became entirely separate worlds to explore.
And so, Ubisoft decided to make those worlds the stars of the next games and they greenlit
an effective reboot of the franchise with Assassins Creed Origins where Ancient Egypt
was to be the centerpiece of the entire campaign.
Yes, ancient Egypt.
The entirety of ancient Egypt.
Like, the whole country.
And they were successful, say what you will about the game, but I think it is objectively
amazing in terms of scope, scale, and technology.
Sure, the writing could have used some polish, but in terms of what they actually were able
to achieve, it’s very impressive.
At launch the game received vast amounts of praise for its use of Ubisoft’s technical
advances, such as water physics, data streaming, animation fluidity and the graphical fidelity.
But beyond this, Origins marked the start of a new phase of the Assassins Creed Franchise;
a point where the games would transition into open world, exploration based, narrative RPGs.
Simply, this was a MASSIVE departure from where the series started.
But Ubisoft wasn’t going to stop there, they had another revolutionary idea up their
sleeves.
Watch Dogs had struggled to stand out over the first two releases.
The first game disappointed many, and the second title failed to gain traction with
a wide-spread audience.
According to my research, it looks like, by most estimates, Watch Dogs 2 sold around 26%
of the total units when compared to the original, in the first month.
For many, this seemed like it could potentially be the death knell for the franchise.
It was mortally wounded and the customer base wasn’t interested in the game.
And so, when Ubisoft announced that they were working on a sequel, it took a lot of us by
surprise.
We all knew that for Ubisoft to bring the franchise back within 3 years of the second
game, they must have something surprising to show players…
And oh did they.
They showed off Watch Dogs Legion at E3 2019 and explained how the game was built around
the idea that players could play the game however they want, with whoever they want.
Sounds like typical marketing jargon, but in this case, the tech backed it up.
The idea is that the game is defined by the team that you assemble with any NPC in the
game.
Except, technically, the term NPC won’t apply to Watch Dogs Legion…
This because the player can take control of ANY N.P.C. and turn them into a P.C..
Doubtless, this raises many questions, such as how the story will work with this?
If I’m playing with a granny…
That sounded weird…
If I’m using an old woman as my P.C., how will the game’s narrative approach her as
opposed to a 6’6” Greek Adonis who is a convicted murderer?
Well, it seems that they’ve taken many steps to keep the game working well, with this.
If you’d like to hear more about how they’re doing this, I made another video deep diving
into how they’re doing it.
A card will pop up right about now if you wanna check it out.
Point is, Ubisoft is not resting on their laurels, they’re actively pursuing one of
the most ambitious game design ideas in recent memory.
Now, admittedly, this game hasn’t come out yet, and there’s a real risk of this falling
flat and not living up to the hype.
But undoubtedly, this game is one of the most ambitious that’s been announced by any studio
in the last few years.
But what’s the point of all of this?
Well, I find Ubisoft to be one of the most consistently impressive studios in the industry,
and it doesn’t seem that they get the credit for the amazing advances they’ve made.
Sure, they’ve screwed up plenty, and I do find myself frustrated at times with some
of their business choices.
But that doesn’t change the fact that they are, in my eyes, one of the most prolific
forces in the entirety of the gaming industry today, and I just want to take this moment
to say to Ubisoft, but more specifically all of the amazingly gifted artists, programmers
and designers that work within their offices: Thank you.