So as im sure most people are aware (most of us are subscribed to Jim Sterling after all) Ubisoft has made a number of controversial decisions this week.
So i decided to dig a little deeper into the newsfeed for once, and oh my theyre up to so much more than the price markup of Rainbow Six Siege and adding lootboxes to both R6S and Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Lets list what i found;
First up may as well be the things we already know about.
>Ubisoft hikes the price of Rainbow Six Seige [http://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-price/]
Effective Feb 13th the Standard edition of R6S will be discontinued and replaced with an Advanced edition which is, in fact, the same as the to-be abolished Standard edition but comes with 600 Rainbow Six Credits (premium currency) and 10 Outbreak Collection Packs at a $20 markup and presumed equivalent hikes in other regions.
The Gold edition of the game will also receive the same $20 markup and the Complete edition will see a $40 markup in price, and it does not seem that anything will be added to these editions to make them worth that price hike.
It is worth noting that the PC exclusive Starter edition will remain untouched but keep in mind, earning the ingame currency required to unlock new operators requires significantly more time for purchasers of this edition.
>Ubisoft adds Lootboxes to Rainbox Six Siege. [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-07-12-rainbow-six-siege-deploys-update-which-adds-loot-boxes]
>Ubisoft adds Lootboxes to ghost Recon Wildlands. [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-01-24-ghost-recon-wildlands-is-getting-loot-crates]
Both of these are self explanatory. Apparently the threat [http://fortune.com/2017/12/09/lawmaker-working-to-ban-sale-of-games-with-lootboxes-to-minors/] of a US government intervention [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq] isnt going to dissuade the French publisher from extracting as much of the piss as it can before the crackdown inevitably arrives.
>New Rainbow Six Siege event features purchase-only timed-exclusive cosmetics. [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-01-26-rainbow-six-siege-players-unhappy-at-timed-event-with-paid-only-cosmetic-packs]
Nothing quite demonstrates what a developer thinks of its community quite like hosting an event and expecting players to keep forking over their cash for a chance to get the one cosmetic piece they desire.
Now to be fair, you would not receive duplicates from these time limited lootboxes, however for those unlucky enough to keep not getting the thing they want and those who absolutely must have everything, the estimated cost of buying the 46 lootboxes required (in addition to the 4 that will be sent out for free) to obtain all 50 cosmetics comes out at US$140. Or however much it would cost you to purchase 13800 Rainbow Six Siege Credits.
>Ubisoft unveils "personal gaming assistant" smartphone app [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-01-24-ubisoft-unveils-sam-a-personal-gaming-assistant]
Sam is a smartphone thing that will hock into whatever Ubisoft game youre playing (which presumably requires a uPlay account) and feed you tips and guides based on what you havent done in said game yet.
So its not bad enough that an Ubisoft open world game has what many would describe to be "too much" collectables, Ubisoft has sought to 'solve' the problem by designing a chatbot to search for guides to the collect-a-thon so you dont have to.
Oh and the thing will occasionally try to sell you other Ubisoft games. Because thats what everyone needs at this point.
And something something shit you can already do on Steam, Origin, Discord, Facebook, Myspace, The Escapist Forums and so forth.
As for me, i think im ready to call myself done with Ubisoft. Permanently.
