Ubisoft: No New Games Unless They Can Be Made Into Franchises

[SushiJaguar]

I don't see why everyone is bemoaning this move. If you want to justify a AAA budget, you need a plan for making that money back, which means you need to turn your game into a series. Bioshock and Demon's Souls didn't become any worse just because they had sequels that iterated on the concept. Blood Dragon is a good example from the other end of a weird, unique small game that helped to justify the massive expense of making Far Cry 3.

Dude, the whole point we're all whining about this is because triple-A budgets are ridiculously bloated in the first place! They sink so much cash not only into making the game, but marketing it, and this results in over-large costs that they can't possibly recoup without demanding their games to have an audience larger than actually exists.

And Blood Dragon can't be used to justify how much it cost to make FC3 because Blood Dragon is a different game! The former might just be a reskin of the latter, but that's still no reason to lump Blood Dragon's profits in with FC3's. They shouldn't have spent so much money on it in the first place.

I mean, you'd freak out at your significant other if they spent five grand on a new outfit they're only gonna wear two or three times a year, wouldn't you?

P.S: Demon's Souls is not triple A, and it had a spiritual sequel because they had realistic goals for making their money back and garnering a following.

 

[Otaku World Order]

Yes, Ubisoft, milking a franchise every year is a great idea and won't lead to a huge crash. Just look how successfull Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk were with that strategy.

Here's a thought, just give us good games. They don't have to be mega-budget triple A titles all the time either. Just look at X-Com Enemy Unknown's success. Also, if you're going to stick to franchises, space them out like Rockstar or Atlus do. The last full GTA game was in 2008. The last major Persona sequel was also in 2008. Yeah, we've gotten releases in between,but the big splashy stuff is spaced apart. I love Assassin's Creed, but it's really starting to wear thin.

 

[bug_of_war]

I just lost a lot of interest for Watch Dogs honestly.

I get the feeling they will be holding back features on the first game so they can ever so slightly improve it's later iterations without putting in any extra creative effort.

It's what companies do with DLC. They hold back content so they can sell it down the line. Sequels are just a slower process.

This is pure speculation, don't get me wrong. But given how some companies handle DLC I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is how they handled their new interesting franchise.

I've only ever seen Capcom do the whole DLC thing you're talking about, what other companies have done this?

OT: This could actually work out. No seriously, if you think about it, it really does make sense that it WILL work. By not making single stand alone games they are saving on money, and by investing in a franchise they may make MUCH better games. I have more interest in Watch Dogs now because if they're planning on making it into a franchise then they're definitely putting effort into it. Personally I would rather a company focus on building a game meant to span multiple games than have them just do odd little projects. Indie games already do the whole, "1 good idea and done!" so why should the Triple A market have to try and copy what's already working? For all the people whom say, "Triple A companies just copy what's popular" you should rejoice that instead of trying to be like the indie games they're trying to be the big box office action packed sequel poping hits...and that's a good thing.

If someone's going to do it, why not the people with the money?

 

[clippen05]

Well, looks like I stop buying Ubisoft titles now... I know that game companies are bushiness, but I can't tolerate a game company doing this sorta thing.

 

[lacktheknack]

All in all, it's just another brick in the wall.

I'm turning into a bit of a doomsayer when it comes to AAA budgeting, and this isn't helping. At all.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Can we all get signs that say "THIS IS WHY AAA IS FAILING" and surround the HQ of whatever developer said something stupid in the last week until they stop being stupid?

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Yes, Ubisoft, milking a franchise every year is a great idea and won't lead to a huge crash. Just look how successfull Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk were with that strategy.

Here's a thought, just give us good games. They don't have to be mega-budget triple A titles all the time either. Just look at X-Com Enemy Unknown's success. Also, if you're going to stick to franchises, space them out like Rockstar or Atlus do. The last full GTA game was in 2008. The last major Persona sequel was also in 2008. Yeah, we've gotten releases in between,but the big splashy stuff is spaced apart. I love Assassin's Creed, but it's really starting to wear thin.

Or Nintendo who remembers to only release new Zelda, Mario, Fire Emblem, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, and Metroid games when they're ready. It leads to less consumer exhaustion. One of the reasons these dev team sizes are spiraling out of control is because they're trying to get these games done in a 1 to 2 year time frame (though the latter IS feasible) by just throwing utterly absurd numbers of people at them, hoping to get all that coding done. It's not a system that can last forever as it's like trying to bake a turkey twice as fast by turning it up to 700 degrees as opposed to 350. It doesn't work like that.

 

[D-Class 198482]

Ah, all the people saying they are stupid. You lot do realize that without this attitude, they'd go bankrupt?
I don't even like Ubisoft, but come on.

 

[Lunar Templar]

this story is CRYING OUT for that Bender 'laugh harder' vid, but I just can not do it, it to easy when they say something this stupid and mean it.

There you go.

Here's how to do it...

[ youtube=FopyRHHlt3M ]

Just remove the spaces between the bracket and text and you're done.

Not what I meant when I said 'can't do it'. what I meant was 'it's to easy a target to be any fun'

 

[Mirrorknight]

Seriously, I'm ready for the second great video game market crash, already. Let the triple A studios burn to ashes an let a new golden age grow out of the remains. (As long as the small folks get jobs).

 

[Lilani]

So let me get this straight. In a world where the video game community and gaming journalism as a whole are extremely hostile toward homogenization, bureaucratization, anti-consumerism, and general notions against creativity or innovation, the VP of sales and MARKETING of Ubisoft releases a statement like this? Are we sure he's not just trying to get fired?

 

[Azure Knight-Zeo]

So let me get this straight. In a world where the video game community and gaming journalism as a whole are extremely hostile toward homogenization, bureaucratization, anti-consumerism, and general notions against creativity or innovation, the VP of sales and MARKETING of Ubisoft releases a statement like this? Are we sure he's not just trying to get fired?

Actually most people just want to line up for the same prossesed crap they got last year because the name is popular.

And why yes, I am still bitter about Pacific Rim losing to Grown-ups 2.

 

[thePyro_13]

Sad to hear. The real killer in AAA gaming is grossly inflated budgets. Tomb Raider stands as a heavy example of how such a bloated budget can ruin a project, had they spent only a reasonable amount of money on it then it would have been a shining success; instead it sold out all it's predecessors and was still a financial failure.

Learn a lesson from the indie field, a good number of people don't really care about graphics, so trim the budget and ship a game that looks like it could run on the gamecube. Good artists can use style to make up for a technical lack of fidelity, without blowing out budgets or development times.

Big publishers can blame anything from piracy to their own customers for a games failure, but fact is they just cost too much to produce and simply aren't better than the games from a few generations ago. They're no longer and they're not more fun; but they look marginally better and cost significantly more to produce.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Time for a new boycott, people.

This ceaseless spamming of sequels needs to STOP.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I think we all knew this anyway. Ah well. At this stage, people with this attitude can get what they deserve however it comes to them. If they want to trot out the same tired shit every year, I'll just do my part by not buying it, and let everyone else decide the rest.

 

[crimson sickle2]

"Because now we're in (a) blockbuster world, and Watch Dogs needs to be a blockbuster because it deserves to be and as a company that's what we need it to be," Key said. "It's the most ambitious production in the history of Ubisoft, and we need to make sure that everybody who likes videogames has a chance to decide that this game is going to be hot. That's the hard part about a new brand, that awareness outside the core needs to be created."

Is it possible to make at least the first sentence into some kind of an "Escapist quote of the day" kind of thing. This crap is too funny to only be seen in one forum thread. At least I'll (most likely) be able to hear it again in the Jimquisition after a week or two, you know he loves this kind of stuff.

 

[akiata]

If you look at Ubisoft's track record(or from what I could find), this has been their strategy for a while now. Between 2011 to 2013 they've had seven non-franchised games. 2 off road racers, 3 arcade/psn store games, an actual guitar playing game, and Watch Dogs will enter later, but that will be franchised the hell out of. That's what I could find anyway.

 

[Something Amyss]

Ubisoft's Vice President of Sales and Marketing says the triple-A game business these days is too expensive for "fire and forget" development.

And I can't help but think "gee. If only you were in a position to do something about that."

 

[Something Amyss]

If you look at Ubisoft's track record(or from what I could find), this has been their strategy for a while now. Between 2011 to 2013 they've had seven non-franchised games. 2 off road racers, 3 arcade/psn store games, an actual guitar playing game, and Watch Dogs will enter later, but that will be franchised the hell out of. That's what I could find anyway.

Rocksmith 2014 has been announced, so it look like that's going franchise as well.

I don't know the other games off-hand, but I'd be willing to bet that a few of them are going to be franchised as well, making the list even smaller.