Poll: Ubisoft, Incompetent? stupid? Or both?

[halisme]

Well, this is ironic.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138538-Low-Frame-Rates-in-Early-Reports-of-Assassins-Creed-Unity

So, I'm growing tired of Ubisoft doing mistake agter mistake and decided to look at some of the most prominent cases from the past year.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/135461-Watch-Dogs-PC-Modders-Find-Hidden-E3-Settings-Improve-Performance-Update

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137874-Assassins-Creed-Unity-Will-Run-at-900p-Resolution-and-30-fps-on-Xbox-One-and-PS4

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/135582-Ubisoft-DRM-is-Ineffective-Against-Piracy,

however, they then do this

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138457-Far-Cry-4-Assassins-Creed-Unity-Only-Available-on-uPlay-in-The-UK

and finally

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138252-Far-Cry-4-Dev-Dismisses-1080p-Debate-Claims-No-one-Really-Cares

So I must ask what are people's over all thoughts and feelings, and that they vote in the poll above.

 

[Mezahmay]

Hanlon's razor suggests that they're stupid. However, one does not maintain one's position as a video game publisher and AAA developer through luck for years the way Ubisoft has. That being said, it's still probably stupid since they don't know how to adapt properly to the current state of game infrastructure and the current video game community in a way that pleases everyone. Is it fair to expect them to please everyone? Probably not, but it doesn't make me less disappointed in them.

 

[tippy2k2]

It's not incompetent. You don't become that big being incompetent

It's not stupidity. You don't become that big being stupid.

Honestly, if I had to guess, it's just plain old greed.

Ubisoft is such a big company and they have so many people to please that they're willing to do whatever they have to in order to stretch that bottom line. Whether it's lesser talent, less Q/A, less dev time, something else, or most likely a big combo of things, the company is looking for ways to maximize their dollar.

Like King Kong, it looks great in pictures but in real life, it crumbles under it's own weight. Ubisoft (and many of these other companies) are trying to do way too much while making it as cheap as possible.

 

[Elfgore]

Both, but not from the entire company. They've shown me before that they have good programmers and designers, they just get buried under the higher ups. Who are all, stupid and incompetent at their jobs. Let me set a scene for you here, as this is what I imagine the conversation for Unity went down.

The hard working game developers sat in the meeting room for two hour waiting for their bosses, who were only one story above them. Those two hours could have easily gone into working, but they were not aloud to leave the room. Finally the bosses show up.
"You guys need to drop the FPS down to thirty and the resolution to 900P!"
"Why?"
"Cause Microsoft paid us a shit-load of cash to do so! We'll make up some excuse that we're trying to make the game cinematic and don't wish to cause console wars."
"That sounds really bad, we can easily get the game to run at sixty..."
"Shut it! We're running it at thirty! Or the money doesn't show up in our personal bank accounts.

*The next week*

The board of decision makers
"Damnit! That whole decision really backlashed!"
"I know, we'll say they're idiots and that no one really cares!"
"Genius, our opinions are always right of course."

*a month before launch*

Developer meeting with higher ups.
"The game is ready right?"
"No... we already told you it wasn't. We need at least another month to get the game fully optimized."
"Why isn't it done?!"
"Cause we can't work overtime and the demands you gave us had to be finished. We haven't had time to make sure the game can even run at a steady 30FPS"
"Either way the game releases in a month, we can't push it back further! We gotta get the holiday sales!"
"Holiday sales won't matter if it ruins our franchise!"
"No it won't! The game shall release as planned!"

*today*

"Fuck."

The game runs like shit and hopefully may cost them a lot of brand loyalty. This state of release is unacceptable. All of the respect they rightfully earned for Black Flag has been destroyed in one day.

 

[Smooth Operator]

They just simply don't give a toss, they will do as they do and their PR department will desperately try to keep up and cover all the gaping holes with twigs, mud and bullshit. Considering all their franchises are still selling strong we can only conclude that it's good system for them.

 

[Someone Depressing]

A mix of both, with a few dashes of fucking with their fanbase and good ol' greed.

I'm just waiting for them to die. Watching them squirm in their own filth, flicking beans at them and snarking, just isn't fun anymore. It's almost sad.

 

[Rozalia1]

Please stop this bunkum. They are an extremely successful company, they go against the IGC's "sage" advice constantly and what does it get them?

Money, Money, Money, Money
Money, Money, Money, Money
Dollar Dollar, Dollar Dollar

Ching Ching, Bling Bling, Cut the Chatter
You ain't talking money, Then your talking don't matter
Ching Ching, Bling Bling, Pattin' Pockets
You make a Dolla Dolla, Can't a damn soul stop it
Shock it!

So... lets not call them failures simply because you hate them.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

They have zero respect for their audience. They're completely detached from reality. But it makes sense. They keep making obvious shitty and anti-consumer decisions and the people still pre-order their games like they're the biggest saints of the industry.

 

[mxc2012]

It is astonishing greed combined with a lack of accountability. They really don't care about their customers at all, because they don't have to. Whenever they release something 'new' people run right back to them and buy their stuff again and again and again. They won't ever change and they won't die off either. Also they are french

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Neither?

They've made some good stuff, there's a reason why they're as big as they are. Their PR keeps saying stupid things, I doubt it's because they're stupid. I think it's more likely that they're hoping we're stupid enough to believe it.

 

[mitchell271]

It's not incompetent. You don't become that big being incompetent

It's not stupidity. You don't become that big being stupid.

Honestly, if I had to guess, it's just plain old greed.

Normally, I'd guess this as well, but they've been amazingly tone-deaf to their users. So either PR or management has no idea what they're doing on top of regular greed.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Ubisoft were complaining that the PS4 and XBO had rubbish CPUs months ago. But there's a delusion among certain Sony fans that the PS4 is some sort of powerhouse which will always hammer the XBO into oblivion.

Ubisoft are not stupid. But they are stupidly ambitious to the point of not caring about little things such as performance. Or polish.

Also, Ubisoft are victim of much paranoid speculation, myth, and a customer base who are far more clueless about tech than they want to admit.

 

[Rozalia1]

Ubisoft were complaining that the PS4 and XBO had rubbish CPUs months ago. But there's a delusion among certain Sony fans that the PS4 is some sort of powerhouse which will always hammer the XBO into oblivion.

Look you want to come out with that than it is widely accepted that you should create a thread for it. Don't just randomly spring that in someone else's thread, have some etiquette please.

 

[Greg White]

To be honest, they're worse than EA. EA at least tries to make itself better, meanwhile Ubisoft does the same things EA gets bashed for and then has the nerve to try and make excuses for why their games can't perform as well as expected by claiming that higher resolutions and framerates either don't matter or that they don't 'feel as good.'

I hate to say it, but PC gaming really has spoiled me in regards to resolution and framerate, plus the Watch_Dogs debacle was just embarrassing. I get that consoles may not be able to handle the kind of fidelity they advertised at E3, but gimping the PC release, intentionally or not, is a new low, doubly so since someone figured out how to fix it with one line of script.

 

[Story]

Everyone beat me to it, but it is worth repeating because it explains the actions of most companies; they are just greedy.

 

[sataricon]

Ubisoft were complaining that the PS4 and XBO had rubbish CPUs months ago. But there's a delusion among certain Sony fans that the PS4 is some sort of powerhouse which will always hammer the XBO into oblivion.

Look you want to come out with that than it is widely accepted that you should create a thread for it. Don't just randomly spring that in someone else's thread, have some etiquette please.

etiquette?

in here we discuss UBIsoft so some people defend it and some people attack it.
New consoles being weak is a part of this.

I hate Ubisoft they are shit....and for a long time they had been.

 

[loa]

Why are you so generous?
Everything points to them being dishonest.
Lying on purpose in the hopes of manipulating people.
It's all marketing.

 

[Rozalia1]

New consoles being weak is a part of this.

I hate Ubisoft they are shit....and for a long time they had been.

Except it isn't. Ubisoft messing up has nothing to do with the big three.
So why do they feature in these threads... I mean usually its because of the big bad shadow cabal giving orders to sabotage the PC platform (Watchdogs)... but regarding this subject... even that shouldn't feature as why would the cabal sabotage themselves?

And that statement only further damages what you're going for. So Ubisoft is bad, incompetent, stupid, can't code for crap...but big bad Microsoft is to blame for their mess ups? Surely that would mean Ubisoft is actually not that bad as its those evil consoles that are the root of all that is bad in the world (worse than Hitler I've heard them referred to as)

So like I said if folk want to randomly bring up platform wars twaddle than please show proper etiquette and put it in their own thread, its tradition at this point.

 

[Casual Shinji]

They're one of the biggest studios in the world, and in order to maintain that status they feel the need to push the limit beyond what is actually feasible. This is why you have 10 studios working on one game, and an Assassin's Creed that's creaking under its own weight because Ubi wanted thousands of unnecessary NPCs on screen.

Seriously, all Ubi needs to do is just dail it back a tad, and stop over-promising shit.

 

[sataricon]

New consoles being weak is a part of this.

I hate Ubisoft they are shit....and for a long time they had been.

Except it isn't. Ubisoft messing up has nothing to do with the big three.
So why do they feature in these threads... I mean usually its because of the big bad shadow cabal giving orders to sabotage the PC platform (Watchdogs)... but regarding this subject... even that shouldn't feature as why would the cabal sabotage themselves?

And that statement only further damages what you're going for. So Ubisoft is bad, incompetent, stupid, can't code for crap...but big bad Microsoft is to blame for their mess ups? Surely that would mean Ubisoft is actually not that bad as its those evil consoles that are the root of all that is bad in the world (worse than Hitler I've heard them referred to as)

So like I said if folk want to randomly bring up platform wars twaddle than please show proper etiquette and put it in their own thread, its tradition at this point.

I don't know what the hell are you talking about with this Cabal and shit and i really don't care.

Now with consoles yes they are weak but....and that is a big butt:
Ubisoft is a shit company no matter what console they develop for...and i think unity here is a clear example.

Now my comment is that he is allowed to bring the consoles as being weak as an argument.
While you are allowed to dismiss that and say that Ubisoft is a shit company and people who preorder their games deserve what they get.

it's every one can speak his mind on the matter....as long as we bash Ubisoft and make a thread of hate.