Ubisoft Considers Beyond Good & Evil a Mistake

[Nazulu]

Why does this sound like they're just going to play it safer and safer and make this industry even more boring than it already is?

Yeah, put me in the with the 'fuck you Ubisoft' crowd as well. I've played it and it's very functional, I don't see how they could call this game a mistake. This current trend of theirs is the real mistake. Plus I didn't hear about this game till I watched one of Yahtzee's old reviews not long ago, so there is that.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Gee, let's think here. How much marketing did Ubi do for BG&E? Not very much at all obviously because when I found out about its existence, it was on a bloody message board about 3 years after its release. >_>

 

[Saulkar]

Well then it is a good thing I do not have any brand loyalty to you fuckwits and will gladly withhold all of my money from all of your future titles.

 

[The_Scrivener]

This is why Valve continues to win at everything. Because the rest of industry cannot help but shoot themselves in the foot. As someone with zero marketing experience, let me market better than you morons at Ubisoft:

"Although sales were initially disappointing, we're thrilled that BG&E found its audience. We spend a lot of time making modern titles that meet or exceed our expectations that we forget about the underdogs of yesteryear that made us what we are today. I think its important to not just look at BG&E's sales or what the numbers say but to look at its legacy and its popularity now. That's a good indicator to me that we need to do a better job marketing our innovative new IPs. We need to look at fresh new ideas and characters as challenges and not risks. It's crucial that we don't let our next Jade take as long to be appreciated as our previous one."

 

[Mr C]

I like going through the upcoming lists looking for niche and indy games that look cool. If I'm curious I can look stuff up online and come back in a few days once I know more.

If gaming is your primary hobby, I don't understand if you do not do this. I dig around as this fellow does and go after intersteing new titles.

I have lived in China for over a decade, when BG&E came out there were obviously no ads for it here. Yet I heard about it because of interest in my hobby. I bought in for the Xbox on my next visit to the UK and loved it. I think I'll buy the game on Xbox Live or PSN later when I get home from work.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

And just when I thought I could respect Ubisoft for their HD remake of AC: Liberation on it's way (with bonus content with it!), and Child of light... this. It's a miracle they're going forth with these projects aren't they?

They're kinda dense aren't they? I mean, they're well capable of games that don't have a huge budget that are awesome, and aren't sold for 60 USD. And really, they don't understand the buzz and desire for a BG&E2?

 

[Frankster]

Classy PR ubisoft, classy.

I know game devs are afraid to take risks but surely BGAE has garnered enough fan support through digital distribution to recoup its losses over time right? Bleh, I see it mentioned so much nowadays maybe I just think BGAE is more popular then it actually is.

This is why Valve continues to win at everything. Because the rest of industry cannot help but shoot themselves in the foot.

To be fair...That' kinda a BS comparison for a lot of reasons but particularly how few games valve has released compared to ubisoft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_developed_by_Valve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubisoft_games

Easy not to shoot yourself in the foot when you have far less opportunity to do so..And even then valve has done it with l4d2 if you recall the brouhaha surrounding it

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I like how Ubisoft are "known" for a game that's not even out yet, but not for Prince of Persia or the Tom Clancy titles. WTF?

Anyway, BG&E wasn't a mistake. It was however, a masterpiece of story, game design, characterisation and gameplay. I understand that "mistake" and "masterpiece" both begin with an "M", so it's an easy mistake (boom tisch) to make. It's a tragedy that the game didn't succeed financially as it did with critics and players alike.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

To be fair...That' kinda a BS comparison for a lot of reasons but particularly how few games valve has released compared to ubisoft

So...quantity is more valuable than quality? The state of the industry now is such that companies just churn out sameish sequel anually and chumps buy it up. Personally, I prefer quality over quantity. A studio that releases fewer titles all of which are successes (Blizzard, Valve, pre-EA BioWare) IMO are better than those that mass produce "entertainment products".

Valve's success is in releasing only quality games that attain legendary status. Blizzard can claim the same. BioWare used to before EA put them onto the "other" track, that of churning out entertainment products. From a consumer perspective, I imagine a studio with 8/8 hits beats one with 8/50 (though shareholders may disagree).

HL2, Unreal Tournament and their ilk were the pre-eminent games of their day and lasted years upon years. Quake II was played more than Quake III was. Now you and most of us have been sold on the notion of upgrading our games anually and buying them in pieces...games as a service, something many in the industry wanted and now have managed to do on consoles, without a subscription charge. Quantity does not beat quality, except maybe financially.

Still, perhaps there's a place for both. In a way, it takes studios that churn out re-releases of the tired cover-based shooter stuff to make us appreciate the truly great games, the genre defining ones like L4D2, Portal, TF2 and Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft.

Another way to look at it is this. How many copies of the next AssCreed or Dead Space or whatever will sell? Now, how many copies of Halflife 3 would sell, if it ever came into existence?

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

So what the guy's saying is. Go indie.

That's not really his message. What he's saying is that managed to get his idea greenlit with a major publisher with thanks to those Indie success stories. Every Indie success story therefore contributes to getting similar, original, "risky" ideas published through the larger companies on account that the execs will start to pay attention. Ubi saw BG&E's failure, he showed them Indie success stories.

"If that Indie game succeeded on a small budget, a similar title with larger budget and better marketing may do the same". He's saying that if you can't get your idea published traditionally, go indie anyway and succeed or fail, it will still teach & inform the industry.

 

[Frankster]

snip

Don't put words in my mouth please I'd rather 4 good games over 40 mediocre ones but that's not what I was getting at, not least because this line of thinking depicts ubisoft as a high quantity/low quality publisher which is just even more BS, from my point of view ubisoft have produced not only better games, but across more varied genres whereas I don't like any blizzard games and just 2 valve games (l4d1 and alien breed). I am not advocating a yearly churn of rereleases and hashed in sequels as I'm feeling you're implying.

What I'm getting at is valve is in a very unique self sustaining position (blizzard too actually, funny you bought them up as your 2nd example of high quality dev...) which other game studios can't replicate, it's a rather unfair comparison that lionizes valve for its circumstances rather then it's actual games and this deification is rather annoying.

That however still isn't what I was implying when I responded to scriveners statement, but rather pointing out it's much easier to not shoot yourself in the foot when you only had a handful of chances to do so against another case that has 1000s of such opportunities to happen, basically one is much more likely to shoot themselves in the foot regardless of the actual quality of their shoes. Or something, I kinda got lost with this metaphor.

"Another way to look at it is this. How many copies of the next AssCreed or Dead Space or whatever will sell? Now, how many copies of Halflife 3 would sell, if it ever came into existence?"

Ok here's another way to look at it that is a bit more true: I don't like half life , so wtf should I be excited about?
But I don't like AssCreed or Dead Space either (actually that's a lie, i like dead space but for the purposes of this example i don't), but ubisoft/ea also has a lot of other games out too, across more varied genres, unless you're going to keep with the line of thinking that a publisher that has put out more games=automatically lower quality, then chances are I'm far more likely to find a niche title in the ubisoft library then I am in valve or blizzard's catalogues.

Incidentally I find it weird you start out with an argument for quality over quantity, yet at the end go back to using sales figures as an indicator of quality.

Variety is the spice of life, and blizzard has been allergic to genuine innovation for some time whereas valve prefers chilling on its throne made out of steam money and do whatever the heck it wants simply because it can, a position no other gaming company can imitate.

I mean jeez, ubisoft here despite the pr faux pas is the dev still taking the most risks out of those we listed, they were the ones who put out BGAE in the first place for starters. Valve's biggest risk of the last few years was what, DOTA 2? Yeah real step forward in the future of gaming there (not that im ragging on mobos, i play them).What about blizz? Starcraft 2, diablo 3, yey totally threading new ground and diablo 3 had its fair share of problems.

Anyways I can't help but think your position is reflective of a positive bias towards valve/blizz (your list of "genre defining games"..valve and blizz hasn't genre defined anything for over a decade so this is indicative you have strong feelings about these devs likely dating back to their glory days) which is why you're so inclined to lash praise upon them even if they don't deserve it.
Valve and blizz however have done very little for me or satisfying my gaming needs, only reason I give valve an easier time then blizz is because I heavily use steam and I reckon it's a good service. So why should I want companies that do provide me my gaming needs to be more like the companies who don't? Ubisoft's practices might be abbhorent and I wish they did things differently, but "be more like valve" is kinda useless advice to them.

Oh and regarding bioware/ea... I'm not entirely sure EA is to blame here. But that is an entirely different topic.

 

[Holythirteen]

if it didn't sell enough copies to turn a profit then it is a failure in that sense

They didn't say that... so I assume it did turn a profit, just not a big fat one like if they made another assassins creed or splinter cell. But it's hard to say since the people who worked on the game would have been working on other projects concurrently. That plus the fact that they would have been paying those people the same amount of money anyway...

Funny how Jim Sterling just made a video about companies staying tight-lipped and not revealing information, but when they do open their mouths THIS is what they decide to say?! What a nice way to say "fuck you" to the people who bought that game and enjoyed it. Is it cool to point and laugh at people for liking your product now?

And even if the game did lose money, which they didn't say it did, it's not like they spent millions upon millions on advertising just to have it get crap reviews and completely tank like other games.

It's nice that assassins creed is making you so much money Ubisoft, but just how many numbers can you keep adding on to the franchise before you rehash it to death and people stop caring? Might not be a bad idea to have a critically acclaimed IP in the closet somewhere. And yes, sometimes a great series has a rough start or a rough patch and then goes on to do great things later on. The point is to keep trying new ideas even while you have other products that are making you tons of money.

And just because they consider Beyond Good and Evil a lost cause doesn't mean they won't sit on the ip until nobody remembers what it is anymore.

I read this article and I hear "We're out of ideas, so we're just gonna stick with Assassins Creed and Splinter Cell because that's all we know how to make."

I can appreciate the arguments that Ubisoft has to to try to make smart plays with what the titles they develop, but that still doesn't explain them coming out and trolling their own fans, I think that should tell you how fucking smart they are.

"Although sales were initially disappointing, we're thrilled that BG&E found its audience. We spend a lot of time making modern titles that meet or exceed our expectations that we forget about the underdogs of yesteryear that made us what we are today. I think its important to not just look at BG&E's sales or what the numbers say but to look at its legacy and its popularity now. That's a good indicator to me that we need to do a better job marketing our innovative new IPs. We need to look at fresh new ideas and characters as challenges and not risks. It's crucial that we don't let our next Jade take as long to be appreciated as our previous one."

Wow fuck dude that was awesome, but you forgot to add a part like "sorry for cockteasing you guys with a sequel we were never going to make for so long" etc.

 

[Frezzato]

If Beyond Good and Evil was a mistake, then why did Ubisoft find it necessary to advertise with an image of Pey'J on their Facebook page during E3 [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/06/08/beyond-good-amp-evil-39-s-pey-39-j-makes-an-appearance-on-ubisoft-39-s-facebook-page.aspx]? What the hell was that all about then? Why reference a character from 2003--to get people interested in a "mistake"?

Using that image of Pey'J just pissed me off once I realized there was no news for a BG&E 2, and this recent news confirms my theory that Ubisoft management and their marketing department are both intensely, almost blindingly stupid. I lost interest in the Prince of Persia sequels and the Animus in Assassin's Creed was moronic. So maybe they'll still get my money with Watchdogs.

On second thought I'll just buy it used.

 

[DjinnFor]

Maybe Ubisoft shouldn't have faffed around and tried actually marketing the game so it would get some sales. There's nothing wrong with the game, you just didn't do shit to sell it and you suffered for it, you twats.

 

[The Bandit]

I had to read the title twice after reading the article, because I could swear the article was about EA. Between their crappy steam rip offs and their franchise management, you'd think Ubisoft was trying to become EA.

This makes me laugh so much. The hate against EA is so ridiculous.

Let's make this clear. Every single publisher wants to make money. Period. That's what they care about. All of them. EA is no different from any other publisher out there. It's not special in any way.

 

[KB13]

This is where I crawl in a corner and cry. I have been waiting years.... YEARS!!! for Beyond Good & Evil 2. Please Ubisoft this was not a mistake. Don't cancel the squeal. please?

 

[XX Y XY]

Any shred of respect I had for Ubisoft just died. BG&E was amazing. It's 100% Ubisoft's fault it failed due to bad management of the IP. This is the kind of idiocy you get when you have suits that have likely never played a video game before running a video game company. If anything, the huge cult following the game has garnered years after it's release should be enough to tell Ubisoft how good of an IP BG&E is. But because of the elitist attitude of video game company executives,even if they did realize BG&E was a great game and there's money to be made in a sequel, they would never make one because that would be an admission of their own ignorance and fallibility and god knows that's out of the question.

 

[MaximumTheHormone]

Oh. I'm sorry.. I thought well thought out with complex female characters would sell and it was just a misogynistic games industry holding them from being produced.
You mean women don't actually hold the conflated 48% market share of the audience share once games like farmville and bejeweled are discounted?
You mean games targeted at women don't sell (to the same degree as those aimed at men)? no. that'd just be sexist.
b-b-b..but-but Ubisoft is just a bad company! I mean it was only released during the christmas-holiday period where the highest frequency of games are sold to a string a rave reviews. I mean it would've sold dramatically more if they sold it right! I mean even though the game was continually brought up in the gaming media as subject of praise people mustn't have known about it! That must be the reason it ranked 878th in all time sales and sold BELOW THE MEAN SALES OF A PS2 GAME a console notorious for its masses of shovel ware.

 

[Grampy_bone]

Oh. I'm sorry.. I thought well thought out with complex female characters would sell and it was just a misogynistic games industry holding them from being produced.
You mean women don't actually hold the conflated 48% market share of the audience share once games like farmville and bejeweled are discounted?
You mean games targeted at women don't sell (to the same degree as those aimed at men)? no. that'd just be sexist.
b-b-b..but-but Ubisoft is just a bad company! I mean it was only released during the christmas-holiday period where the highest frequency of games are sold to a string a rave reviews. I mean it would've sold dramatically more if they sold it right! I mean even though the game was continually brought up in the gaming media as subject of praise people mustn't have known about it! That must be the reason it ranked 878th in all time sales and sold BELOW THE MEAN SALES OF A PS2 GAME a console notorious for its masses of shovel ware.

Yep. 100% agree. Beyond Good and Evil is hipster garbage. Shallow gameplay, short, lacking content, incongruent design (what genre is it?) stupid name (does it have anything to do with Nietzsche?) shallow, generic character (who cares about Jade?) Just another mediocre, throwaway title, not worth remembering.

But somehow it's become the game for all the wannabe gamer snobs to declare was just "sooooooo amazeballs" and didn't get it's fair chance because of blah blah blah. Whatever. Don't listen to them, they probably never actually played it anyway. The audience is never wrong.

 

[Vegosiux]

Oh and I was just about to start considering to maybe think about buying AssCreed Revelations and 3.

Well, no. Fuck you, Ubisoft, from me, too.

BG&E was great, except for that control input screw games always do at some point where left becomes right and front becomes back. So yeah, well, if you say good games are mistakes, then why don't you just keep churning out the bloody PLAIN AVERAGENESS OF BLAND MEDIOCRITY shit.

Honestly, I love tomato soup, but I don't bloody want to eat tomato soup every fucking day.