Ubisoft Killed Their Best Games

[@Relt88]

As an Ex fan-turned employee of Ubisoft, I'm having the best time of my life with the recent news about the company. Ubisoft can burn in hell for all i care. What turned from a dream job quickly became the inception of depression and creativity stifling, so much so i left the entire gaming industry as a whole and boy does it feel liberating.

[@FanTheDeck]

Thanks for sharing. Do you mind if I pin this comment?

[@Relt88]

@@FanTheDeck Sure, go ahead. I've moved on and am in a better place knowing i was right all along about the things we did back then.

[@Daniel__Nobre]

@@Relt88 Glad you are better now. So many questions I’d love to ask you.. I dont work in game development, but have worked in the tech/dev/digital areas even before finishing my degree more than a decade ago, and it is so clear how these areas are going through complicated shifts that are reflecting negatively directly on people who are not leadership, management, HR.. essentially the ones really suffering are the ones who produce and want to produce and create things. Crazy times..

[@zaz6463]

@@FanTheDeck I've never seen someone request to pin a comment instead of just doing it. What a legend. Huge respect.

[@Relt88]

@@Daniel__Nobre Yeah, it‘s crazy and i always wonder why i put myself through that unnecessary pain. Then i realised i really loved games and wanted to make cool stuff for others to love them too. Then Corporate comes in and stamp you into the ground till you suffocate, forcing you to focus on monetization when the bloody game(skull & bones) is not even working correctly. And yes, i was vocal about not being able to swim in a game that is 95% water while we already had the tech to do so. Obvious what came out in the end was that abomination. An echo chamber of toxic positivity is so palpable and real that when you don’t even listen to your own devs, why would the customer’s opinions matter as well? Thank god i got off that train before it crashed. Now it’s just my humor vs their hubris.

[@Vashkey]

You can say Ubisoft got its "reckoning" but the executives aill be fine with their golden parachutes. The only ones that will be harmed are the workers that suffered under poor leadership

[@MrMRMONKEY232]

​@@nempk1817even if that was the actual problem that would still be higher ups causing that fake problem. Just cause you hate that more diverse people are making games doesn't mean you need to semi simp for execs that are using your outrage of a fake problem as a shield

[@Daniel__Nobre]

As usual.. they’ll just jump into the leadership of other companies.

[@kevikiru]

Guillemots will lose a lot of wealth because they own part of the company. They would not walk scot-free. Even if they get a golden parachute, it will not be enough to offset their losses from the devaluation of their shares

[@Daniel__Nobre]

@@kevikiru That makes sense. It will hurt them to certainly lose one of their estates, a couple of Lamborghinis and half of the staff that serves them their meals, cleans their penthouses, etc.

[@rodolfocesar2945]

the good workers left in 2020, the current worker are all responsible for this look what they are saying in social media they are all blaming gamers for their failures while also calling them racist because they don't want to buy it they stupid politcal agenda

[@anassakasbi2133]

I love this new video style A short and calm retrospective/the rise and fall type videos with no music is something i never thought you would do on this channel

[@HeavyMetalLegend217]

Great script man, very well thought out and to the point. Very engaging. I love the steam deck content. Also would love to see more deep dives into other publishers like EA, Bandai Namco, Sony ect. For the good and the bad.

[@FanTheDeck]

Thank you! I'll definitely keep doing these on various topics

[@DarthElmo]

I was actually happy to see XDefiant announced, I saw it as another AAA studio finally mustering up the courage to take on Activision and COD using the same simple formula with a few twists. However, not releasing on Steam and still being so unpolished even after delays has really kneecapped its player retention...feels like a story we've heard so many times now.

[@HiTechLoLife]

When i was editing the video, i had the HARDEST time finding a decent retro Ubisoft game from the 80s to use as B-Roll. I never realized how right Rich was about this. Hell the old prince of Persia wasn't even published by them back then.

[@DarthElmo]

Love the edits, both Rich's channel and yours are some of my absolute favorites.

[@dr_ubo]

I’ve got to give it to you man, you do write some really nice scripts and have a great cadence to the narration. Your scripts are not ChatGPT slop as many KZbinrs’ are. Great vid, I honestly feel bad for the people who work at Ubisoft, I have a few friends who work there and have done so for 8-10 years, it’s been a journey and most of them are just extremely passionate people doing their best to deliver on a vision that gets cut or changed by men in c-level suits.

[@FanTheDeck]

Can't tell you how much I appreciate that. I absolutely enjoy doing these and can't wait to do more 😅

[@CasualViewer-t4f]

EA may suffer the same fate soon…

[@DemureTrack]

All they had to do was stay original and green light respawn to make titanfall 3. Also not trying to kill their investments on purpose. Titanfall 2 release was a fucking joke

[@stud_ley]

Read the Ubisoft Paris Union statement on Guillemot. The devs been tired of their executives. It’s crazy how long this bs with exploiting workers and consumers has been going on.

[@igorgiuseppe1862]

once they removed the crew from people who purchased it, they wrote their own name on deathnote.

[@Wunnabeanbag]

“I will never use these essay writing and referencing skills“. Brother, I really like these types of videos. I can see the amount of work that you put in. I greatly appreciate thank you very much.

[@Malisteen]

Thank you for bringing up the allegations of workplace misconduct and abuse right at the start. Far too many youtube videos covering the fall of ubisoft have glossed over or ignored that part entirely, but it's a critical part of the story. Mostly because companies are capable of and often guilty of far worse abuse of their employees than they are of their customers (especially when it comes to luxury entertainment products like video games), so from an ethical standpoint mistreatment of workers should be taken more seriously than it is. But also because workers trapped an unprofessional and abusive work place environment cannot continue to produce high quality products in the long term (especially when it comes to creative content like video games). Capable employees will find jobs elsewhere, leaving only less capable workers who will stagnate as their love of the medium is crushed by the realities of their abusive workplace. The reputation of abuse will thin the supply of fresh workers, and they won't have anyone to learn from as those with the most skill and talent are gone and those who remain are to brow-beaten to have any extra energy for training new recruits. Declines in product quality are inevitable... which can be sadly sustainable for products where the quality of the product isn't tied to the worker themselves, or if it's a basic necessity that people have to buy regardless, or if there's simply no competition at all. But again, video games are a creative product, and a luxury good, and there are many other places to get your video games from - and despite the many endemic problems of the industry most of those places are better than Ubisoft. There are a handful as bad as Ubisoft, but not many. So yeah, consumers can and should care about the work place environment of the people who make their games, even if it doesn't directly affect them, even if it sounds 'woke' to care about other people or to take harassment seriously. If nothing else it can and will affect the quality of the games themselves. Maybe not right away, maybe not all at once, but inevitably and increasingly until it's impossible to ignore.

[@Cloud92390]

Caring about people has never been and will never be “woke” I stopped supporting Blizzard entirely years ago. Your dollar as a consumer sends a message. I would never want to work for a company that treats employees like they did.

[@Relt88]

An insider info at Ubisoft, the turnover rate of people going out at my studio was minimum one or two a week. Hell, my own direct manager left during my on boarding week 1. I was shocked when i started to say the least.

[@gdcrisanto]

Beautiful essay. Was a big fan of assassin’s creed series until after unity. Didn’t notice how much I just didn’t care for the series anymore til I saw how much everyone else pretty much started turning their backs on ubisoft. Not really surprised this happened.

[@FanTheDeck]

Many thanks gd 🙏 Yeah I wish things were different but the executives at Ubi all seem business oriented and like they don't particularly care or know much about creating meaningful experiences

[@PunkTiger]

The only pre-1995 title from Ubi Soft I could think of was "Pick 'n Pile." I had that on my Amiga way back in the day.

[@ThePhawx]

Def death by a thousand cuts from Ubisoft. Uplay and leaving Steam was just one FAFO moment for Ubisoft

[@FanTheDeck]

My man!

[@JamesMckenzie-q1z]

This all makes me wonder what will happen to Splinter Cell and the other Tom Clancy games if Ubisoft goes under

[@solarin_]

Fantastic script / writing!

[@flywheelshyster]

Honestly the first Ubisoft game I ever bought was Prince of Persia Sands of time. Never played the assassin's creed games but I know people who love them

[@FanTheDeck]

Sands of Time is so good

[@thingsiplay]

Your intro speech sounded like Samuel L. Jackson would say in Pulp Fiction. :D

[@FanTheDeck]

😅

[@emiliosanchez4610]

Ubisoft the inventors of taking the quadruble LLLL Amazing video man! Love essay type content!! Man Ubisoft is in a weird spot for me, I’ve boycotted them for well over 10 years at this point but I won’t deny that Rayman 3 and Farcry 2 are some of my favorite games of all time.

[@FanTheDeck]

Funny thing is - SW Outlaws and AC: Shadows look solid. But they've been so bad for so long that they've lost the trust

[@Evercade_Effect]

Awesome mini documentary! 😀😀😀😃😃

[@CrazyPCgamercatguy]

Sometimes it is better for something to die in order to have something new born in its place.

[@kzgames3023]

Gotta say, this was a very good video.

[@ryanbauer3680]

I've said it for years, I believe Ubisoft is like Canon Films, in that they keep putting out games stuffed with micro transactions to keep the company afloat for their bloated overhead expenses. They have how many branches in how many countries? And they keep putting out "Triple AAA" barely playable repetitive schlock that needs to be patched day and will still have issues months even years down the line and missing features common in other games on day 1. Meanwhile the fans have been screaming about Beyond Good And Evil for over 20 years now. Even Duke Nukem is looking at them and saying "Even my development hell didn't take this amount of forever".

[@ehenyor]

This is poetry! This is art!

[@SylverstoneKhandr]

4:43 - I immediately said Zombi. Only because I played ZombiU at the Wii U's launch and learned about the origins of the name. 😅

[@GreenSkinGentleman]

I like the idea of Star Wars: Outlaws. It could've been the space scoundrel simulator I always wanted with the alien cantinas, the crowded space station habitats, and the criminal underbelly. It could've been perfect. Could.

[@supremesonicbrazil]

The first and honestly last time I cared about or remember having cared about the name Ubisoft was when I was a kid and played my first console game ever: Rayman 2 The Great Escape (more specifically the PS1 version). There, I've already gave the answer on how to win me and millions of other people over again, assuming no major fuck-ups (I know, wishful thinking), now it's up to them to listen to it. Though they had already stopped listening since 2006 about that, really doubt they would today. Rabbids be damned, they screamed so loud it made them deaf, and the extended deafening period made them start hallucinating Origins and Legends just like in a sick and twisted reverse-Ganzfeld Experiment. As we say in Brazil, they had both the cheese and the knife on their hands (for at least a decade), but they chose to throw the cheese away and sit profusely on the knife. Except the cheese was already moldy and the knife all rusty and filled to the brim with tetanus by then. And then they proceed to blame Tramontina because they were called "non-decent cooks".

[@echodun]

Gamers are starving for good AAA title. If the market wasn't so saturated with below-level gaming experiences, I'd say Ubisoft was done for. But they literally can come in as the white knights in 2025 and save gaming on the PS5 and other consoles in the process.

[@Cloud92390]

Games need to work on day 1. What a novel concept. They only worry once it affects sales. Don’t reward mediocrity and apathy.

[@florianzahl6856]

In my opinion, Ubisoft shifted away from making games out of passion, to delivering services out of pure greed. They completely lost any connection to their playerbase and statements about us getting comfortable not owning our games put another nail in the coffin just lately. What Ubisoft really needs to do is a shift in their mindset. Any in-game (cosmetic) purchase option that in not a content addon should be abandoned. Always online as DRM is a no-go. Best option is to not include any DRM at all and also remove this online dependency from all current games. Also they should go for an early-access approach to new titles, to get feedback from the community and be able to make adjustments throughout the whole development process. Ubisoft has great IPs and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Immortals Fenyx Rising showed they can deliver great games still.

[@Redrage11]

The last ubisoft game I bought was AC unity. I got so mad with how glitchy it was day one I never picked up another of their new games again

[@andremalerba5281]

Despite the hate, Splinter Cell Conviction is one of my favorite games of all time! The gameplay is great and the story is amazing! Sam doesn't have all of his tools and have to work his way and prove he is more than just his toys! It felt almost like a Olympus has fallen the game! And that technique o displaying text and cutscenes to the environment walls is just amazing! I would love to see it replicated on other games! The sequel, Blacklist is good too and scratched the itches of the long term fans that didn't liked Conviction but IMO it's all over the place, has too many toys, the story isn't as great, the gameplay has improved a little bit and it's fun to play but it's far from the amazing Conviction! I would love to play more entries following these gameplays, more adventures, more stories to play. Same deal with Rayman Origins and Legends, they are peak 2D platform games! Why the hell doesn't we get a sequel for it too? I'm tired of everything being open world with RPG mechanics! Give me linear level based short games that I can replay over and over again instead of never ending games with boring stuff to do.

[@rocknflip66]

splinter cell was the shiznit 🔥

[@RichardJacksonMinute]

Not a lie was told in this video.

[@FanTheDeck]

🫡

[@24ericardo]

Vivendi should have taken over back in 2015.

[@The_0p3r8t0r]

Unfortunately this is the state of modern gaming, just like the movie industry and the music one before it, it's run by suits not gamers so the bottom line is the priority... And that is why you get what you get

[@Jan12700]

4:40 If bought in Games count, then the Settlers

[@Fluskar]

ubisoft did it to themselves. they deserve this downfall for all the slop they’re recently making

[@kingeatking]

The real problem in my opinion was the grind. Buy Exp for a price 🙄

[@DVAted]

I will loudly admit of being a Ubisoft Fanboy, to the extent where I owe them decades of the most fun I've ever had in video-games, which have been hitting all of my soft-spots for interactivity in virtual worlds, from AC, to Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, The Crew, Rainbow Six and many more franchise titles that I can't find any deal-breaking fault for. All games have glitches, all games become repetitive, all studios have had forms of abuse that they've made efforts to rectify. You give me a Ubisoft title that falls short, I will show you the same faults in the best titles of Rockstar Games, EA Games, Microsoft, Insomniac or Santa Monica games aplenty, maybe even tenfold. There is a bias in their favor, in my opinion of them, sure, they've earned that bias year by year, for decades... There is a bias against their favor too, because it's trendy to trash on Ubisoft nowadays, the bandwagon is rolling rolling rolling right on and people love to hop on, unfortunately... and there is MOST CERTAINLY an unfair bias in some of them other Studios people love to dick-ride who don't deserve half the praise that Ubisoft received. I really hope their public image returns to form. They really put out more and better content than any other studios out there.

[@thedutchfisherman7078]

I don't care for Ubisoft games anymore. I even don't watch trailers from their new games anymore...

[@Dracossaint]

Ubi-soft the game company whose name is almost as apt as micro-soft *sips* Do better and go HARD

[@richardhunter9779]

Ubisoft: Gamers should get comfortable with not owning their games Gamers: SEE YOU IN RAYMAN 4!

[@andremalerba5281]

Gamers: Ubisoft should get comfortable with not owning our money! LOL

[@CR0NO-NL]

Are they still really alive? Though they where on life support for years

[@GetTheFOutOfMyWay]

Boycotted ubisoft after the Division 2 and will not miss. How is there WORSE companies than EA... ?? o.0 Either way hope most of these developers that deserve their hardship keep struggling as I have no sympathy to give.

[@Laner84]

very nicely done , well done , I really enjoyed that 👍🏻 as for ubisoft.... Mehh

[@ariaperez8968]

You failed to mention rocksmith they abandoned rocksmith 2014 remastered for rocksmith plus that is only available on pc and Playstation and they totally abandoned xbox one and x user's in favor of Sony which makes them look really bad and with them in financial problems that it makes it so much worse.

[@akumaking1]

No Rabbids?

[@fjhskd34u21h3]

where the fuck is beyond good and evil 2. it should've been done by now

[@garykings5723]

I think framing Star Wars Outlaws as a bad or even mediocre game is disingenuous. I definitely think that the reputation Ubisoft earned factored into its broad dismissal and disinterest from gaming audiences, but anyone actually spending time with Outlaws will find it's one of the most interesting games Ubisoft has put out in years, is comfortably among the very best Star Wars games in decades, and possibly even amongst the best licensed games ever made. Same goes for Avatar the year before, also from studio Massive. Frontiers of Pandora is easy to dismiss at face value, but it far exceeds its own source material to be one of the best licensed games ever, it absolutely rules. Both of these games use mechanics we've seen from open world games before, and they're both marketed heavily on those familiar elements, making them easy to dismiss... but these familiar mechanics are in service of something far greater in both Star Wars and Avatar, and the ways in which they succeed as experiences are unique to those games. Say what you will about Ubisoft, but Massive are absolutely crushing it right now, and it's a shame to see both of these games get so overlooked and even roped into the broader narrative of mediocrity.

[@GreenSkinGentleman]

You convinced me. I'll put it on wishlist and buy it on a deep discount a few months before the company crumbles.

[@garykings5723]

@@GreenSkinGentleman Ubi is too big to truly crumble, but they're well known for putting these games on sale pretty quick after launch. So yeah, enjoy yourself.

[@RobGADV]

Ubisoft is pure crap. I spent good money years ago on several of their games (about $200 worth) and they all SUCKED. Games like Assassin's Creed Unity and The Drive. I forget the third one. They were so bad I deleted them off my system and never looked back.

[@syrefaen]

Yeah I think the star wars game was decent. But sadly not magnificent or polished. I can't belive a 16/10 guy got his will.

[@5scbasher17]

Anyways, legion go on sale, making it a better choice than the steam deck, but this guy is on gabes and valves sack.