Jimquisition: EA & Ubisoft: A Cycle of Perpetration and Apology

Trishbot

New member
May 10, 2011
1,318
0
0
ex275w said:
Well Nintendo also apologized for the initial 3DS launch, gave a price cut and gave early adopters 10 free games which was nice of them and they recovered magnificently from their shitty launch so kudos for them, let's hope they do something similar with their console.

Also, nice pooch Jim.
You'd think other companies would follow Nintendo's example instead of saying "sorry... but it's really all your fault in the first place for not just accepting it."
 

ex275w

New member
Mar 27, 2012
187
0
0
Drummodino said:
Your dog is very cute Jim :)

Yea I pretty much ignore everything that big publishers and even a lot of developers say these days. I've seen it too many times, them lying through their teeth, apologizing in the most smugly arrogant way possible, trying to spin bad publicity in a positive light (e.g. Watch Dogs PC graphics fix), making promises and never following through... I just don't trust them anymore.

I want to believe that the people making these games really do care about them and want to make a good product for them and us - but something has gone very wrong and that level of trust just doesn't exist anymore.
Video Game creators do care about making a good game for sure but remember all the Executive Meddling that occurs in the industry or sometimes we just get a case like Duke Nukem Forever or Tim Schafer where the director is a perfectionist or sometimes the game has to be rushed for various unforeseen reasons.

Contracts force them to lie or give good publicity or prevents them from telling their side of why the game went wrong.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
24,759
0
0
Gamers may not be stupid, but they are certainly poor consumers. And as long as Ubisoft and EA get the message that this is what it takes, then they'll keep doing it.

Hell, the Xbone got a ton of people to yell at other people for not instantly forgiving Microsoft. Except it's one thing to say you're wrong, and another thing to revise your behaviour accordingly. I could say I'm sorry for saying Ubisoft is run b y idiots, but I'm probably going to say it again. Am I really sorry?

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Magmarock said:
Nice dog, and yeah Ubisoft recently apologized for using DRM but Far Cry 3 is still not on GOG :/
And while they have scaled back the DRM, there's still Uplay. I'm reading online that Watch Dogs REQUIRES a Uplay activation, at least for PC.

tm96 said:
I don't think companies like EA or Ubisoft will learn their lessons unless it truly bites them in the ass.
I'm not sure even that will do it. See Microsoft. I doubt we've seen the last of their shenanigans.

owbu said:
the diablo 3 comment seems slightly weird in the context of the rest of the episode (Just saying sorry to boost sales, but not changing anything)
Blizzard removed the auction house and completely remodeled the lootsystem towards what customers wanted, instead of saying sorry and then bringing out RoS with the auction house intact to keep making money with it.


Not sure how much more they can do at the point where they realised their mistake.



I am still waiting for the "sry for the long wait times for our WoW expansions, we will do better!" apology to mean something though^^
I'm not sure this breaks the pattern, though. They took the broken system, hung on to it, and waited to get as much money as they could first. They also changed things only around the time they wanted to sell us stuff (concurrent with the release of console versions of D3 and shutting down around the time of their expansion pack). That sounds like exactly the same pattern. "We fucked up, but we've got other stuff to sell you so please accept our apologies."

PG said:
I'm not buying any more of Ubisoft's games, but not as a form of protest, I just don't think they're worth money anymore.
This is pretty much me with EA. I can't say I'll never buy another EA title, but I've stopped buying them because I can't be arsed to pay for them.

Ubisoft? Well, I'll maybe buy Watch Dogs at some point, but even that I'm not sure on.
 

Erttheking

Member
Legacy
Oct 5, 2011
10,845
1
3
Country
United States
Yeah, I haven't bought a game with EA's name on it for awhile, (Because their homogenized bland shit doesn't appeal to me) with the exception of Dragon Age Origins, and that game was one I knew from multiple recommendations was good, and it is. It's Bioware before EA's claws got too deep in.
 

teamcharlie

New member
Jan 22, 2013
215
0
0
I would prefer not?to see that dog again. Nothing wrong with your dog specifically (okay, the visible teeth and the barking really don?t help). But I?m afraid of them.

For me, this video felt like a retread of old ideas (companies apologizing for shitty behavior to the public without actually stopping is not exactly a new phenomenon), but I guess there are probably viewers who somehow expected that EA and Ubi et al. love them and would never lie and for whom this video is be a revelation.

So, uh, keep up the good work? Keep spinning out largely the same points every year for the people who are too lazy to look through the backlog of this show, who are also probably the people who most need to be told that big companies lie? Kinda depressing really.
 

2xDouble

New member
Mar 15, 2010
2,310
0
0
Ah yes, the classic move, formerly known as "The Doctor Wily".

See? EA and Ubisoft have learned from and adopted Capcom-created business practices. That's growth for the industry.

...right?
 

Jimothy Sterling

New member
Apr 18, 2011
5,976
0
0
owbu said:
the diablo 3 comment seems slightly weird in the context of the rest of the episode (Just saying sorry to boost sales, but not changing anything)
Blizzard removed the auction house and completely remodeled the lootsystem towards what customers wanted, instead of saying sorry and then bringing out RoS with the auction house intact to keep making money with it.


Not sure how much more they can do at the point where they realised their mistake.



I am still waiting for the "sry for the long wait times for our WoW expansions, we will do better!" apology to mean something though^^
I should have explained those quickfire examples a little better. They're more companies that did things they claimed were impossible until it was time to gain positive favor with gamers again. It was a different brand of insincerity.
 

Oskuro

New member
Nov 18, 2009
235
0
0
That they have to make these insincere apologies has a positive side, in my opinion. It seems to indicate that these big corporations are not as immune to consumer backlash as they might have been (or thought to have been).

Maybe there's hope that the average videogame consumer will become saavy enough to not fall for these tactics in the future.

That "DRM" is considered a "dirty word" also seems positive, even though the Ubisoft reps are desperately trying to rebrand it as "services" and "value" so they don't have to change a thing.
 

Darth_Payn

New member
Aug 5, 2009
2,868
0
0
OMG WOOKIT DAH DOGGIE HE SO CUUUUUUTE!!!!1!!1
I'm sorry, where did my mind go? Oh, right! Good video, Jim. I hold out ope Ubisoft (who makes games I regularly buy and play) get their crap together about the DRM, and I liked the much-needed tongue-lashing you gave EA for their weasel behavior and heads-up-ther-ass actions. Now, can you please rip into Activision more? Have they done anything stupid or sickish lately? The last game of theirs I got was Deadpool, but only because its developer, High Moon Studios, also made the two Transformers games set on Cybertron.
 

Thanatos2k

New member
Aug 12, 2013
820
0
0
They've been doing this for a while now. Do something horrible, get yelled at, take a small step back and apologize, and continue doing what they're doing. This is how they feel out where the "line" is, the exploitation line of how much most people will take.

Plus it's backed by psychology. Marketing people have long figured out the insincere apologies are very effective at tricking dumb people back into your good graces, even if you just punched them in the face. Apologies are actually evaluated for how much money they make. This is the world we live in now.
 

Ipsen

New member
Jul 8, 2008
484
0
0
teamcharlie said:
I would prefer not?to see that dog again. Nothing wrong with your dog specifically (okay, the visible teeth and the barking really don?t help). But I?m afraid of them.

For me, this video felt like a retread of old ideas (companies apologizing for shitty behavior to the public without actually stopping is not exactly a new phenomenon), but I guess there are probably viewers who somehow expected that EA and Ubi et al. love them and would never lie and for whom this video is be a revelation.

So, uh, keep up the good work? Keep spinning out largely the same points every year for the people who are too lazy to look through the backlog of this show, who are also probably the people who most need to be told that big companies lie? Kinda depressing really.
It bugs me (and discredits yourself) that you find the lies of businesses so commonplace or obvious.
 

disgruntledgamer

New member
Mar 6, 2012
905
0
0
I think you're wrong the majority of gamers are idiots and will keep buying into the EA train of crap. It's why they've gotten away with it for so long and it's why they will continue to get away with it because consumers are dumb.

Anyone want to bet that the next Battlefield will be just as broken and EA will make just as much money and probably more? At least Ubisoft can be ignored they don't make too many games I'm interested in and even if they did I'm primarily a console gamer so I could care less about their DRM BS they give to PC gamers looks good on their smug faces.

EA can't be ignored tho because when you ignore them they buy up other companies and turn you favorite IP and studies into shit and eventually shut them down just so they can't be ignored. I'm willing to bet after the next Dragon Flop which I'm totally expecting to have Mirco...... Jumbo-Transactions and soon after which EA has made one last cash grab Biowares days will be numbered.
 

Thanatos2k

New member
Aug 12, 2013
820
0
0
owbu said:
the diablo 3 comment seems slightly weird in the context of the rest of the episode (Just saying sorry to boost sales, but not changing anything)
Blizzard removed the auction house and completely remodeled the lootsystem towards what customers wanted, instead of saying sorry and then bringing out RoS with the auction house intact to keep making money with it.


Not sure how much more they can do at the point where they realised their mistake.



I am still waiting for the "sry for the long wait times for our WoW expansions, we will do better!" apology to mean something though^^
Blizzard "admitted" their mistake, and then it took SEVEN MONTHS for them to remove the auction house. Curious, no? Oh wait, they'd just released the console version without the AH which was a better version than the PC because of it. Oh wait, 7 months later is exactly when their expansion came out, wasn't it.

It was never about the auction house, it was about getting you to buy the console version and then to buy their expansion. Did you fall for it?
 

DeathQuaker

New member
Oct 29, 2008
167
0
0
disgruntledgamer said:
I think you're wrong the majority of gamers are idiots and will keep buying into the EA train of crap. It's why they've gotten away with it for so long and it's why they will continue to get away with it because consumers are dumb.
Sadly, this. I think more gamers are wising up, but there are more than enough games customers who, if for no other reason out of an utterly misplaced corporate-brainwashed sense of brand or franchise loyalty, will buy these things regardless of how often these companies prove themselves to produce nothing but crap. Look at the furor about the Sims 4 leaving out key features that have been in base Sims games for 10-15 years... for all the calling EA out on the carpet and people acknowledging the company is setting up for a DLC/EP cash grab later, it won't stop the game from earning millions and millions of dollars on release day. Same for Battlefield, same probably for Dragon Age, same for any franchise they own. There are enough people who not only will stupidly buy it to let EA earn profit, many of those same buyers were vocally defend their purchase saying it's important to "support" the franchise even if it's being ruined. Many of these players will in one breath decry bugs and sales scams and in the second defend their purchase and declare their intent to do it all over again.

Ubisoft and EA and anyone else who pulls such BS deserve to be called out on the carpet, but so should the millions of consumers who tacitly support their shoddy business practices by buying their products.
 

teamcharlie

New member
Jan 22, 2013
215
0
0
Ipsen said:
teamcharlie said:
I would prefer not?to see that dog again. Nothing wrong with your dog specifically (okay, the visible teeth and the barking really don?t help). But I?m afraid of them.

For me, this video felt like a retread of old ideas (companies apologizing for shitty behavior to the public without actually stopping is not exactly a new phenomenon), but I guess there are probably viewers who somehow expected that EA and Ubi et al. love them and would never lie and for whom this video is be a revelation.

So, uh, keep up the good work? Keep spinning out largely the same points every year for the people who are too lazy to look through the backlog of this show, who are also probably the people who most need to be told that big companies lie? Kinda depressing really.
It bugs me (and discredits yourself) that you find the lies of businesses so commonplace or obvious.
Um, discredits me as what exactly? As a longtime viewer of Jim?s show? As an observer of things? I can tell you right now that I have seen nearly every episode of the Jimquisition and I have observed many a thing throughout my life.

Also, businesses. Walmart acting friendly and happy while gouging its workers and employing/buying from sweatshops to keep prices down. Oil cartels making up oil crises to keep gas prices high. Deregulated power companies in California lying about power supply issues and the causes of brownouts to keep prices high. Hucksters selling ?revitalizing tonics? made of heroin, lead, goat urine and radium before things like the FDA began regulating how much people can lie about what their products put in your body. Businesses have been lying since there were businesses, and it doesn?t surprise me that big video game companies are also businesses.
 

Sylocat

Sci-Fi & Shakespeare
Nov 13, 2007
2,122
0
0
At least when Peter Molyneux makes promises he can't keep, it's because he genuinely believes in all his impossible ambition. There's this air of cute innocence about it, as pathetic as it is sometimes.

And yet, Peter Molyneux is a universal punchline, while EA's and Ubisoft's audience lap up their fake apologies.
 

Ipsen

New member
Jul 8, 2008
484
0
0
Oskuro said:
That they have to make these insincere apologies has a positive side, in my opinion. It seems to indicate that these big corporations are not as immune to consumer backlash as they might have been (or thought to have been).

Maybe there's hope that the average videogame consumer will become saavy enough to not fall for these tactics in the future.

That "DRM" is considered a "dirty word" also seems positive, even though the Ubisoft reps are desperately trying to rebrand it as "services" and "value" so they don't have to change a thing.
I would actually claim the habit of making insincere apologies as a worse turn; I see it as less vulnerability to consumer backlash, and more adapting to it, but purely for both their own way and their own profit.

They only get to do this because they prey on the ignorance of some segments of the "gaming community". It may be that every one of the users here on this thread would never buy a Ubisoft or EA game ever again, but the way these companies operate, they'd still be in business.
 

Sanunes

Senior Member
Mar 18, 2011
626
0
21
Jimothy Sterling said:
owbu said:
the diablo 3 comment seems slightly weird in the context of the rest of the episode (Just saying sorry to boost sales, but not changing anything)
Blizzard removed the auction house and completely remodeled the lootsystem towards what customers wanted, instead of saying sorry and then bringing out RoS with the auction house intact to keep making money with it.


Not sure how much more they can do at the point where they realised their mistake.



I am still waiting for the "sry for the long wait times for our WoW expansions, we will do better!" apology to mean something though^^
I should have explained those quickfire examples a little better. They're more companies that did things they claimed were impossible until it was time to gain positive favor with gamers again. It was a different brand of insincerity.
Wasn't the stance of Blizzard that they couldn't remove the always on DRM because of the Auction House, not that they couldn't remove the Auction House? I do agree it took forever to actually remove the Auction House in the end, but considering it was done with a major expansion to the game it might not have been possible with a simple patch. Since this is Blizzard and really to me their first offense I can give them the benefit of the doubt, which is next to impossible with EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, Activision, etc.
 

daibakuha

New member
Aug 27, 2012
272
0
0
I'm honestly getting tired of seeing this stuff. Nothing new happening in the industry? Let's try and stir up controversy by making a video about how EA and Ubisoft respond to all the other controveries! EA sucks! Ubisoft sucks! Look at my video!

I'd be nice if you did a video about something that wasn't, you know, beaten to death. At the very least you could avoid creating controversy where none exists. This is like fox news level awfulness.