Ubisoft Claims Blacklist Trailer Criticism "Uninformed" and "Kneejerk"

[The Lunatic]

Blackist to Eurogamer

Not quite.


Again, Publisher blaming the fans for their own failings.

If people didn't get the message you wanted for a trailer your company produced, it's nobody's fault but your own.

If you think showing intense action to an audience of people who want to play a stealth game, then, well... That's kinda dumb.

That's like a CoD trailer that focuses on Storyline.

 

[Norix596]

So players are uninformed because all the marketing material didn't accurately represent the game? Now who's fault is that?

 

[PunkRex]

So players are uninformed because all the marketing material didn't accurately represent the game? Now who's fault is that?

Exactly this.

'Our trailer didn't tell you enough so stop acting like it did what it was supposed to do! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!' He should have just said it was abit of a mis-step on the ad departments part, thats fair enough, people can handle a mis-step... although this is the internet...

 

[Zydrate]

I adored Conviction. Was the only Splinter Cell to date that was actually playable for me.
So if it's anything like that, I will enjoy it.

 

[weirdee]

wait, don't most stealth games have portions that are really hard to sneak through, and really hard to fight through? how is this any different?

to put it bluntly maybe some people should remove their heads from their asses, and not all of them work at ubisoft, hm?

 

[crazyrabbits]

As of this posting: About 50 thousand views.
Published on Aug 31, 2012


Neglected by whom? Of the 2.4 million people who watched the first gameplay trailer only 7% of that number of people watched the Fifth Freedom trailer. Only 2% of the 2.4 million who watched the first gameplay trailer watched the second version showing the stealth options. There have been times to criticize about the development of a game not going in the right direction, but this isn't one of them. I agree, these people are uninformed and are most likely bitching because they don't like seeing an actiony-style trailer as it makes them feel like they are watching just another CoD or BF.

I remember when this trailer was posted, someone mentioned in the comment section that they watched footage just like this at E3, and what followed after Sam goes to break in through the window is him gunning down all four of the assailants in slow-motion, just like the breaching sequences in Modern Warfare 2 and 3.

 

[elilupe]

No matter what they do, it will never be a real Splinter Cell game without Michael Ironside.

Ubisoft, you continue to disappoint me. You made some of the greatest smart shooters of the last generation, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon... and now you continue to make these games and say they are "evolving" when all you are doing is making them linear and more like CoD and Battlefield and the like.

All these big companies that used to make marvelous games during the previous console generations are now taking these beloved games and gutting them for mass audiences, and it's getting more and more absurd. *shakes head sadly*

 

[crazyrabbits]

No matter what they do, it will never be a real Splinter Cell game without Michael Ironside.

Ubisoft, you continue to disappoint me. You made some of the greatest smart shooters of the last generation, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon... and now you continue to make these games and say they are "evolving" when all you are doing is making them linear and more like CoD and Battlefield and the like.

I was actually about to say, "Well, at least R6 Vegas had ziplines you could go up and down on", then I remembered that this game's stealth trailer showed Fisher doing the same thing, so chalk another one down.

I rented Future Soldier a few months back, and practically forgot about it after I'd beaten the game. I had to be reminded by another board member that Captain Mitchell was the guy who appears in the intro to the first real mission.

If Ubisoft doesn't want people thinking they've homogenized yet another one of their franchises, they shouldn't be surprised when people call them out on releasing an action-filled trailer with a main character sporting a much younger voice. I mean, at least Conviction tried to take some chances with Fisher slowly getting his gear throughout the game and not being in his trademark outfit, along with some interesting setpieces that showed that (almost) everything Sam fought for is good and dead. Now they stick him back in the suit and regress two games worth of development to make a pseudo-clone that plays "younger and faster".

 

[DrunkenMonkey]

Why on earth didn't they just reboot Splinter Cell with Blacklist? That would solve almost all the flak they were getting.

 

[TheCaptain]

So there were Splinter Cell games after Chaos Theory? Damn, and here I thought that was just some dream. Some horrible, horrible dream...

I'd give a demo a shot before not buying blacklist tho. But it'd have to be really, really, really good...

 

[wyrmslayer1991]

I'm so glad people are starting to realize that demos are what we need, and not more bullshit trailers that show fuck-all. It's a hell of a lot harder to get a friend interested in a game you like when all they're doing is watching you play. They need to experience it for themselves.

 

[Monsterfurby]

What's with major game companies insulting people lately? Did the nice-chips in their spokespeople's heads suddenly reach their expiry dates all at once?

 

[AJax_21]

Neglected by whom? Of the 2.4 million people who watched the first gameplay trailer only 7% of that number of people watched the Fifth Freedom trailer. Only 2% of the 2.4 million who watched the first gameplay trailer watched the second version showing the stealth options. There have been times to criticize about the development of a game not going in the right direction, but this isn't one of them. I agree, these people are uninformed and are most likely bitching because they don't like seeing an actiony-style trailer as it makes them feel like they are watching just another CoD or BF.

Or maybe that video has so many views because it came out during E3, where the interest of new game announcements is at its peak. The drop of views shows the lack of interest in the title not because they showcased the stealth aspects in it.

 

[octafish]

snip
Ubi, I am disappointed.
I enjoyed RS: Vegas and Splinter Cell Conviction, but not for the games you name them to be. I do not regard them as "splinter Cell" or "Rainbow Six" or "Ghost Recon"; fun or not, I still want to see an actual evolution of those 1990/early millennia games you use to make, not new games dressed up in the guise of the old ones.

*Sigh* Guess I'll just have to keep playing those on my PC, pretending they're new.

Agreed, the last "real" Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell Games were Raven Shield and Chaos Theory respectively...I didn't enjoy Conviction much (Ironside was the only good thing in it), but Vegas 2 might just be the best cover based shooter available. It's a terrible, terrible Rainbow Six game though.

My reaction to this is...whatever, it's Ubisoft they have nothing to offer me anymore except Beyond Good and Evil 2, and I'm sure they'll ruin that too.

 

[Yopaz]

I'm going to voice an opinion here that most of you will hate at first.

He's completely right. We criticize this game because we're uninformed. We don't want Splinter Cell to be an action game like what we see in the trailers.

Now they claim that we're uninformed because we don't know that is but one of the possible gameplay styles. Yes we are uninfomred, but whose fault is that? Who is the center of information here? It's you, Ubisoft, you make the trailers, you give us the information. If you are going to say we only hate because we lack the information then give us the information rather than accusing ous of being uninformed.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Game director David Footman <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-28-fan-response-to-splinter-cell-blacklist-is-a-kneejerk-reaction-and-uninformed>defended Blacklist to Eurogamer, saying that the criticisms are just "kneejerk reactions to a vertical slice of the game" and are "really uninformed as to what the whole experience is like".

First of all, you're missing the point. Second, it was your trailer, genius. Make a good one next time and we won't have this problem. Third, your promises mean nothing to me. The more you protest it the more I believe it.

When did it become acceptable for people with professional-sounding titles to lash out like whiny babies? Oh, what Bioware hath wrought.

Neglected by whom? Of the 2.4 million people who watched the first gameplay trailer only 7% of that number of people watched the Fifth Freedom trailer. Only 2% of the 2.4 million who watched the first gameplay trailer watched the second version showing the stealth options. There have been times to criticize about the development of a game not going in the right direction, but this isn't one of them. I agree, these people are uninformed and are most likely bitching because they don't like seeing an actiony-style trailer as it makes them feel like they are watching just another CoD or BF.

So many people have seen the Blacklist trailer because that is what Ubisoft chose to emphasize at E3. Ubisoft apparently very consciously put stealth on the back-burner, at least in marketing. That's not exactly a good sign. The whiners want a stealth game, not a stealth game crammed into Call of Duty. Even a very good merging of the two wouldn't be the same as a real stealth game, though I'm sure everyone who isn't me will pretend otherwise. They understandably lost interest after seeing the cheesy action-schlock that Ubisoft chose to bring to the forefront. This is a big tonal shift and a shift in gameplay for the series. Unless the Blacklist trailer was some kind of hoax or misdirection, they don't need to see the other trailers, they've seen enough. So they stop watching the trailers because they're no longer interested.

 

[Tradjus]

You know what I hate? When someone says something that can easily be distilled too the statement.. "It's everyone else's fault but ours, everyone is stupid but us!"

 

[havoc33]

Seriously, I am not liking what I'm hearing from developers these days. Here we have another one comparing games to Hollywood blockbusters.. Didn't we just see Capcom ruin their Resident Evil franchise? I'm just waiting for SquareEnix to go all out, announcing FFXV as a co-op shooter with RPG elements.